Massive Internet Disruption hits 2 continents

[matrixshaman]

Just saw on CNN that the Internet for a lot of Asia, the Middle East and North Africa has failed due to what they think is a cut undersea cable. I thought - OK so much for seeing any of our Chinese dealers and members for a while but when I jumped on dealextreme.com it seemed faster than ever. I'd guess it's already been routed through other paths but it seems odd it would be faster. I also looked at Fenix in China and they are fine too. Anyone else see anything that looks like it has been affected?

 

[jrmcferren]

Traffic from China travels across the Pacific, traffic to India, Egypt, and some other middle eastern countries travel by the affected cable.

 

[matrixshaman]

That makes sense but when they say 'Asia' to me that includes China - however I see now rereading the story no mention of China. I had DX panic - images of DX withdrawals :sweat:
:laughing:

 

[PEU]

TCP/IP is designed to route around problems, the problem here seems to be the alternative paths bandwidth is not enough.


Pablo

 

[TITAN1833]

And CPF

 

[Fallingwater]

Isn't the Internet meant to survive a nuclear attack? And it was brought to its knees in two continents by a cut cable? Something doesn't add up...

 

[Crenshaw]

Well you dont usually detonate nuclear weapons under water..

my god, imagine the ensuing Tsunami...

thank god singapore aint affected though..otherwise i would not have been able to see my transactions at mp..

Crenshaw

 

[matrixshaman]

Isn't the Internet meant to survive a nuclear attack? And it was brought to its knees in two continents by a cut cable? Something doesn't add up...

Well the Internet should survive and yes TCP/IP and routing protocols will seek alternate paths but when a huge backbone suddenly goes down and the same amount of traffic is suddenly trying to find other routes then things can quickly get overloaded to the point that very little will get out of a certain area I believe. I can't imagine what a pain it would be to try fixing a huge cable like that underwater. I don't really even have any concept of what is used for such a cable but best guess would be a ton of fiber optic bundles.
Since something similar happened a while back on the China side I'd have to guess that the trans-ocean cables may need some upgrading to handle all the traffic if just one cut causes this much trouble.