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Bullet takes out Internet services?

Posted: Tue Jan 02, 2018 3:02 pm
by rimfireOH
Yesterday and this morning Everstream, a local ISP, had the following text up on their support page, explaining why some of their customers were experiencing Internet outages since Sunday night.
Network Alerts
We are currently experiencing a network outage in Ohio due to a cut fiber line that was caused by a gun shot from New Years celebrations. This outage does not effect all services. Our NOC engineers are working to restore service as quickly as possible. This message will be updated once service is restored. Thank you for your patience.
That prompted several long discussions at work this morning about the terminal velocity of a 9mm round and how likely/unlikely this outage was actually caused by a stray celebratory round.

Re: Bullet takes out Internet services?

Posted: Tue Jan 02, 2018 3:14 pm
by djthomas
Well they also don't know the difference between affect and effect so the specifics of the situation (as reported) might be a bit ambiguous.

Re: Bullet takes out Internet services?

Posted: Tue Jan 02, 2018 3:25 pm
by sodbuster95
rimfireOH wrote:Yesterday and this morning Everstream, a local ISP, had the following text up on their support page, explaining why some of their customers were experiencing Internet outages since Sunday night.
Network Alerts
We are currently experiencing a network outage in Ohio due to a cut fiber line that was caused by a gun shot from New Years celebrations. This outage does not effect all services. Our NOC engineers are working to restore service as quickly as possible. This message will be updated once service is restored. Thank you for your patience.
That prompted several long discussions at work this morning about the terminal velocity of a 9mm round and how likely/unlikely this outage was actually caused by a stray celebratory round.
Of course, the argument regarding terminal velocity presumes that the fibre was cut while the bullet was on the way down. It's possible this was not a single fibre line but, instead, a fibre hub installed on a pole or the side of a building. A discharged round either on the way up or on a flat trajectory would certainly be enough to damage one (or several) cables. While fibre is relatively durable while installed, it is also relatively fragile and can be damaged just by pulling it wrong during installation. Once the glass tube inside that cable is damaged, the cable is worthless.

Re: Bullet takes out Internet services?

Posted: Tue Jan 02, 2018 10:13 pm
by Bruenor
Have an old neighbor in Cleveland that worked for (Cablevision/Time Warner/Spectrum) , and repairing lines from celebratory gunfire is indeed a thing, and usually in the best of neighborhoods if you know what I mean. Not a job they looked forward to being called out for.