# Question about "Coming service interrupt - midnight today"



## gary (Feb 4, 2003)

Harri - _whos_ midnight? :?


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## cjpts (Jan 20, 2008)

Well assuming its Harri's it'll be a couple of hours ahead of you and I. From the looks of that message I think that SOTW should still be live, just very slow during that time.

Its handy how the Internet's like a spider's web - if one route breaks there's a few others to fall back on


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## saxmanglen (Feb 2, 2003)

It may be midnight Pacific time since that company is located in CA.


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## Harri Rautiainen (Jan 24, 2003)

saxmanglen said:


> It may be midnight Pacific time since that company is located in CA.


You got it right, saxman:
It is really Pacific Time. I will update the announcement.

Secondly, if everything goes right you should hardly notice it.
I posted the announcement anyway, so that you would finish typing a large essay at 11:58PM PDT.


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## Harri Rautiainen (Jan 24, 2003)

cjpts said:


> ................................
> Its handy how the Internet's like a spider's web - if one route breaks there's a few others to fall back on


That would be nice. I do not want to go this in details, but I do it anyway: 

My Finnish-Swedish ISP TeliaSonera had some contract disputes with their US contractor cogent.com. When cogent disconnected some time ago, for a while I had no alternate routes to reach North America.

The way I understand it that when you are within one operator's net they can pass by faulty or congested paths. But if someone refuses to connect at the peering point, the innocent surfer is out of luck.


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## cjpts (Jan 20, 2008)

Harri Rautiainen said:


> That would be nice. I do not want to go this in details, but I do it anyway:
> 
> My Finnish-Swedish ISP TeliaSonera had some contract disputes with their US contractor cogent.com. When cogent disconnected some time ago, for a while I had no alternate routes to reach North America.
> 
> The way I understand it that when you are within one operator's net they can pass by faulty or congested paths. But if someone refuses to connect at the peering point, the innocent surfer is out of luck.


That's no fun Harri! Seems a rather bizarre system too. My understanding is that here in England the system is more of a tangled web, allowing different routes, each feeding to the ISPs which connect to one central hub in London, which then connects to a variety of international destinations.

I hope your ISP doesn't have any more disputes! I wonder if that's why some of my Swedish friends weren't able to contact me via MSN/Hotmail for a while :?


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## Harri Rautiainen (Jan 24, 2003)

cjpts said:


> That's no fun Harri! Seems a rather bizarre system too. My understanding is that here in England the system is more of a tangled web, allowing different routes, each feeding to the ISPs which connect to one central hub in London, which then connects to a variety of international destinations.


Internet is often viewed to be free-of-charge, but the fact is that someone has to pay e.g. for the transatlantic cables.



cjpts said:


> I hope your ISP doesn't have any more disputes! I wonder if that's why some of my Swedish friends weren't able to contact me via MSN/Hotmail for a while :?


No, it was a short incident.
Anyway, the mail problems are a whole different story.


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## cjpts (Jan 20, 2008)

Harri Rautiainen said:


> Internet is often viewed to be free-of-charge, but the fact is that someone has to pay e.g. for the transatlantic cables.
> 
> No, it was a short incident.
> Anyway, the mail problems are a whole different story.


I realise its not free - one of my seminar tutors was saying a few months ago how the university pays a few pence (probably) per GB of data through optic cabling that the university will have already paid through the nose for. Though the university acts as an ISP for quite a few thousand people, 24/7 so that must still be a massive bill!

Those mail problems sound a bit involved :? I've known certain ports to go down before rather than the whole internet service. Its a bit bizarre being able to use FTP or MSN Messenger but not download webpages! At least it was only short - Virgin Media have been having problems here since the rest of the students got back from their summer hols last October :? :?


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