TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums British Virgin Islands Back online now

There is a reward for the backhoe operator that dug up the major internet line.

In the last half hour the error and alarms lights finally cleared from the internet access card. Actually there is a truck roll that was on the way to possibly replace their access module because of all the errors.

Actually verizon is onsite right now, going to run a bunch of tests.

Thank God as all this time I thought my desktop had somehow blocked this!

I have a whole lot less hair than I did at 4:15 last Friday! Was online at the time the internet line was cut. Then errors lights all over the place. Servers just could not send out anything.

I was getting a little shaky and jittery wondering why ttol was offline!

Welcome back

So happy to see everyone again!!!

Yay!!! I don't post much but do check in almost daily to see what's happening...

I'm guessing banks and retailers had a rough weekend, too ???

Think others did have an issue, it was an OC3 cable that was cut. In other words a whole lot of lines went down.

Eric: One word my friend: [color:"blue"]CLOUD[/color]
This ain't 1996 anymore. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Yikes.gif" alt="" />

At least with an outage like this you discover how so many of us missed TTOL. Me included.

Thank god. I felt like a crack addict who had just entered rehab.

Well, maybe not quite that bad - but it did mess up my morning ritual (not to mention my afternoon, evening and "while I'm laying in bed trying to get to sleep" rituals).

Glad TTOL is back
Is it me or is the website much faster? Or is it because not everybody knows it's back up and are lots of band width

Nobody plans on a backhoe! <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/duh.gif" alt="" /> No matter what is used anymore there are always problems, even with the cloud. Google, etc have all had problems at times with their cloud products, so there is no 100% solution.

OC-3 just a short time ago was a very big pipe with 155.52 Mbit/s of throughput possible. Today many have that to their homes or at least half of the vintage OC-3 pipes performance numbers.

One option to limit the impact of any one backhoe is rented space even equipment in a harden data center with diverse service providers feeding the common "cloud" data center from opposite side. That way you have no single cable or service provider running in the same conduit that can fail you. The next step is to have the site hosted in a least two geographically dispersed data centers. That way a whole town can fall off the earth or be shut down with a disaster and the other site thousands of miles away can serve the customer. Amazon, Rackspace and many others sell those types of services in a very competitive market.



It takes two back hoes, two fires, or two floods to kills something that this. A good provider will offer services in three or more.

Even though I don't post anymore, I still lurk, glad you're back online. I too was thinking maybe the problem was on my end.

Fran,

I've missed TTOL too, but it was worth it to see your post and hope you're doing well. Send me a PM and let me know.
Fred

Ok, now let us think about this for a minute.

Cloud -- There is no magic cloud that has intel processors in it and invisible wire or hard drives or electric. If there is, could somebody tell me where that is?

The cloud is server farms in a building with electric, ac, etc and generally mulitiple internet (wired might I add -- as I have not seen this magical internet connection comming from any cloud around our house, just asking where this magical connection is?).

The cloud is in a building, maybe a block big. Yes redundant connections and maybe redundant servers, but generally in the same building even. So if the connections come in to the building at point A only, then there is a point of failure. If it is redundant to other servers over the "world" then maybe it will be fine..... ok, you are going to pay for this correct?? This is not free unlike you expensive membership to TTOL, right?

So you want redundant services all over the world, but you do not care what the cost is as long as you do not have to pay for it correct? Asking as, we have multiple servers to handle TTOL, each with multiple processors, each with multiple hard drives, etc. What we do not have is redundant bandwith. But based on the past performance, it has not been a problem, who plans on a backhoe. But YES, we could have multiple internet connections and even run the round robin, have done that a long time ago. That was before it was even common to think about and you where dealing with DSL for company websites, email, etc. That is not even a consideration now for a DSL type of setup.

So multiple dedicated yes, it can be done. Moving to the "cloud" is not the 100 per cent option and the cost is not something to laugh about. But I am open to your paying a annual fee for accesss! <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/duh.gif" alt="" /> Ok, that is not going to happen I guess.

The hot topic is "cloud" and many do not even know what that actually is. It is still computers in a building that can catch fire, have a hurricane hit, etc. and it will go down whether you call it a cloud or not. Not magical, just hard computers/servers sitting on a rack, connected to you local electric company and connected to the local underground internet wires. That is you cloud. Just that it now runs apps instead of just plain storage. But still the same, just hard computers connected to wires.

And running it to mulitiple locations all over the world, having it sncy instantly, etc. No problem, just money. Unfortunately I am not google! <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/jester.gif" alt="" />

Using AWS is likely less costly than maintaining and regularly upgrading your own on premise hardware/software. When we considered upgrading our company SBS we found AWS to be a much more cost effective, better managed and secure option.

LOL! Let's pay for that provider! <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/duh.gif" alt="" />

That is nice that your company is doing it. Look quickly at the pricing. OK.

I am not amazon either.

Thanks for your support.

Ok, so now I am suppose to provide redundant services. Just trying to get the facts straight. This was NOT a disaster recovery --- cut internet line, not any where near our servers even! The cut line was miles and miles away. But internet does not just go everywhere and have thousand of lines spread across farm fields, etc, that is just not the case anywhere.

Even if you have a building a block big. Multiple entry points -- if you are in a city, for example, generally ALL cables (electric and otherwise) run down the middle of the street. You did a hole in the middle of the street, even if ten cables, they all could be cut. Redundancy is only as good as the cables and location. Normally they are, in the same general location. So dig a big enough hole then you will take out everything, phone, internet, electric, etc. That is the way it is. This is not rocket science.

Yes, you can have multiple worldwide locations, sync, etc. That is not free.

So it boils down to cost and how is it going to be paid for. Right now it is the sponsors of TTOL. So do you support them and tell them that you appreciate their contribution to maintaining this simple community?

Eric, there is and was no need for folks here to tell you what YOU should do.

It happens. A month ago my internet service provider had an outage that was caused by a construction screw-up.

Last summer, a construction incident took out the underwater cable that connects most of Maine and New Hampshire to the internet.

Full moon madness seems to have struck here and it is never a positive thing.

This one is over, we are all good, not a one of us has any injuries, physical or financial.

If you have any interest in going cloud-based, I would be willing to contribute. Just putting it out there - the advice I've received on this board is priceless

Eric, this explains it all:

xkcd: The Cloud <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Grin.gif" alt="" />

Glad to have you back.

Dan <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Cheers.gif" alt="" />

I agree about helping with the cost. There is another (non-sailing) board that I participate on and it takes donations. I don't think they bring in much $, but it helps to pay some of the bills. People contribute what they feel like and and it seems to work.

Thank you Eric for all of your efforts keeping this site up an running for our collective benefit and for getting the site back up.

I hope that others feel the way I do.

Warren

I can only speak with authority for GA Power. Our major customers, like Google, are served electrically by a concrete encased ductwork system that is virtually uninterruptable. Doesn't mean it can't happen but almost never. NOW that's power not internet.

sounds like the Verizon overlords heard us!!! Kirk on Facebook thought the backhoe story wasn't dynamic enough so I told him that it was really Julian Assange, his final signal that he has been taken out is when TTOL goes down!! glad to have you guys back !!!! <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Joy.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Joy.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Joy.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Joy.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Joy.gif" alt="" />

Eric, is it possible to put up an Amazon shopping portal? I would certainly use it for my Amazon purchases and you make a commission without any effort.

Karen <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Kiss.gif" alt="" />

What many are finding is when the time comes to add the next server or upgrade a server they have. It can be less expensive and less disruptive to the business to simply use a data center service provider to fill the need. The business can focus on their core competency and pay a service to keep the power on, the connections to the internet up, the servers running in secure hardened environments purpose built to run 24/7. One key part of that is at least two sources of power and two paths to the global internet all backed up my matching networked centers in different geographies. That way no single disaster can take a service down. You bet that does cost more than a server(s) you may already own running in a closet somewhere. The question is what will the next server or upgrade costs and you can you do something better with that spend that just repeating what you did in the past. When you start paying your own people to watch those servers running the business case gets much easier.

So glad we are back online! You guys have no idea how frustrating this was!!! <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/cry.gif" alt="" />

Anyway, if anyone does want to contribute to our bandwidth fund, you can go here and scroll down to the bottom to make a contribution. For merchandise, we have some towel bags, a very limited amount of t-shirts still available, some coolies, and a few hats. Laura helps us out with the flags, so those are readily available. If someone is interested in any merchandise other than flags, please send Eric a PM first, DON'T just order in the shop, as we have only a very limited supply of most things. This might be a good opportunity for us to clear our all our merchandise.

Eric, what you are getting at is summed up in a quote I've heard before: "There's no such thing as the 'cloud'. There's only other people's computers."

Glad to have the site back!

Kevin.

We're glad to have you back. I think folks are just trying to be helpful, not necessarily realizing that you live the reality on a daily basis.

I manage the infrastructure for my global organization and, trust me, I would LOVE to be able to use some of the cloud services for a lot of things, but cannot for various reasons. However, we do use AWS for some simple items and I have been amazed at how cheap it is. My bill from AWS (which is AMAZINGLY redundant and easy to use) is about $12/mo. You could POC it quite easily and get a sense for your potential costs. I only second this suggestion as you may be able to make life easier and perhaps make those small AD contributions go further.

Best of luck and glad you got back up and running. I was going through withdrawal!