I couldn’t access the boards from about 2 PM to 2:30 PM Chicago time. I did a tracert from my machine and got this very odd result. It’s obvious it was a network problem, not the SDMB’s.
Tracing route to boards.straightdope.com [208.100.26.199]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
1 * * * Request timed out.
2 7 ms 7 ms * ge-1-37-ur01.chicago301.il.chicago.comcast.net [68.86.115.61]
3 8 ms 7 ms 7 ms 68.87.231.113
4 * * * Request timed out.
5 * * * Request timed out.
6 * * * Request timed out.
7 * * * Request timed out.
8 * * * Request timed out.
9 * * * Request timed out.
10 * * * Request timed out.
11 * 53 ms * 68.87.231.113
12 * * * Request timed out.
13 * * * Request timed out.
14 * * * Request timed out.
15 75 ms * * 68.87.231.113
16 * * * Request timed out.
17 * * * Request timed out.
18 * * * Request timed out.
19 * * * Request timed out.
20 * * * Request timed out.
21 * * * Request timed out.
22 * * * Request timed out.
23 * * * Request timed out.
24 * * * Request timed out.
25 * * * Request timed out.
26 * * * Request timed out.
27 * * * Request timed out.
28 * * * Request timed out.
29 * * * Request timed out.
30 166 ms * * be-30-ar01.indianapolis.in.indiana.comcast.net [68.87.231.114]
Trace complete.
I was also getting very poor response from Gmail and Yahoo. Here’s a tracert to Gmail. There are obvious problems starting at hop 11:
Tracing route to gmail.l.google.com [72.14.223.107]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
1 * * * Request timed out.
2 * 7 ms 19 ms ge-1-37-ur01.chicago301.il.chicago.comcast.net [68.86.115.61]
3 8 ms 9 ms 9 ms 68.87.231.113
4 * * * Request timed out.
5 22 ms 20 ms 21 ms pos-0-0-0-0-cr01.indianapolis.in.ibone.comcast.net [68.86.85.58]
6 19 ms 18 ms 18 ms pos-0-8-0-0-cr01.chicago.il.ibone.comcast.net [68.86.85.113]
7 62 ms 54 ms 45 ms te-0-4-0-1-cr01.miami.fl.ibone.comcast.net [68.86.91.73]
8 44 ms 45 ms 49 ms te-0-7-0-0-cr01.atlanta.ga.ibone.comcast.net [68.86.84.69]
9 60 ms 59 ms 59 ms te-0-0-0-0-cr01.stratford.tx.ibone.comcast.net [68.86.84.54]
10 76 ms 74 ms 74 ms 208.174.196.254
11 * 295 ms * pr2-ge-3-0-0-298.losangelesequinix.savvis.net [208.174.196.253]
12 300 ms 300 ms * cr2-loopback.lay.savvis.net [208.172.34.71]
13 297 ms 296 ms * ber1-tenge-3-1.losangeles.savvis.net [204.70.193.50]
14 300 ms 302 ms 301 ms 208.173.57.66
15 299 ms 299 ms 299 ms 216.239.43.144
16 316 ms 306 ms 316 ms 72.14.239.13
17 308 ms 298 ms * 64.233.174.81
18 315 ms * 338 ms 209.85.130.23
19 309 ms 329 ms 330 ms 209.85.252.166
20 330 ms * * 72.14.238.233
21 302 ms 302 ms 302 ms ar-in-f107.google.com [72.14.223.107]
Trace complete.
I also did tracerts to Gmail and the SDMB from a website I could get to, and there were no similar problems. (In fact, when there are persistent response problems from the SDMB, I always do tracerts, and network problems are so rare I can’t remember any.)
Also, the BBC website loaded fine. A tracert from my machine to it showed it left the Comcast network after only 2 or 3 hops, so I guess that means that route avoided the problem.
Any speculation as to what happened?