Diary of an Internet Disaster
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| Where'd the Internet go? |
How could such a thing happen, you say? Well, for that you'd have to ask Verizon, although it's doubtful they could answer - at least they haven't been able to tell us.
We kept track of the disaster as it unfolded. Warning: Cyberjunkies may find the following material disturbing. Read with caution.
Day One: It began like any other day. We arrived at work. We booted our work stations. We logged on. We never saw it coming.
At first we wondered, "is it just me? Is it only my computer, my e-mail?" Then the terrible truth - our cord to the World Wide Web had been cut. We might as well have been on a desert island in the middle of the Pacific.
It all began innocently enough. The telecommunications giant offered a nifty upgrade for our digital subscriber line - from 3 megabytes per second to 7.1. Superfast! Extremely easy, flick a switch, no downtime. How could we resist? The changeover was scheduled for Jan. 24; this was Jan. 16.
Fifteen minutes later the system went down - and stayed down. No amount of modem resettings or phone calls made a difference that afternoon. No, it had nothing to do with the scheduled upgrade, our business manager was told. No ma'am, nothing to do with it at all.
It didn't matter that we were an Internet-based company wholely reliant on that slender DSL line to survive. First-come, first-served for repairs. We'll call you in the morning.
Meanwhile, an article written by noon is getting older and older as the hours tick by. We rush home to our trusty HP to post news on iBerkshires. Thank goodness, there's a wireless antenna on Stamford School.
Day Two: Still down. The holiday vibe from the afternoon before has worn off. Customers need help, e-mails are going unanswered and we can't even communicate with each other.
<L2>Verizon says it's on the job. Everything will be fixed soon. Businesses are a priority. No, ma'am, it has nothing to do with that pending upgrade. Honest.
We resort to a single wireless satellite connection. Billing wrestles with customer service for possession. Cut off from UPS World Ship, merchandise crowds the corridors. Red Sox fans may soon rebel against the lack of news and rumors.
Chaos reigns.
Day Three: A detachment from Sawxheads and RacingJunk is sent down the street to the wireless zone that is Cup and Saucer with instructions not overdose on caffeine. iBerkshires retreats to home bases in an effort to get the news out.
Verizon: Oops, my bad. That upgrade did go through on Jan. 16. Right after you hung up. Don't worry, it'll be fixed - on Jan. 24 when the technician comes to check on the upgrade that already occurred.
A flurry of phone calls gets the super solution center. Downgrade us, please! we beg. Don't worry, it will be fixed in four hours, but wait, if the work ticket is "closed" for the upgrade there will have to be another ticket to downgrade, which will take even longer. Verizon confabs: We'll get back to you.
We wait and wait and wait. No callback. We call them. They say they can't call out because too many calls are coming in. (Other poor customers despairing for their DSL?)
We are left dazed and confused.
One blessing - the phones are still working. Four words are repeated again and again - "Are we up yet?"
Day Four: It's a weekend. We have a party. The boss jokes about the company going under. We laugh nervously.
Day Five: A day of rest. We have been assured that Verizon's top guys - top guys - will be working around the clock to make sure we're back up on Monday.
Day Six: Monday. We are still down.
There is breaking news. We have photos! We cannot post them because we can't talk to our servers. AAAARGH! The screams can be heard from Vermont.<R3>
Verizon lets us know everything looks A-OK at their end. Good for them. What about us?
Panic sets in. The lack of Internet is beginning to affect us. Our fingers twitch on the keyboards, we are hypnotized by the endless FireFox looping of trying to connect to a dead line. Without e-mail, we are forced to speak face to face. The horror will not end.
In desperation, iBerkshires goes to the only source it knows will respond - the PR guys. They commiserate and say they'll get to the bottom of it. We go to bed with dreams of Googling.
Day Seven: A hapless Verizon technician wanders in with a work ticket about the upgrade. "How's it going?" he asks.
He barely makes it out of the building alive.
Advanced supertechnology people are of no use; PR people are kindly, but unable to help. Desperate calls go out to mayors, state representatives and chamber presidents. We consider smoke signals.
Then a miracle! At 2:15 p.m., we find we can link to our servers. Thousands of e-mails fill our boxes. We Google with glee.
The moral of the story: Be prepared.
We learned the hard way that an Internet company dependent upon a single link to the global network is gambling with its livelihood. Verizon isn't the only game in town - Time Warner Cable and Berkshire Connect are options, for instance - and backing up with a second service provider is a smart business move.
<L4>Too bad we couldn't get a second line in fast enough this week. Yep, Verizon shut us off completely late Thursday morning. Remember those work tickets? There were 24 by the time this fiasco was over and the last one said, take everything down and start from scratch.
You think they would have called first. I mean, it is a phone company.
Those long seven days (and one to grow by) did prove we could get the job down with determination and outside-the-box thinking. It even raised productivity levels in a couple departments (programmers who aren't surfing the net are getting things done).
In fact, the boss is considering pulling the plug on the Internet once a month just to see what happens. But please, please don't tell Verizon! I don't think we could survive any more help.
