Problems with Internet provider leave students without Internet for eight hours
(The Beacon)
By Sarah Hansell, Staff Writer -- hansell14@up.edu
Last Saturday, UP lost Internet service for about eight hours due to service issues with its Internet provider.
"We haven't seen anything like this in the past two years," Web and Administration Systems Director Jenny Walsh said.
From midday to late Saturday night, no one on campus was able to access UP's Internet server from campus computers, personal laptops or cell phones.
"The Internet has become part of our daily lives and even a few hours without it alters your plans," sophomore Sam Schelfhout said.
The Portland facility of UP's Internet provider, Integra, lost Internet service on Saturday because of a power inverter in an aggregation router, according to Network Engineer Thomas Ank. This resulted in a dead power supply and was replaced.
Internet service went out at 2:15 p.m. and was restored around 7:30 p.m., but went down again at 9:10 p.m. when a line card in the same router failed. After the card was replaced at 11:30 p.m., UP went back online.
"Everything on campus was up and fully functional, it's just we weren't getting Internet connection," Walsh said.
Other customers of Integra, including Willamette University, were also affected by the Internet outage, according to Walsh.
Because the problem was with UP's provider, Web and Administrative Systems was limited in what it could do to find a solution.
"The thing we could do is call Integra and keep them accountable for solving the issue," Walsh said.
However, Ank assisted Integra in discovering the root of the problem.
"(Ank) was basically, through his information, helping Integra diagnose their issue," Walsh said. "That's not his job, but he's just that kind of guy."
The lack of Internet on the weekend, however, saved some students from distractions.
"I had nothing to distract me," sophomore Jonathan Cruz said. "It was like being a caveman again and getting down to business."
The outage gave UP the chance to test drive its alert system. Students who were signed up for text message alerts received text messages informing them of the outage.
"Even though it wasn't like the biggest issue, it was a good way to test if it was actually effective," Schelfhout said about the text alerts. "It's the quickest way to let us know."
"Hopefully, it'll motivate some folks to go ahead and complete the information," Walsh said about students who are not signed up for text message alerts.
Web and Administrative Systems is communicating with Integra in order to ensure a similar problem will not happen in the future.
"We're working with them to get their assurance that they are taking the steps they need to so this length of outage won't occur," Walsh said.
