Tonight, beginning somewhere between 17:52 and 17:57 there was a total Internet blackout. I thought it must be me, but other than resetting the DSL modem didn’t do much until I checked a bit further.

I then noticed that I had no Internet connectivity on my cell, nor on the Franklin Wireless CDU-680 CDMA modem. I looked at the iPhone, and also my 10Mbps 12Mbps cable modem.  Connectivity was fine on each. Looking at the network status on the ACS website, I saw no planned or unscheduled outages. The network was apparently fine, except it was not.

So I called the number and got a recorded message. You can listen to the ACS Internet outage notice here.

Apparently there was a “server failure” in Seattle, effectively preventing all traffic to and from ACS customers to flow. I assume it was a core gateway router, but that is just a guess.

In any event, it looks like TheCzechs.net, as well as the other ACS Internet pathways are back as of 18:50.  Essentially the outage lasted an hour…

UPDATE: While writing this entry, I checked the links in the message.  When I followed the link to GCI, I saw to my surprise, that the max download speed on my 10Mbps cable modem service is now 12Mbps!  I don’t know when this change occurred.  Sure, folks in the L48 get easily two or sometimes more throughput than that, but this is a big deal for Alaska.  Thanks, GCI.

(And now for the disclaimer…  I work in GCI’s Industrial Telecom Group, as a Sr. PM for projects serving the oil and gas industry.)