NetEqualizer News Blog

Editor’s Note: We recently took a poll from our customer base consisting of thousands of NetEqualizer users. What follows are the top five most common causes  for disruption of Internet connectivity.

1) Congestion

Congestion is the most common cause for short Internet outages.  In general, a congestion outage is characterized by 10 seconds of uptime followed by approximately 30 seconds of chaos. During the chaotic episode, the circuit gridlocks to the point where you can’t load a Web page.  Just when you think the problem has cleared, it comes back. The cyclical nature of a congestion outage is due to the way browsers and humans retry on failed connections. During busy times usage surges and then backs off, but the relief is temporary.

Congestion related outages are especially acute at public libraries, hotels, residence halls and educational institutions.

2) Failed Link to Provider

If you have a business-critical Internet link, it’s a good idea to source service from multiple providers. Between construction work, thunderstorms, wind, and power problems, anything can happen to your link at almost any time. These types of outages are much more likely than internal equipment failures.

3) Service Provider Internet Speed Fluctuates

Not all DS3 lines are the same. We have seen many occasions where customers are just not getting their contracted rate 24/7 as promised.

4) Equipment Failure

Power surges are the most common cause for frying routers and switches. Therefore, make sure everything has surge and UPS protection. After power surges, the next most common failure is lockup from feature-overloaded equipment. Considering this, keep your configurations  as simple as possible.

5) Operator Error Mistake

Duplicating IP addresses, plugging wires into the wrong jack, and setting bad firewall rules are the leading operator errors reported.

Editor’s Note: If you commonly encounter issues that aren’t discussed here, feel free to fill us in in the comments section. For more information on disruption of service, take a look at the following articles: http://www.onecomputerguy.com/networking/troubleshoot_internet.htm.

http://technologizer.com/2008/08/11/eight-great-internet-outages/