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Comcast and Xfinity Facing a Nationwide Outage [Update: Company Confirms]

Posted by msmash on from the outage-reports dept.

Thousands of people from across the country are reporting that they are facing connectivity issues with Comcast and its service Xfinity on Friday. Comcast is yet to acknowledge and address the outage, hence it is unclear how long the widespread outage may last. According to DownDetector, a service that tracks outages, the majority of the northeast United States and areas in Colorado, California, the midwest and southeast were affected. Some users reported issues watching TV as well.

Veteran reporter Ed Oswald said, "Nearly an hour into what is clearly a massive nationwide outage for #Comcast/#Xfinity and nary a peep out of the company across any of its public facing channels. I can understand not bringing attention to local outages, but this.."

Update: Comcast says it is aware of a "nationwide outage impacting some of our internet, video and voice customers." In a statement, Comcast shared some background on the outage: One of Comcast's large backbone network partners had a fiber cut that we believe is also impacting other providers. It is currently affecting our business and residential internet, video and voice customers. We apologize & are working to get services restored as soon as possible.

17 of 246 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Looks more serious.... by jessepdx · · Score: 2

    Look s like Level3 is having lots of issues

  2. Mergers are gr8! by SeaFox · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Isn't it awesome that we keep allowing these large internet providers to buy up more and more smaller ISPs and merge with other large companies.

    Imagine a day when all of America can stand in solidarity, regardless of age, gender, skin color, or religious viewpoint -- and commiserate the lack of internet service we all share because "the Internet company" (which will likely be AT&T at that point), is having a nationwide outage.

    1. Re:Mergers are gr8! by Train0987 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Or we could imagine a day where people's lives aren't dictated by whether they have a f'ing internet connection or not. Somehow humans have managed just fine for the past 10,000 years without Facebook.

    2. Re:Mergers are gr8! by AvitarX · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Believe it or not, customers not being able to call in is going to have an effect on my life.

      --
      Wow, sent an e-mail as suggested when clicking on "use classic" banner, and got a fast response that addressed my msg
    3. Re:Mergers are gr8! by TimMD909 · · Score: 2

      Or we could imagine a day where people's lives aren't dictated by whether they have a f'ing internet connection or not. Somehow humans have managed just fine for the past 10,000 years without Facebook.

      I make websites for a living. Pretty sure I'd not have a job before 1993, cuz ya know... having a working internet connection is sort of important for me. Your argument is like saying sanitation isn't that important because witch doctors managed just fine for thousands of years.

    4. Re:Mergers are gr8! by Cro+Magnon · · Score: 2

      We also survived 10,000 years without indoor plumbing. Doesn't mean I want to go back to that.

      --
      Slow down, cowboy! It has been 4 hours since you last posted. You must wait another few hours.
  3. Re:Strange partial outage in Colorado by Pascoea · · Score: 4, Funny

    but there are a handful of sites I cannot reach

    This is just testing there testing phase.

    Step 2 is the letter you're going to get in the mail next week suggesting you to upgrade to the Xfinity Everything internet package that includes access to premium websites. But it will be OK because there will be a promotion for $5* per month for 12 months with 2 months free. *plus associated fees, surcharges, and taxes. Limited time offer, see terms and conditions for details.

  4. Re:Who is the idiot who posted this? by msmash · · Score: 2

    That's general tech support. You can go a week back and see similar tweets from them to some users. They are now acknowledging that it's a widespread issue. A tweet directed at all their followers saying something is wrong with their connection today would quality as an acknowledgement. You have a nice day, too.

  5. Re:Who is the idiot who posted this? by PolygamousRanchKid+ · · Score: 2

    There are several messages on the Comcast twitter account that is linked regarding the issue yet msmash states that Comcast has not acknowledged it.

    Well, Newsweek is reporting it:

    http://www.newsweek.com/comcas...

    Comcast will probably never acknowledged it anyway, as it would be an admission of fault on their part.

    They will probably blame it on "User Errors":

    "USER ERROR: Please replace user, and try again."

    --
    Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
  6. Re:It's the World Cup. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    we don't watch the world cup in the United States because soccer sucks.

  7. Re:Comcast DNS by cj9er · · Score: 2

    Or if a fiber got cut somewhere...

  8. Re:Who is the idiot who posted this? by msauve · · Score: 2

    msmash stated no such thing. They quoted someone who did, and who also qualified it by saying "Nearly an hour into..."

    You're the idiot who should work on their reading skills before commenting.

    --
    "National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
  9. Re:It's the World Cup. by HornWumpus · · Score: 3, Funny

    Homer: I've watched thousands of hours of soccer, I almost saw a goal.

    --
    John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
  10. Re:Something just happened at the White House by squiggleslash · · Score: 2

    Wasn't today the day they were planning to switch over the Pentagon computers to that new AI system they're calling "Skynet"? Maybe some teething issues, probably just overloaded a router or something, nothing to worry about.

    --
    You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
  11. Fiber cuts, other additional causes by theurge14 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Apparently Comcast backbone providers suffered at least two fiber cuts, specifically Level3 and Zayo.

    There's an interesting thread on Reddit with ongoing detail:

    https://www.reddit.com/r/sysad...

    1. Re:Fiber cuts, other additional causes by dgatwood · · Score: 2

      How does two fiber cuts take down something the size of Comcast? Two fiber cuts shouldn't even be enough to bring down your average college network, much less something that big. There should be hundreds of paths through their network, and the whole point of BGP is that single-digit numbers of failures shouldn't matter.

      My guess is one of two things is the case:

      • Comcast, in an effort to cut costs, is deliberately throttling some of their more expensive backup links, so that when one main link fails, the others are unable to take up the slack due to artificial bandwidth scarcity.
      • Comcast is incompetently running so close to the limits of their bandwidth that a single failure brings them to their knees (in which case if I owned any of their stock, I'd be selling it right now).

      Either one makes me wonder what the heck kind of two-bit operation they have going there.

      --

      Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.

  12. Re:It's the World Cup. by Applehu+Akbar · · Score: 3, Funny

    Homer: I've watched thousands of hours of soccer, I almost saw a goal.

    As opposed to our game, which combines two great American things: violence and committee meetings.