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FCC Says It is Investigating CenturyLink 911 Outage

Posted by msmash on from the outage-reports dept.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai said on Friday the agency had launched an investigation into a nationwide CenturyLink outage that has affected 911 service for consumers across the country. In a statement, he said [PDF]: "When an emergency strikes, it's critical that Americans are able to use 911 to reach those who can help. The CenturyLink service outage is therefore completely unacceptable, and its breadth and duration are particularly troubling. I've directed the Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau to immediately launch an investigation into the cause and impact of this outage. This inquiry will include an examination of the effect that CenturyLink's outage appears to have had on other providers' 911 services. I have also spoken with CenturyLink to underscore the urgency of restoring service immediately. We will continue to monitor this situation closely to ensure that consumers' access to 911 is restored as quickly as possible." The outage, which lasted all day Thursday and is still ongoing in certain states, knocked out 911 emergency call services in parts of western Washington state. News outlet KOMO reported that some CenturyLink customers reported receiving busy signals when dialing 911. Other areas of the country also experiencing 911 outages included parts of Missouri, Idaho and Arizona. Some ATM machines weren't working in Idaho and Montana. And additionally, Verizon said it had service interruptions in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and parts of Montana as a result of issues with CenturyLink.

86 of 143 comments (clear)

  1. Thursday? by nwaack · · Score: 4, Informative

    Ummm...it's still out for certain cell phone carriers here in Wisconsin.

    1. Re:Thursday? by olsmeister · · Score: 2

      Why are you not heading for your nearest bank? Woohoo CRIME SPREE TIME!

    2. Re: Thursday? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Because despite the liberal narrative, most people in America still own guns and will stop you if the cops are available.

    3. Re:Thursday? by mysidia · · Score: 1

      Why are you not heading for your nearest bank? Woohoo CRIME SPREE TIME!

      There are still police patrolling the streets that don't rely on phones to communicate. And if a suitably equipped civillian happens to notice there's a bank robbery in progress and phones are down, they can still radio in on the police dispatcher to call for help, only under such extreme circumstances, of course.

    4. Re: Thursday? by Holi · · Score: 1

      That is utter bullshit. Gun ownership in America is about 30%. And most American's wouldn't stop to help a person who tripped and fell, let alone try and stop a crime.

      --
      Sorry, teleporters just kill you and then make a copy. A perfect, soul-less copy.
    5. Re: Thursday? by Holi · · Score: 1

      Tell me to get out of My fucking country.

      Boy, Listen up.
      My family has been defending this country since we arrived in 1621. It ain't your country.

      It takes a mighty big coward to rely on a gun.

      --
      Sorry, teleporters just kill you and then make a copy. A perfect, soul-less copy.
    6. Re:Thursday? by Holi · · Score: 1

      Funny thing. More and more police forces are informally relying on cell services.

      --
      Sorry, teleporters just kill you and then make a copy. A perfect, soul-less copy.
    7. Re: Thursday? by 110010001000 · · Score: 1

      You are a kook because you don't get worked up about the other parts of the "Bill of Rights". You probably have never even read it. Gun nuts are the worst.

    8. Re: Thursday? by 110010001000 · · Score: 1

      Exactly. When are the gun nuts going to start "protecting us" from the evil gubmint?

    9. Re: Thursday? by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 1

      Chillaxe, and get back to infowars. I'm big on the second amendment, and very very not big on kooks such as yourself.

      What did I say that makes me a kook? Is it my support of the Bill of Rights? Please explain yourself.

      Every word you posted in the first post. Everything you posted in the second one. You don't get to label yourself. If you re-read what wou've been writing and still don't see it, it affirms. I judge - You are a first class certifiable kook - deal with it.

      --
      The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
    10. Re: Thursday? by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 1

      You are a kook because you don't get worked up about the other parts of the "Bill of Rights". You probably have never even read it. Gun nuts are the worst.

      Also:

      Demands people who are not in lockstep with him leave the country.

      \ Demands anyone who doesn't think in lockstep with him to not be allowed to come into the country.

      Apparently believes that anyone who disagrees with him is a liberal douch or piece of trash.

      Gun nuts have gone so far around the bend that they now foist their insane rants on normal 2nd amendment loving gun owners.

      --
      The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
    11. Re: Thursday? by nwaack · · Score: 1

      You label and judge, good for you. How's that working out for you in your personal life?

      What I find funny is that, even though you claim to be pro-2nd Amendment, you're totally okay with somebody saying "They are too busy jerking each other off" about gun owners but you're all over me for defending those same people. Granted, I came on strong, but I've had a bad day and I'm really sick of all the stupid AC posts that ruin the comment boards around here.

      I guess we'll have to agree to disagree. BTW, my first post was "Ummm...it's still out for certain cell phone carriers here in Wisconsin." I must be a real kook, spouting off all that craziness :)

    12. Re: Thursday? by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 1

      You label and judge, good for you. How's that working out for you in your personal life?

      What I find funny is that, even though you claim to be pro-2nd Amendment, you're totally okay with somebody saying "They are too busy jerking each other off" about gun owners but you're all over me for defending those same people.

      He was being an asshole, but hey muchacho - so were you. You can call me an asshole as well - and hey bro - yes, I'm a major asshole. But I don't care. That's my super power.

      Granted, I came on strong, but I've had a bad day and I'm really sick of all the stupid AC posts that ruin the comment boards around here.

      No problem - we all have bad days on occasion. Relax with the adult beverage of your choice, or if you are in Colorado, there are other options! 8^)

      --
      The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
  2. Not a problem by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 4, Funny

    I think that all reasonable friends of free enterprise can agree that this was merely some 911 prioritization; which is both a celebration of the first amendment rights of CenturyLink and will assuredly encourage further investment.

  3. 911 for consumers? by pele · · Score: 2

    "CONSUMERS"????
    I thiught 911 was emergency service number for those in immediate need of assistance? What "customers"?

    1. Re:911 for consumers? by darkain · · Score: 1

      911 centers need phone service, these call centers are customers of CentruryLink. Also, the outage is affecting normal customers too, such as phone and DSL. I'm on CenturyLink Fiber near Seattle. I've yet to lose connectivity, but BGP routing is taking totally fucked routes with high latency. So while I have "connectivity", accessing some web sites is either slow as balls, or downright impossible.

    2. Re: 911 for consumers? by pele · · Score: 1

      So THEY are the customers, OK. And only of CebturyLink, noone else? Shouldn't they be customers of all providers, or at least as many as possible?

    3. Re: 911 for consumers? by dissy · · Score: 1

      And only of CebturyLink, noone else? Shouldn't they be customers of all providers, or at least as many as possible?

      In some areas being a customer of centurylink *IS* being a customer of all phone providers, which is as many as is possible.

  4. Why does 911 not have redundant ISPs? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Sometimes ISPs have outages, seems like 911 centers should be using redundant services.

    1. Re: Why does 911 not have redundant ISPs? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      They do. But the redundant paths also may traverse a CL impacted circuit. CL recently bought Level 3 which had tons of backbone fiber too.

    2. Re:Why does 911 not have redundant ISPs? by Kurotaka · · Score: 2

      In most of the places where 911 was taken offline, the 911 centers are already utilizing every single provider available. All 1 of them.

    3. Re: Why does 911 not have redundant ISPs? by darkain · · Score: 1

      Its currently the opposite. CL sent out a message that said to use cell phones instead of land lines for 911.

  5. centurylink by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    is literally run by swamp stompers educated by louisana's fine public education system. it should surprise no one if and when their services aren't functioning. it should surprise no one when their billing is fucked up, or when service or appointments are missed, when services installed don't match a work order, etc, etc. they may be smaller than the other products of the telco consolidation era, but they're at least verizon's or at&t's equal when it comes to incompetence and quality of service and support.

  6. This is what Ajit asked for... by MikeDataLink · · Score: 5, Funny

    They just decided to make 911 the lowest priority on their network until the government pays more money to put them in the fast lane. :-P

    --
    Mike @ The Geek Pub. Let's Make Stuff!
    1. Re:This is what Ajit asked for... by Highdude702 · · Score: 1

      Yes cause the bcc forced your city to sign a contract saying only Comcast was slowed to play there. Moron.

    2. Re:This is what Ajit asked for... by Highdude702 · · Score: 1

      Fcc. Fuck android sucks, and here I thought ios autocorrect sucked. Had to type fcc 5 times and it's still changing it. Maybe I don't need a headphone jack..

    3. Re:This is what Ajit asked for... by AndrewFlagg · · Score: 1

      so true. there have been other carriers with 24 hours of outages that affected 911 calls, but no one cried foul then, or maybe we did not hear about the FCC investigating those.. either way.. Ajit is a tool and I wish he would share his end game so we can see if he is being honest with all of us.

  7. In the Olden Days by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Telephones would always work. The central stations had battery backups, etc., and there was just a wire and some relay contacts connecting you to another phone. Today, we have fancy VOIP that doesn't work.

    1. Re:In the Olden Days by CrimsonAvenger · · Score: 2

      Telephones would always work.

      Umm, no. The telephone didn't work during Camille, for instance.

      --

      "I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
    2. Re:In the Olden Days by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      In the Olden Days, Telephones would always work.

      Bullshit. Anyone old enough (and sober enough) to remember the 1980's is very familiar with the "All Circuits Busy" message especially during peak use times and during holidays. Constant outages during storms. Long distance calls failing because trunks were full. Local calls failing because of hardware failures in a local PoP.

      This is not a "VOIP" issue. It's a transport issue, and I'd go into more detail about why you're wrong but you're obviously too biased or stupid to comprehend any of it.

    3. Re:In the Olden Days by mysidia · · Score: 1

      Umm, no. The telephone didn't work during Camille, for instance.

      Your individual service was down, perhaps, b/c you had a pole down, but most phones would be still working for local service.

    4. Re:In the Olden Days by mysidia · · Score: 1

      to remember the 1980's is very familiar with the "All Circuits Busy" message especially during peak use times and during holidays.

      Olden Phones were Local Only, and that was highly reliable. You're talking about Long Distance Service and Inter-Carrier services, which were extra paid add-ons, that were less so....
      Of course, because trunk capacity was limited, you may have had to wait for the chance at a time to call out on the Long-Distance/Cross-Provider exchange trunk.

    5. Re:In the Olden Days by Solandri · · Score: 1

      "All circuits busy" is a network overload, not a network failure. Only a fraction of the phones out there will be in use at any given time, so it's wasteful (costs money) to maintain more calling circuits than are likely to be used simultaneously. The vast majority of the time this works and everyone who wants to make a call gets a free circuit. But occasionally when some big shared experience happens (9/11, OJ fleeing police, Challenger explosion, etc), everyone does try to use their phone at the same time. The lucky ones get an open circuit and their call goes through. The unlucky ones get the "all circuits busy" message. The phone system is still working, it's just unable to handle the high volume of calls.

      Outages during storms is due to lines physically being severed. No service can survive that. (Well, the Internet can if an alternate route is available. That's why the military invented it in the first place.)

      OP is correct that the POTS system is designed to be extremely robust. A basic landline phone would even work during a power failure because they got power from the central office, which was outfitted with battery backups and generators precisely to deal with such emergencies. The commercial building I manage recently got cable Internet, and the cable company pushed their VoIP service as part of a package deal. I advised all the business tenants to keep at least one traditional phone line as a backup, but most of them didn't listen. Then about a half year after cable came in, it went down for 3 days. And when I visited to try to help the tenants as much as I could (forwarding their business calls to their cell phones via the cable company's portal), every one of them told me they'd wished they'd listened to me. The two businesses which had kept their POTS were sitting pretty (one had done so reluctantly because they had signed a 3 year contract just months before cable Internet became available).

    6. Re:In the Olden Days by Holi · · Score: 2

      Pretty sure, during an emergency, long distance calls aren't going to be a priority. Can't see how calling the fire department in Kansas City is gonna help me in Rhode Island.

      --
      Sorry, teleporters just kill you and then make a copy. A perfect, soul-less copy.
    7. Re:In the Olden Days by thegarbz · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Sorry but horseshit. Telephones have always had outages. The difference is back then you didn't notice it straight away because your Facebook stopped working.

    8. Re:In the Olden Days by AHuxley · · Score: 1

      In the old days the US gov and mil had to care about a working POTS service. It was the only way to get another shift of skilled workers to the gov, chemical plant, nuclear plant, power plant, hospital, police.
      So the design was good and the service worked to important and skilled people who had another service installed for "work".
      At the larger telco centres, staff "worked" in shifts to ensure someone responsible with skills was at work 24/7.
      Villages, towns and cities all over the USA had advanced and well kept telco services that could connect a call.
      The telco network had "redundancy" as the US gov, contractors, private sector and mil had to ensure their best "workers" could be contacted.

      That level of service and skill changed with the pager, cell phones and now the "internet" networks.
      Automation removes that 24/7 shift of union workers needed in US communities.
      Network design changed to use a different type of network that would need a contractor to be called in.
      Why have two network ready as redundancy when one network and a contractor can offer the same "type" of service for years?
      Whats a few hours, days of contractor work over many years as a % ? Still meets what the gov approves and the costs are lower.
      The alternative is redundancy all over the USA and paying for workers on site again.
      The only network in the village allowed costs to stay low.

      --
      Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
    9. Re:In the Olden Days by fafalone · · Score: 1

      Interestingly enough, during Sandy, we lost power for 11 days (so no wire based VOIP) but never lost cell phone service. The closest tower went down but the next closest gave me 2-3 bars. Presumably it too had battery backup since I don't think anywhere in the range of a tower serving a high-density area like this had power. Never took more than 3 tries to get a call through the busy network (first try half the time).
      And in a shocking display, on day 3 Verizon rolled a couple trucks into our town just to park in the street and put out a whole bunch of power strips where the community gathered to charge our devices. The devastation was quite severe here (Hoboken, on the other side of the Hudson from midtown Manhattan), and cell phones were surprisingly adequate. Not to mention, having up-to-the-minute info from people all over town and the local government on FB was vastly superior for finding open stores/places with power/those VZW trucks/locations of emergency relief services/etc etc than just the local radio broadcast or phone message updated every few hours.

    10. Re: In the Olden Days by Zero__Kelvin · · Score: 1

      One assumes you mean the early to mid1900s, because telephone systems have been computer controlled since 1ess was deployed in 1965.

      --
      Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
    11. Re:In the Olden Days by dryeo · · Score: 1

      Phone lines are stretchier then power lines, many a power failure here where a tree took out the power lines with the phone lines touching the ground and continuing to work. Now they also have fiber and I'd assume it is similar, a big enough problem and it might break, just like a copper wire, taking out the one cell tower in the process.
      What has taken out the landline are copper thieves, which is why we finally got a cell tower. Those thieves are likely stupid enough to cut the fiber thinking it is copper, which will cause the same problems.

      --
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_totalitarianism
    12. Re:In the Olden Days by dryeo · · Score: 1

      I was on dial up until last year, noticed every phone outage pretty quick. Always copper thieves that took it out and they're stupid enough that they'll probably cut the new fiber going to the new cell tower which will have the same affect, no phone, no cell and no internet.

      --
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_totalitarianism
  8. Re: Yeah, but... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Century link is a really strange company. I switched to comcast a long time ago and centuryli k still sends me bills and make harassing phone calls

  9. And here is a reason by pgmrdlm · · Score: 2

    To have your local police, fire, and emergency service numbers someplace instead of calling 911. I called 911 the other night on people fighting in the street, they just transferred me to the city police. Shoot, I could have just called them straight up.

    --
    Anonymous comments are as pathetic as the anonymous "sources" that contaminate gutless journalism from the New York Time
    1. Re:And here is a reason by pgmrdlm · · Score: 1

      This was at 4am in the morning in an apartment complex. While this was occurring, other neighbors started yelling at them to shut the fuck up they were sleeping. You don't think that innocents would get dragged into a fight isn't an emergency? That was my concern, and that was why I called the police.

      --
      Anonymous comments are as pathetic as the anonymous "sources" that contaminate gutless journalism from the New York Time
    2. Re:And here is a reason by eth1 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      People fighting on the street is an emergency? Maybe you don't understand that the non-emergency numbers should ALWAYS be used for non-emergencies.

      You should use 911 for any in-progress situation. It's the dispatchers' job to prioritize, not yours. The non-emergency number should be use for calling in reports after the fact (i.e. "someone stole my bike sometime last night"), or nuisances like noise complaints (even this one is debatable). This almost verbatim from our PD's public information officer.

      "Just a fight" is always one hit away from someone being seriously injured or killed.

    3. Re: And here is a reason by edris90 · · Score: 1

      Those guilty of getting involved in a conflict are going to get hurt in this situation. far safer and conducive towards having a peaceful night to just use some earplugs

    4. Re: And here is a reason by edris90 · · Score: 1

      As soon as you have called the cops, you have given up all control in the situation, just like when you were a kid it is almost always Less shityy for everybody involved, when you handle it yourself.

    5. Re:And here is a reason by mysidia · · Score: 1

      Fighting in the street is an emergency. It is a violent crime in progress, and there are people in immediate danger of serious physical injury or possible death, so yes, 911 should be dialed if people are fighting in the street.

    6. Re:And here is a reason by Highdude702 · · Score: 1

      You called 911 not the police. 911 transferred you to the police and probably said not nice things about you afterwards.

    7. Re:And here is a reason by ArchieBunker · · Score: 1

      Around here the local cops say to call 911 to contact them. I've called it a few times to deal with assholes and their barking dogs.

      --
      Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
    8. Re: And here is a reason by PPH · · Score: 1

      Less shityy for everybody involved, when you handle it yourself.

      Less shitty for me maybe. But if I have to come down there to shut you up, you are going to be begging for the cops.

      --
      Have gnu, will travel.
    9. Re: And here is a reason by edris90 · · Score: 1

      Calling the cops often results in being told any number of reasons why they can't help you. But now that you're on record you better not handle it yourself. File paperwork on a at the end of the day and that's about the end of it. People are well aware how long it takes cops to show up and how useless they are once they do. Losing you any chance to actually motivate people not to cause you trouble in the future.. part of being a responsible adult is handling your own ship and not crying to Daddy Copcop, when there's no fucking reason to go to that extreme. There are IQ limits set on being allowed to become a cop. And it limits how smart you can be. there was a national Scandal over somebody suing because they were excluded for being too smart from the police academy. Calling the cops is essentially putting documented idiots charge of your safety. Who are more likely to assume whatever gives them an easier day or use it as an excuse to take their anger out on somebody. Irhey simply do not have the critical thinking skills and willingness to stand up to their boss to do the right thing most of the time.

    10. Re: And here is a reason by Zero__Kelvin · · Score: 1

      Yes, people fighting in the streets is exactly the kind of scenario where a 911 call would be appropriate. I guess nobody explained this to you but sometimes innocent bystanders die as a result of such crimes. One assumes you would agree that a situation where there is a distinct possibility someone might die is an emergency, I mean, unless you are one of the most stupid motherfuckers on the planet.

      --
      Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
    11. Re: And here is a reason by edris90 · · Score: 1

      Two people want to fight something out there's nothing wrong with that. It's when more people get involved from the peanut gallery look up things get out of hand. there is nothing wrong with two people who can't find a way to solve something with the words to solve it with a physical competition. In the end the ongoing onflict causes more trouble and 12 more people into the situation then if they were to just fight it out to figure out pecking order.

    12. Re: And here is a reason by edris90 · · Score: 1

      People are animals too. And as such if there is not a clear pecking order it will cause insecurity throughout the pack. Forts in the subconscious imperative 2 Force conflict 2 create a pecking order. Too many cooks forces everyone to fight for dominance.

  10. Software Defined Networking Gone Wrong? by cruff · · Score: 1

    Did someone decide to deploy a country wide change to the SDN configuration?

  11. Improper Centralization of Services by mysidia · · Score: 4, Informative

    911 is a service that Has to Work --- A local outage of 911 in one market might be explainable as multiple circuit or equipment failures, but having a national outage of 911 is unacceptable.

    Having a "national outage of 911" means that the system/communications paths providing City X's 911 service have been consolidated or centralized in - order to cut costs or save money by having a smaller number of shared equipment (or single point of failure) required for City Y and City Z's 911 service to function ---- Contrary to a Telecommunication provider's obligation to provide reliable 911 service, which includes protecting customer access to the local 911 PSAP against failures of equipment that aren't in the same region as the PSAP.

    1. Re:Improper Centralization of Services by PuddleBoy · · Score: 1

      There *were* national outages of Internet and voice, but the 911 outages were much more limited (mainly western Washington)

    2. Re:Improper Centralization of Services by mysidia · · Score: 1

      There *were* national outages of Internet and voice, but the 911 outages were much more limited

      National outage of voice through CL's network is in the same category, since if voice is down -- subscribers cannot dial 911.
      If CenturyLink cannot handle ensuring that local voice service is not interrupted by conditions existing outside the local region, then they should be broken up into a larger number of small providers, that way each small provider can provide a local voice service that will not routinely fail on a national level because of an IT issue.

    3. Re:Improper Centralization of Services by PuddleBoy · · Score: 1

      Not *all* voice was down. If you had traditional TDM services (or if you used your cellphone), you could (most likely) still make voice calls, and thus get to 911 (except for western WA). From what I understand the outage was data-network related (read Internet). Services that rode the data network were affected. Most customers of telco's these days ask for VoIP-type services (packetized voice). That requires that both the voice and data run on the same network. And that makes a single outage doubly dangerous. (with the TDM network, voice and data were independent)

      I'm not defending CenturyLink, just pointing out that we should be accurate when discussing something this serious.

    4. Re:Improper Centralization of Services by Holi · · Score: 1

      Massachusetts and Rhode Island have been getting notices all day.

      --
      Sorry, teleporters just kill you and then make a copy. A perfect, soul-less copy.
  12. Emergency Alert on North Western Oregon 911 Down by DallasTruaxxx · · Score: 4, Interesting

    There was an emergency alert pushed out to cell phones on northwestern oregon saying 911 services were down. The message provided another number to call in case of emergency.

  13. Re:Good job FCC. by Holi · · Score: 1

    The sarcasm is effective here

    --
    Sorry, teleporters just kill you and then make a copy. A perfect, soul-less copy.
  14. Re:Emergency Alert on North Western Oregon 911 Dow by Holi · · Score: 2

    Just got one in RI, It truly is coast to coast.

    --
    Sorry, teleporters just kill you and then make a copy. A perfect, soul-less copy.
  15. Re:Good job FCC. by bobbied · · Score: 1

    The Trump FCC doing a great job again. Ajit has been the best chairman ever at the FCC. Can anyone honestly to say that a Clinton-Soros run FCC would be investigated this kind of thing? Obviously not.

    Huh? Did you mean that the former FCC wouldn't have investigated this or that the former FCC would not have been investigated for this?

    Somehow, I don't think either are true. The FCC has a pretty dim view of 911 service outages regardless of it's political affiliation at any specific time. Republicans and Democrats both are pretty much on board for 911 service.

    --
    "File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
  16. Re:Title I Information Service by bobbied · · Score: 1

    Is the FCC run by morons?

    Yes, and they have been for decades. Political appointees rarely understand the topics the FCC is tasked to regulate, and usually are making bad decisions based on their political handler's wishes and lobbyist money.

    We left the situation where FCC commissioners where actually experts in the field, picked for their technical skills, knowledge and experience, long long ago. The FCC (and other government organizations) have become the political hands and feet of the appointing administration without regard to what's best for the people, but only thinking about what's best for the politicians doing the appointing and serving the interests of the lobbyists who fund our political systems.

    Which to me, is the best argument for NOT having government involvement. Some things only government can do, but in the general case, getting government involved only makes it less reliable and more expensive.

    --
    "File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
  17. Re:black people by nwaack · · Score: 1

    It's called trolling. The internet is full of it. Don't feed the trolls, please.

  18. Re:Emergency Alert on North Western Oregon 911 Dow by raftpeople · · Score: 1

    We got a similar text message last night (western washington) and we also had emergency alerts on our TV for the same thing

  19. Re:Title I Information Service by sjames · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Because, as we see here, leaving it in the hands of our angelic corporate masters will serve us without fail.

  20. The outages were software upgrades from... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Everything the reddit threads were saying. They listed them as starting at 1:45am. I assume eastern time, since the first person to drop off on me as a result was at 00:50 pacific with their second and final dropoff at 01:37am.

    If this was a broadcast storm caused by a failed software upgrade, as was described, then it was affecting and too down all systems that had the upgrade pushed to them. If all their management access was done on insufficient bandwidth links that also doubled as the routing table trunks, it is possible the routing storm blocked out management port access to the entire network, the failure of the routing tables took down the public facing network (there was some in-network access available but dns and routes outside of centurylinks networks failed, as well as multiple dhcp resets.)

    Depending on their network topology and VOIP configuration, it is entirely possible the 911 system was on the flooded management lines, or had some systems that relied on external VOIP servers being available, which when failed broke 911 routing. Unless they were doing regular network 'downtime' to intentionally break sections of the network to test it, they would have never discovered these production level problems until either a software upgrade, network configuration error, or hardware failure triggered the right set of conditions.

    I do however agree with the need for less centralization, more experienced network engineers, and more failure testing, even if it results in a routine period of network inaccessability or degraded performance while such testing and precautions are taken.

  21. Re:What is that? by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 2

    I have not been able to dial 911 for months

    Can't find the 11 key?

    --
    The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
  22. Re: Good job FCC. by Holi · · Score: 1

    Ooo libtard? how original.

    But, maybe you should use your time more effectively, like by going back to school.

    I cannot quite figure out what you are trying to say here: "Anyone who praises amazing work Trump admin continue to do is "sarcasm"

    --
    Sorry, teleporters just kill you and then make a copy. A perfect, soul-less copy.
  23. Re:Chinese Networking Equipment by Holi · · Score: 1

    Well you're right on one thing, you are certainly no wizard.

    --
    Sorry, teleporters just kill you and then make a copy. A perfect, soul-less copy.
  24. Internet Kill Switch Test by Joshs922 · · Score: 1

    This is a test of the internet kill switch system. Do not panic. This is only a test.

  25. so fragile by guygo · · Score: 1

    again, our "system"s show all the signs of brittle fragility, a hacker's delight.

  26. Yeah, but... this is CenturyLilnk by xski · · Score: 1

    The company that was so completely awful it had to change its name from Qwest.

  27. Re:Title I Information Service by sjames · · Score: 1

    It's lack of oversight is serving us quite badly.

  28. Ajit Pai is on top of it -- no need to worry. by dacut · · Score: 1

    I'm sure a full investigation will be conducted, and they'll identify deficiencies in the CenturyLink infrastructure that must be immediately fixed through a government subsidy.

  29. Re: Good job FCC. by bobbied · · Score: 1

    Dont be stupid. Democrat party is anti-american. They would celebrate 911 outage bigly.

    I totally disagree with you on this. I am a Republican, but I don't think Democrats are all just lusting for power and wrong about what they want to accomplish, at least for the rank and file members of the party. They mean well and want what's best, as they see it.

    I do disagree strongly with the means by which they attempt to obtain their goals. They are too short sighted and wrong headed about how best to accomplish their goals. They tend to lead with their emotions and forget to ask "and then what happens" when they advocate their policy choices, and I feel that this puts us all to often in the land of unforeseen consequence (for them), when they refuse to listen to reasoned objections to their ideas.

    I'm sure they have their issues with me and my kind too.... I just wish we could discuss it like people instead of playing the sound bite game and political gotcha.

    --
    "File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
  30. Re:Title I Information Service by bobbied · · Score: 1

    Because, as we see here, leaving it in the hands of our angelic corporate masters will serve us without fail.

    Government should be involved as little as possible and as local as possible. There are times it's the only choice, to be sure, but I think that is a lot less involvement than most would think.

    So it's a false argument you make. I'm not advocating a "no government" policy, only a "less government" one. There needs to be a balance in this, but I'm very sure that we've passed well beyond the point where government is too big. Corporations have their dangers, but government is more dangerous.

    --
    "File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
  31. Re:Title I Information Service by bobbied · · Score: 1

    It's lack of oversight is serving us quite badly.

    So, they announce they are investigating an outage and you claim they lack oversight? They are doing what you are saying are they not?

    What likely happened is some untrained idiot made an unapproved change that rippled through the call routing tables and messed the 911 exception stuff up. This is the reason we used to never make network changes after thanksgiving, when folks started heading out on vacation, until they returned in January. That way some half baked change that wasn't vetted by competent eyes before it got implemented.

    This isn't lack of FCC oversight, it's human error.... Most likely anyway.

    --
    "File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
  32. Re:Title I Information Service by sjames · · Score: 1

    The investigation is a reactive measure. A proactive measure would be requiring CenturyLink to have and follow a procedure that would both provide adequate review and offer a rapid backout if this sort of crap happens.

  33. Re:Title I Information Service by sjames · · Score: 1

    There are plenty of cases where regulations go too far, but that is not at all in evidence in TFA or in the situation it covers.

  34. Re:Title I Information Service by bobbied · · Score: 1

    The investigation is a reactive measure. A proactive measure would be requiring CenturyLink to have and follow a procedure that would both provide adequate review and offer a rapid backout if this sort of crap happens.

    SO.. Your answer is MORE regulation and oversight by the organization that you say wasn't doing it's oversight job to start with?

    Right... Yea, that's a logical position. Sort of like having the fox write the procedures for guarding the hen house after the theft of some chickens...

    How about we wait for the investigation to be conducted and find out what it uncovers? There is no sense in trying to fix something when you are not sure what's really broken. It may not be an oversight issue at all, it may be some company defaulting on their legal requirements. How about we let the FCC find out what the issue is before we blame somebody for it or start trying to fix it..

    --
    "File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
  35. Yep, and they sent text alerts to warn people by JustAnotherOldGuy · · Score: 1

    I woke up to a text alert warning me that 911 service was down and to call direct local numbers for police and fire.

    --
    Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
  36. Re:Title I Information Service by sjames · · Score: 1

    So the lug nuts couldn't be removed due to the wrench not fitting. Obviously, we cannot just get the correct wrench, we will instead use our teeth in the future.

  37. Common Carrier? by Brett+Buck · · Score: 1

    If they are going to use it for 911 service, doesn't that make it a de factor common carrier service? Or, alternately, why the hell does a life-critical service depend on a private commercial operator, and apparently with *no redundancy*.

          The 911 aspect of it seems like more a failure of the people in charge of setting up the 911 service (and putting easily and predictably failure-prone elements into it) than is of Centurylink. Just seems irresponsible.