[scratt]

I have been getting intermittant problems with mail, only mail all day.. I just put it down to a crappy internet day. We have them from time to time..
Web sites have been fine here.. but mail is dead.. very strange.

As you can see I have no problem posting here..

But according to this breaking news the earthquake close to Taiwan is going to cause more trouble for up to three weeks... Quite scary as it affects my business... Makes you realise the internet is not that immune to the kind of catastrophes it was designed for...

Internet slowdown to be a pain for at least three weeks Taiwan quake cripples Thai Internet BANGKOK: -- Telecommunications across Asia have been severely disrupted because of damage to undersea cables caused by Tuesday's earthquake near Taiwan. Banks and businesses in Taiwan, South Korea, China and Japan reported telephone and internet problems. In Thailand, Internet access slowed to a crawl, with up to 90 per cent of e-mail and web access impossible. There was no word from CAT Telecom, the government monopoly which supplies all Internet service to Thailand. Taiwan's largest telephone company, Chunghwa Telecom Co, said damage to an undersea cable had disrupted 98% of Taiwan's communications with Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Hong Kong. Repairs could take three weeks, Vice-General Manager Lin Jen-hung said, but quality would improve daily. Telecommunications companies in Hong Kong, Japan and China also reported problems. China's biggest telecoms provider, China Telecommunications Group, said that communications cables to the US and to Europe had been damaged. "Internet connections have been seriously affected, and phone links and dedicated business lines have also been affected to some degree," it said. Repairing the cables harmed by Tuesday's 6.7-magnitude quake could take three weeks but "quality will improve day by day," said Lin Jen-hung, vice general manager of Chunghwa Telecom Co., Taiwan's largest phone company. The company said damage to a cable off Taiwan's southern coast has interrupted 98 percent of Taiwan's communications capacity with Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Hong Kong. The damaged lines knocked out Internet service for some Hong Kong customers, who were unable to access Web sites in parts of Asia and the U.S. Hong Kong telephone company PCCW Ltd., which also provides Internet service, said several undersea data cables were damaged in the quake. "Data traffic to Taiwan, Korea, Japan and the United States are affected," PCCW said in a statement. The company also warned customers that they may experience congestion for several days on the Internet because of an upsurge in use as people surf the Web for more information about the quake. Financial traders in Hong Kong _ one of Asia's biggest business capitals _ complained they lost their connection to Bloomberg LP, a key provider of news and data about stock markets. Bloomberg declined to immediately comment on the outage. Internet access has been cut or has become extremely slow in Beijing, said an official from China Netcom, China's No. 2 phone company. The official, who would not give his name, said the cause was thought to be the earthquake, but he had not further details. Businesses in various parts of the city also said they were experiencing Internet access problems. CCTV, the state-run television network, said the earthquake had damaged undersea communications cables from China to the United States and from Asia to Europe. It said China Telecom Corp., China's biggest phone company, was contacting counterparts in the United States and Europe about using satellites to make up for the shortfall. KDDI Corp., Japan's major carrier for international calls, said Thursday that its fixed-line telephone service has been intermittently affected following the quake. KDDI spokesman Haruhiko Maeda said that the quake damaged several undersea communication cables in southern Taiwan shared among international communication companies. He said that customers are having trouble making calls to India and the Middle East, which are usually routed through cables near Taiwan. Maeda said the company is rerouting calls to go through the U.S. and Europe and the company does not know how long it will take to repair the cables. Japan's Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications said that international roaming service provided by Japan's major three telecommunications _ NTT DoCoMO, KDDI, and Softbank, has been affected. Ministry official Akira Yamanaka said that some customers were unable to make calls using their mobile phones in countries including Taiwan. The quake, which hit offshore from the town of Hengchun near Taiwan's southern tip, came on the second anniversary of the tsunami that killed more than 200,000 lives in southern Asia. Tuesday's quake was felt throughout Taiwan. It shook buildings and knocked objects off the shelves in the capital, Taipei, in the northern part of the island. Two members of one family were killed Tuesday in Hengchun when their four-story home collapsed. The quake injured 42 people, three homes collapsed and 12 fires broke out, the National Fire Agency said. --Bangkok Post 2006-12-27

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=98615

[drewprops]

Scratt, we're only getting every third letter of what you're writing, are you drunk? What up?

[Unbeliever]

Now that is just mean

[Luca]

Wow, so that's what's going on. I kept resetting my router, power cycling it, etc. I eventually just left my place and walked around a bit, hoping it would clear up by the time I got back.

It was really confusing because even the big sites (Apple, Google, etc) were slow as molasses, but they still kinda worked. Normally when your Internet access goes down, it goes down HARD.

Oh well, I'm actually kind of relieved that this is a big overarching problem and not something I'm going to have to take up with my ISP. Because I know that would never get fixed (don't know the language + customer service in China makes the US look damn good).

I seem to be having a temporary period of usable access... can't get on AIM, but I can browse AN and other sites relatively well.

[Jason]

Time for another round of 'Gears Of War', I think...

[Moogs]

Originally Posted by drewprops Scratt, we're only getting every third letter of what you're writing, are you drunk? What up?

[Schnauzer]

Originally Posted by Unbeliever Now that is just mean

lol yeah harsh

[Windswept]

Originally Posted by Luca Wow, so that's what's going on.

Geez. Isn't it amazing that everyone 'else' knows what's going on, but *not* the very people involved in the problem?

And the cables may take three weeks to fix? Ack!

Sounds like the disruption greatly affected the Asian financial community, stock market trades (etc.) in particular.

I wonder just 'how' they go about *fixing* cables that are lying on the ocean floor?

Anyone know?

Submarines?

Repair guy with backside showing as he crouches down to work on the cable?

Okay, maybe not.

[alcimedes]

And there was a cry, as millions of WoW gold farmers cried out in agony.

[scratt]

Originally Posted by drewprops Scratt, we're only getting every third letter of what you're writing, are you drunk? What up?

It's very strange because web access is fine for us in Thailand, but mail is still totally screwed.

It's interesting that you say you are having problems with major web sites Luca. My experience is almost totally the opposite.. Connecting to my sites in the US was slow, but Apple, Google etc. have been fine. As well as AN.
So I kind of took the same approach as you and thought that it was a local ISP problem, and that it might go away in a day..

I had also been downloading a large torrent over Christmas and was beginning to wonder if my ISP had blocked me, or torrent traffic, and taken some other stuff down at the same time... They are not that bright here, but do try to follow the trends of other ISPs!

As it stands today I get sporadic mail access, any kind of P2P except skype is dead incoming, but fine outgoing, and web access is about the same! I would have thought it was a lot more important to keep mail access going than web access, but there you go...

It's funny that yet again .Mac access is crappy, specially for mail as it needs to keep calling home so much.