What is an Internet Outage?
The internet has a way of being disrupted at the most critical moments. For example, when you’re Facetiming your bestie (ranting about something that cannot wait) or when you’ve reached the climax of an intriguing movie. I’m sure you can relate to the urge of pulling your hair out when this happens.
An internet outage can be described as a partial or complete shutdown of internet services from the back end. Luckily, there are some ISPs that inform customers of anticipated or planned outages in advance. For instance, as a Xfinity internet user, whenever I incur an unexpected internet outage, I contact Xfinity customer service right away. Most of the time, internet services are restored within an hour.
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Major Causes for Internet Outages
If you’ve ever wondered why these untimely internet outages occur, you’ll be getting answers today. Internet outages can come about for various reasons that are out of our control, so let’s get acquainted with the major ones:
- Natural Disasters
When you hear “natural disaster”, some of the events that come to mind include earthquakes, hurricanes, big storms, or even wildfires. These kinds of episodes often lead to large-scale physical destruction, leading to cut-off power lines and indefinite suspension of utilities. As a result, thousands of people may encounter an internet outage until the damaged infrastructure is restored.
Apart from conventional natural disasters, internet outages can occur because of many minor influences of nature. For instance, squirrels and birds may chew up internet cables and deprive an entire neighborhood of internet access. Isn’t that amazing?
- Power Outages
We’re all familiar with power outages, which make us feel like we’re back in the stone age. When there’s no electricity, failing internet service is a common consequence. Power outages can happen for many different reasons, and may last several hours on end.
Bad weather and scheduled maintenance from the supplier are the usual explanation for power outages. When you have no electricity, you’re likely to say goodbye to the internet unless your router/internet device has a battery backup; power backup from a generator or UPS works too. Occasionally, an internet outage occurs because the supplier lacks a power backup.
- Human Error
Humans make mistakes and sometimes a mere oversight is all it takes to create a massive catastrophe. These so-called human errors can occur at the source, somewhere along the power lines, or at a consumer’s residence. Incorrect settings or misconfiguration at the provider’s base is a major cause of large-scale outages.
A road accident or an act of vandalism could be responsible for severed cables running along a street. Additionally, people getting their homes renovated or remodeled may accidentally cause damage to internet cables running overhead or underground.
- Cyberattacks
Cyberattacks are known for breaching security and affecting the overall system, and that’s where an internet outage can be among its planned grievances. Distributed denial-of-service (DDOS) is a kind of cyberattack that may overpower the network’s infrastructure through saturating traffic.
Hackers can also introduce malware or malicious code into the network system to hinder connectivity and compromise security. This includes phishing attacks to gain unauthorized access to databases and stealing sensitive information.
- Equipment Failures
Failing hardware or software of your internet equipment could also be the reason for a localized internet outage. If your neighbors, who subscribed to the same ISP as you, are not facing any connectivity problems, your modem or router may need your attention.
Updating your firmware may resolve the issue in a matter of minutes. An outdated router or modem that is malfunctioning may need to be replaced with a newer model to restore seamless connectivity. Equipment failures at your ISP’s end are a more serious matter, but you’re simply supposed to wait until they restore services.
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Coping with an Internet Outage
When an internet outage strikes, you can start by finding the root of the problem. You may call your ISP to rule out a scheduled outage from their side. If they tell you that you have to wait a few hours, there’s nothing else you can do to get back online until then.
There’s always the option of visiting a café or mall (outside the area affected by the outage) to use their Wi-Fi. Does that sound doable or unnecessary?
If everything is fine from your provider’s side, you may ask around the neighborhood to check if the outage is limited to your house. When that’s the case, check for disconnected cables or faulty equipment.
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If nothing else, try to make the best of your time offline instead of breaking down or losing control. Remember that life existed before the invention of the internet, so you’ll survive. Maybe you should spend some time with family or enjoy a long nap?
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