Terbidium

Internet Downtime
 Published by daedalus on 2000-11-16 @ 11:39:53

Thanks to my new contact for IT info, I have an explaination for the strange downtimes we've had recently. Basically, PeachNet was upgrading some of their communication lines, and had some snags while doing so. They were adding some more T1 lines and had to break the link with some of the colleges (or maybe just ours) while they got everything set up. I'll have more info on what the exact problem was, but for now you can be comfortable knowing that we really do have 3 T1 lines comming into SPSU (I confirmed this today). Also, the upgrade to PeachNet may have been an addition of 2 more T1's to SPSU, but please take this with a grain of salt until I know for sure. Update. Read below for the full explaination from IT.

"PeachNet (our internet service provider) was in the process of adding two new T1 lines for internet access, and hoped to complete that work late last Friday night. Unfortunately, BellSouth had to do some work first to make that happen, and BellSouth did not complete their work in time for the cutover test of the new lines. PeachNet then cancelled that BellSouth work order, so that our service would continue as usual. Unfortunately, despite a confirmation of that cancellation as recently as yesterday, BellSouth personnel visited campus this afternoon and disconnected our current service without notice. PeachNet, of course, was not anticipating this and are not on site to switch in the new lines and coordinate the process with BellSouth and our IT staff. IT staff are looking for the BellSouth folks, and will request that BellSouth immediately reconnect the lines."

Well, this still doesn't answer the question about wether or not we have 2 more T1 lines, but it does sound like it. I'll still try to find out if I can. Also, there is no need to worry about maxing out the network here on campus, as over half of the available capacity isn't even working! Evidently, there's about 12 fiber lines between each building on campus, each capable of gigabit transfer, but only 2 out of each bundle is in use--and only at 100Mbit! Even with that capacity, usage doesn't seem to go over 25% at any time. So, when needed, all SPSU (IT) has to do is put the other 10 fibers into use, and we've got mega-bandwidth! Please remember that this is just for the internal network and has no bearing on internet speed, but does mean that you won't encounter any bottlenecks between the T1's and your computer ^_^