Da Interwebz is sick

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Da Interwebz is sick. Not that kind of sick but there is a problem going on between two of the large backbone companies that carry massive amounts of internet traffic. They seem to have a fiber-optic switch they share that is dropping about 5% of the traffic that passes thru it. That's only about .005% of all the traffic in the US but the starting number is HUGE!

We're one of the lucky websites whose connection to the interwebz seems to be close enough to the wonky switch that maybe 10% of all our connections are going thru it. It sucks. The front page, our most complex one, is loading slowly and in fits and starts as routing software tries to find a way around the bad switch. Bad switch, no cookie.

Hang in there. We are filing a trouble ticket with our ISP who can use the documentation to file a ticket with their upstream providers and finally someone will wakeup Ned Duzilch and get him to fix the problem. It's been going on for four days now and it's getting worse so finding the problem is getting more urgent and probably easier to do.

A lot of the above is speculation on my part based on a little information and some knowledge of how things work and I may be totally wrong in the details, but yeah, the problem is real and not in your machine or between your ears. :)

Hugs,
Erin

Comments

Bad news first and last

erin's picture

We have found contributing problems with one of our own switches, NYI has routed around the outside network problem and we are still seeing packet loss. We have a switch that helps distribute the load between our three servers running BC and Piper is trying to diagnose remotely what the problem may be. Possible we will need to buy a new switch and travel to Bridgewater to install it.

Hugs,
Erin

= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.

What's the brand of the

What's the brand of the switch? I have some experience with a lot of different ones, and a lot of them fail at 2-3 years due to the capacitors failing.


I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.

ACME?

laika's picture

That would explain a lot...

.
What borders on stupidity?
Canada and Mexico.
.

Not a switch issue on our end.

Piper's picture

It wasn't our switch, it was a BMC with a compromised version of NYP sending tremendously large amounts of network traffic and we have since fixed the issue.


"She was like a butterfly, full of color and vibrancy when she chose to open her wings, yet hardly visible when she closed them."
— Geraldine Brooks


Yes, Thank You

I've been having trouble with the site as you described (and it did seem to be getting worse). I was planning to send you a note today (as this is the only site that has been misbehaving for me) if I could get enough of BCTS to load. It is better at the moment.

The Problem With the Switch

Thank you for telling us ! I was about to call in the local computer doctor, thinking the problem was in my wee machine !

Briar