Netcom Outage (Was: My InfoWorld Column About NANOG)

Sat Jun 22 01:39:35 UTC 1996

> Was this a foreshock of the coming Metcalfean Big One

I'm having trouble perceiving what the big deal is in all this.  It's
not like this sort of thing hasn't happened before.  An event those
who were present and sentient in late 1965 may remember was when a
smallish failure on the power grid in southeastern Canada caused a
cascading collapse that took out power throughout the northeastern US. 

Those who, like me, can remember their telephone number being extended
from 3 digits to 4 will find nothing new in dire predictions of the
large scale collapse of a communications network.  It wasn't just
predicted, it happened - repeatedly.  The telephone network did not
sprout from scratch as a multiply-redundant mesh with backup
everything.  It grew into one, with plenty of 'events' along the way
to propel that process forward.

These events happen, and they will happen on the Internet.  They are
not apocalypses; life goes on, perhaps with some minor readjustments
in incomes.  The Internet can be put back together when it breaks.

Certainly on NANOG it is worth lively discussion of how to minimize
and recover from such events, but I see little of that in this thread.
Of course, now I'm guilty too, so I'll shut up and go back to lurking.

--
Dick St.Peters,       Gatekeeper, Pearly Gateway, Ballston Spa, NY
stpeters at NetHeaven.com     Owner, NetHeaven 518-885-1295/800-910-6671
Internet for Albany/Saratoga, Glens Falls, North Creek, & Lake Placid
	  First Internet service based in the 518 area code