When the Internet goes down.

[Rum]

My connection at home dropped this afternoon for about an hour and I have no idea what the cause or reason was. I reset the modem a few times, tried the wifi, checked the phone lines, which have just been rerouted due to the work we have had done on the house over the last few weeks and in the end settled down to read some Sherlock Holmes for a bit.

Short of having my ISP's support phone number saved somewhere and checking if the problem was at their end there was no way of knowing what the problem was and it occurred to me that there are not many essential services (and the net is fast becoming that) where we would tolerate a random stoppage like that.

The connection is obviously working now!

Am I being unreasonable?

[klr]

It depends on whether or not you need/want it at a given point in time. I know I can get pretty worked up if the connection goes down, or gets really flaky.

I suppose the nearest equivalent would be something like the TV signal, although even that has far fewer potential points of failure than an internet connection.

[apophenia]

Are you being unreasonable about what? That you didn't plan ahead and write down the support number? That you got some reading done? That you started a thread? What?

[Rum]

Are you being unreasonable about what? That you didn't plan ahead and write down the support number? That you got some reading done? That you started a thread? What?

No, that what is, as I said, becoming a necessary utility can drop and become unusable with no apparent accountability. If the water or the electricity goes off you know who is responsible. If the net drops it can be a fault in a number of potential locations and as often as not you never know the cause. My case is petty and I used the time productively, but small businesses can rely for their bread and butter on a rock solid connection.

[apophenia]

I still don't understand what you're saying. If the electricity goes out, we seldom know why or when it will return, unless we happened to hear the local transformer blow. (Last outage here, we got notified via the emergency PA system of an estimated downtime, which was highly inaccurate.) There are few people for whom the internet is a "necessary service" (wall street, military) and contingency for such events is included in their provisioning. A few years ago there was a major blackout, and it was eventually determined the fault was some trees lining a power line alley not being kept properly trimmed. But that took months to determine. So what? Are you gonna die of facebook withdrawal? I don't know what you're on about. Now if you lost water for several days, that would be a necessary service being disrupted. But the internet? What necessary and critical function could you not perform because of a lack of connectivity (which you could ameliorate by going to a net cafe or dual provisioning) ? You're not making any sense.

[Rum]

I still don't understand what you're saying. If the electricity goes out, we seldom know why or when it will return, unless we happened to hear the local transformer blow. (Last outage here, we got notified via the emergency PA system of an estimated downtime, which was highly inaccurate.) There are few people for whom the internet is a "necessary service" (wall street, military) and contingency for such events is included in their provisioning. A few years ago there was a major blackout, and it was eventually determined the fault was some trees lining a power line alley not being kept properly trimmed. But that took months to determine. So what? Are you gonna die of facebook withdrawal? I don't know what you're on about. Now if you lost water for several days, that would be a necessary service being disrupted. But the internet? What necessary and critical function could you not perform because of a lack of connectivity (which you could ameliorate by going to a net cafe or dual provisioning) ? You're not making any sense.

OK, if you say so.

[apophenia]

Oh, I see. Since you don't have answers to my questions you're going to be petty. Good on you.

[maiforpeace]

He did mention that it could affect a lot of businesses...an internet business is fucked if the internet goes down.

I confess I get a little antsy when the net goes down. It's my connection to the outside world many days since I don't live in a city. I'll pack up the laptop and go down to the local coffee shop that does have internet if that happens for too long.

[Clinton Huxley]

I work from home a few days a week and it's a right pain in the rear if the internets aren't working.

[Rum]

Oh, I see. Since you don't have answers to my questions you're going to be petty. Good on you.

Lol! Not at all! What can I say? You shot me down in flames. Revel in your victory!