i jsut cant imagine the cost of interrupting a HIGHWAY to lay internet doo-hickies… wow. the internet must be more USEFUL than I think.
Nope, I was getting replies from people in Calgary and Toronto. I don’t think they were using CityTel!
No this was totally cool, the PacBell supervisor was in the next campsite and saw me pull my installer toolkit and crack open the terminal at the campsite - they had bloody phone and cable available from a box at every campsite! - and invited me to check out the next day.
This convoy drove along the edge of the road, and one machine trenched at an angle back under the highway, about where the edge white line is (wide shoulders on I-5). Another carried Huge reels that fed through another truck where they did splices inside the van box. Then it rolled over another flatbed full of wheels that fed it smoothly out at an angle to a feeder machine that put the cable in place. The last machine backfilled the gravel that the first dug out.
The whole thing would stop just for a few minutes while the empty cable truck pulled out and another took its place, tying the ends together to feed the splicing truck. Quite the operation. I think he said they were doing about 8 miles a day (each reel was 6000 or 16000 ft i forget). It was impressive.
When Americans decide to do something, like they do it BIG TIME. The only problem with traffic was the right lane was slow with gawkers…
When we got back to the camp, both our wives were totally pissed so we had to catch up. Two more Americans learn about Wiser’s Deluxe…
Then the internet wasn’t down, was it?
[quote=“MiG”]
Then the internet wasn’t down, was it?[/quote]
Well, obviously some services were still working.
[quote=“hoshq”]
Then the internet wasn’t down, was it?
Well, obviously some services were still working.[/quote]
Like the debit and credit machine in the store. It was working fine all day, while others were having big problems, and couldn’t make any transactions at all.
When the inter net goes down the Mail still gets delivered… Words from Keith…
Yeah, still gets delivered… albeit slowly. I’m sure it gets queued up somewhere waiting to get through.
Maybe Citytel’s e-mail server has a back-up line or a different network connection?
Didn’t we go through this before? When Citytel’s link was down in the past, people outside could still get to “http://www.citytel.net” or something? So I’m guessing Citytel has more than just that Telus connection to the outside world.
Well the important thing is, HTMF still worked all morning. 
Yeah, but it loaded really slowly because of the ads. I say down with the ads!!
yeah those ads can be a pain. My pages won’t load properly if the remote links are down. Rest of the page will store in squid cache.
[quote=“MiG”]Maybe Citytel’s e-mail server has a back-up line or a different network connection?
Didn’t we go through this before? When Citytel’s link was down in the past, people outside could still get to “http://www.citytel.net” or something? So I’m guessing Citytel has more than just that Telus connection to the outside world.[/quote]
At Rainbow Chrysler, our redundant satellite uplink was taken offline like two weeks ago. Maybe Citytel has a satellite connection or something?
Incase you were not aware… apparently there was an accident near Vanderhoof that knocked down a couple of important poles and supposively a tower as well. This contributed to Telus’ internet and cell phone service being out Thursday morning. All debit machines were also out all day. Not sure how this affects Citytel, but I assume it did. I just came across the real story:
Friday, May 21, 2004
[quote]Hit-and-run knocks out phone service
Prince George Citizen staff
The driver of a tractor-trailer is being investigated for a crash that knocked out telephone services to almost 11,000 Telus customers west of Prince George early Thursday.
The owner of the vehicle, which was carrying a button top loader at the time, contacted RCMP hours after the hit-and-run at the intersection of Highway 16 and the Bobtail Forest Service Road just after 2 a.m.
Service was restored to most customers by 12:30 p.m. Thursday. Residential, business, cellular and high-speed Internet services were affected by the crash, although some residents had telephone connections within their local area and others maintained Internet service. Cluculz Lake, the only affected community with 911 service, lost access to the system.
“(The outage) is very significant, especially when you’re dealing with so many communities,” said Telus spokesperson Karen Dosanjh.
The single-vehicle collision knocked down eight telephone poles and ripped out 800 metres of fibre cable, she said. She said the cables were repaired first so service could be restored as quickly as possible and the poles would be erected later.
Twelve communities from Cluculz Lake to Granisle west of Prince George, and southwest to Francois Lake were affected.
The loss of telephone service forced the Nechako Lakes school district, based in Vanderhoof, to use its bus radio system to communicate between schools outside the immediate area, said spokesperson Ernie Mannering. “Our major concern was if schools needed to access emergency services (for the ambulance),” he said. Schools were told to contact the local hospital or RCMP instead, he said, but in the end no emergency calls needed to be made.
Mannering said the district also had to use the radio system to dispatch on-call teachers, bus drivers and custodians. “Luckily it only lasted for a few hours so we didn’t have to go through that for very long,” he said. Service was restored to district schools by 1:15 p.m.
Tom Yates, community services director with the Fraser-Fort George Regional District, which operates the 911 service in the Prince George area including Cluculz Lake, said communities do have backup plans in case their emergency system is interrupted. But if the entire system is down, he said there’s not much that can be done. “(911 service) is totally married to the telephone network through all the switching etc.,” he said. “There’s still the ability for us to dispatch fire service and for the police to dispatch police service, because it’s a radio-based system” if they can be notified some other way, he added.
[/quote]
Citizen gets scooped by htmf!
[quote=“MiG”]Maybe Citytel’s e-mail server has a back-up line or a different network connection?
Didn’t we go through this before? When Citytel’s link was down in the past, people outside could still get to “http://www.citytel.net” or something? So I’m guessing Citytel has more than just that Telus connection to the outside world.[/quote]
All IPs that are 204.244.. are not Telus, it’s Navigata. Although I belive they use telus lines from terrace to Rupert. Citytel’s email, web and DNS server are on this line. It’s far more reliable than Telus, but being they have to use Telus lines into Rupert, they don’t have anywhere near the bandwidth. It’s possible that when Internet was first brought to Rupert, they were the only provider under a differnt name.
navigata ispart of saskatel, ex-westel - ex BC Rail ccts around here. they’re the guys providing backbone for the federal broadband initiative. that would explain why there was a trickle of internet as they own some microwave relays that were ex railway assetts.
In spite of my railing against Telus, i have to disagree. their backbone is better than any other I’ve ever tried. it’s just priced WAY out of line…
All the ccts here backfeed to PG. Even the new switchboards that use PRI lines were out, as were dialup lines here and in Vanderhoof. I don’t know what the newspaper was talking about unless uniserve in Vanderhoof uses an old fashioned modem bank.
Perhaps where you are, but here in Rupert, every time Telus has gone out in the last two years, with the exception of one occasion, my Navigata T1 has been just fine. It’s always been an issue WAY down the line too. Like just last week for example, the line went out in PG. A few months ago, it was Abbotsford that killed us.
how much$$ T1 here cost us $3800 mo. or more. Navigata has no more customers here & took down their tower…
I can’t say it’s my T1 anymore as I don’t work there anymore, but it was $400/mo for a 384k/bit line. Works out to be about 40Kb/sec. Dsl is faster, but the application we used it for required a T1. It was a FAR better price than everybody else.