Marvin Posted March 21, 2013 Report Share Posted March 21, 2013 The SHEFA2 cable was broken yesterday at 10.15am between Orkney and the UK Mainland. BT and Faroese Telecom, the main providers of connectivity between Shetland and the rest of the UK, are largely unaffected as their networks switch over to an alternative link in the event of a major failure like this. The first leg of the resilient link is carried on Shetland Islands Council’s fibre optic cable and then routes North through SHEFA2 to Torshavn in Faroe and back to the UK on the Icelandic/Faroese Cable FARICE1. Some broadband customers on other provider networks, those without a resilient service, may be experiencing problems. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArabiaTerra Posted March 21, 2013 Report Share Posted March 21, 2013 Some broadband customers on other provider networks, those without a resilient service, may be experiencing problems. No kidding! I don't even have a dialling tone. Phone dead, broadband dead, grrr. (Serves me right for gloating about what fantastic speeds I was getting) Posted from Dad's prehistoric Dell. Any idea how long it will take to fix? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trooter Posted March 21, 2013 Report Share Posted March 21, 2013 The SHEFA2 cable was broken yesterday at 10.15am between Orkney and the UK Mainland. BT and Faroese Telecom, the main providers of connectivity between Shetland and the rest of the UK, are largely unaffected as their networks switch over to an alternative link in the event of a major failure like this. The first leg of the resilient link is carried on Shetland Islands Council’s fibre optic cable and then routes North through SHEFA2 to Torshavn in Faroe and back to the UK on the Icelandic/Faroese Cable FARICE1. Some broadband customers on other provider networks, those without a resilient service, may be experiencing problems. We have no internet at work since this happened, I telephoned ISP and a local BT engineer, the ISP said there was no problem and the BT engineer said the traffic had been rerouted and it should be working so contact ISP again. Still waiting for ISP to carry out more checks and call back! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CHUCK NORR1S Posted March 21, 2013 Report Share Posted March 21, 2013 FFS!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marvin Posted March 21, 2013 Report Share Posted March 21, 2013 Any idea how long it will take to fix? We are awaiting information. It depends on your ISP on when service is resumed. Normal service is currently in place for customers of ISPs who use the other route. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marvin Posted March 21, 2013 Report Share Posted March 21, 2013 We have no internet at work since this happened, I telephoned ISP and a local BT engineer, the ISP said there was no problem and the BT engineer said the traffic had been rerouted and it should be working so contact ISP again. Still waiting for ISP to carry out more checks and call back! Is BT your ISP? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trooter Posted March 21, 2013 Report Share Posted March 21, 2013 No, it's Breatheinternet, they insist there is no problem. Doing a ping test we get a packet loss. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marvin Posted March 21, 2013 Report Share Posted March 21, 2013 http://www.shetnews.co.uk/newsbites/6505-broadband-outage Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thule Posted March 24, 2013 Report Share Posted March 24, 2013 http://speedtest.net/result/2596625230.png (less than 500m from the Scalloway Exchange) This result is normal for me, People running speedtest and other checkers should remember what they think they are testing for may not be what is actually indicated by the tests. Selecting a server close to your geographical location, such as Aberdeen, for example, gives incorrect results UNLESS your ISP is connected to the Net Backbone in Aberdeen. Demon is connected at the Linx in London. In Para Handy's example previously, the result also includes the time the packet takes to travel back up the country to the Aberdeen server on whichever backbone connection links are involved, then back to London again before coming back up the ISP's "pipe" to his router. In my example above, 38 mSec is my ping to Thus in London, the other 35mS is the round trip time to the London server used by speedtest; including time consumed traversing the server farm at Thus/CW and also the one at the Linx exchange in Docklands which connects most of the London-based ISPs together. My ping times to Demon (Thus/CW, soon to be Vodafone) are rock solid at 37 mS, increasing sometimes to 42 or 43 in the evenings; except when uploading files or watching online video; when it goes up to perhaps 100mS for the duration of the download. Just because you have a crap ping time showing does not mean the problem is local. The same goes for indicated Speeds, up and down. The best way to check this is to run a traceroute check using a program such as "free IP tools" http://www.all-nettools.com/free-ip-tools.htm and run a trace to your favourite website. Entry No 2 in the Traceroute list is the host machine you connect to at your ISP. The ping time shown against that host is the time your packets take to bounce back from your ISP's network. If its rock solid at 38, for example (my current number) then the actual link to my ISP is good. Problems further afield on the net will show up as increased ping times on the list. It will also show you just how many detours your connection takes before it gets to its destination. For those of you who can interrogate your Routers to get your connection statistics, you can obtain useful information about the connection speeds you actually have to the exchange, and the number of errors registered by the router internally. I have found that being able to quote frame error rates to the script jockys at various ISPs I have dealt with; especially if I also start quoting Signal to Noise dB's, is a good way of being passed on to the actual engineers who can do something to help. YMMV I do not include the guys at Plusnet in this, my dealings with them have been totally professional on their end at all times. Having said all of the above, Speedtest is the probably the most accurate indication of your net speed, (of the non BT tests available (provided you let it check agains its "recommended" server)) you can get to the BT speedchecker results that almost all ISP's want you to run to get "official" results they can hit BT with; as each BT test is recorded by BT when you run it and can be referenced against your phone number. This probably does not apply to people on non-BT provided backbone; such as LLU ISPs (none in Shetland as yet, unless and until the local initiatives to connect to the Faroe Cable go down this route). Hairy Ian and Marvin may wish to comment... Thule (geeking on the Net since 1993) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marvin Posted March 24, 2013 Report Share Posted March 24, 2013 Very well explained. There is LLU in Lerwick though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArabiaTerra Posted March 26, 2013 Report Share Posted March 26, 2013 Aaaand we're back! http://www.speedtest.net/result/2601604468.png Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hairyian Posted March 26, 2013 Report Share Posted March 26, 2013 Aaaand we're back! http://www.speedtest.net/result/2601604468.png After a slight false start, routing South on Shefa-2 returned just before 4 PM. Folk not using TalkTalk will probably not have noticed any change from business as usual. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArabiaTerra Posted March 28, 2013 Report Share Posted March 28, 2013 Aaaand we're back! http://www.speedtest.net/result/2601604468.png After a slight false start, routing South on Shefa-2 returned just before 4 PM. Folk not using TalkTalk will probably not have noticed any change from business as usual. Cool, thanks for the feedback. I wonder if I'll get a rebate for the period of lost service? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shetlandpeat Posted April 30, 2013 Report Share Posted April 30, 2013 Pretty impressed with this, seems there are some folk willing to do stuff... http://www.shetlandtimes.co.uk/2013/04/30/great-leap-forward-for-internet-surfers-in-west-burrafirth http://www.shetlandtimes.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/burrafirthmast.jpg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ghostrider Posted April 30, 2013 Report Share Posted April 30, 2013 ^ Good luck to them, but alas mother nature does things too....may the best (wo)man win. http://www.shetlandtimes.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Snarraness_turbine-W750.jpg http://www.shetlandtimes.co.uk/2012/01/19/deal-likely-within-weeks-to-help-owners-of-faulty-wind-turbines Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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