# Which Internet wire is broken today? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 2, 2010, 9:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-internet-wire-is-broken-today/552365 "2010-09-02T09:43:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2010, 9:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-internet-wire-is-broken-today/552365/1 "2010-09-02T09:43:03Z")
I’m using Internet from Thailand and can’t access several sites today, including Wikipedia and IdleMafia. There’s a [useful site](http://www.speedtest.net/) which shows me connected, at highish speeds, to several points in Europe and Asia, but not the points I tried in the Americas and Australia. This is not an emergency for me (though I may need to send PM via SDMB to Pleonast that I can’t help lynch in a Mafia game tonight! 🆒 ), but I _am_ curious. Another question: Why _can_ I access SDMB, NY Times, etc.? Do these sites have their own worldwide system which bypasses the normal Internet? ---
**Author:** ![Khendrask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3e96dc/32.png) [@Khendrask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khendrask)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2010, 11:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-internet-wire-is-broken-today/552365/2 "2010-09-02T11:50:39Z")
It is less common now-a-days then it used to be, but still a likely possibility that there is just a broken router or mis-configured router somewhere between you and the targets that you cannot hit. If you do a trace route between you and the broken targets, you might see that the path is caught in a loop, or just dies somewhere. ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2010, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-internet-wire-is-broken-today/552365/3 "2010-09-02T12:38:12Z")
IIRC there’s a fiber that runs from England around Africa and Asia, then across to the USA. It was a major story in Wired about 7 or 8 years ago, it sells internet to second-tier or nongovernmental service providers all over the world. If some fisherman has snagged that (again?) between you and Oregon then that might be the problem. ---
**Author:** ![standingwave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@standingwave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/standingwave)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2010, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-internet-wire-is-broken-today/552365/4 "2010-09-02T12:46:26Z")
Sometimes the [tubes](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Series_of_tubes) get clogged. ---
**Author:** ![phaemon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/977dab/32.png) [@phaemon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phaemon)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2010, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-internet-wire-is-broken-today/552365/5 "2010-09-02T13:08:57Z")
If you google “Internet backbone maps” you’ll be able to see that it’s quite complicated to guess and impossible for us to tell unless it made the news (unlikely unless it was a major link out for some time). If you really want to know, you could try asking your ISP. If they don’t know, you could try finding out who their IAP is and asking them. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2010, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-internet-wire-is-broken-today/552365/6 "2010-09-02T14:14:50Z")
> [@phaemon](#): > > If you google “Internet backbone maps” you’ll be able to see that it’s quite complicated to guess … Google works, but not most of the links it offers, including those in that query. Wikipedia is off-and-on right now (though I can always read a Wiki page by Googling for it and clicking “Cached”). Some sites (e.g. SDMB, NY Times) seem fine. I remembered how to spell “tracert” and did some experiments. Many sites show “Unable to resolve target system name.” Others connect, though after several slow hops and some timeouts. I’ll call ISP tomorrow if problem persists. With Google, Gmail, YouTube, [www.nytimes.com](http://www.nytimes.com), Google’s cache and SDMB all working, I don’t really need the rest of the 'Net anyway! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2010, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-internet-wire-is-broken-today/552365/7 "2010-09-02T15:23:29Z")
It almost sounds like you’re connecting to a wonky DNS server at your ISP, based on that “unable to resolve target name” error. To see if that’s the case… can you go to [www.apple.com](http://www.apple.com)? If not, what happens if you try to access 17.112.152.57? Either should take you to the same place, but if your DNS server’s down or unreachable, trying to go to [www.apple.com](http://www.apple.com) may result in errors. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2010, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-internet-wire-is-broken-today/552365/8 "2010-09-02T18:42:38Z")
> [@gotpasswords](#): > > It almost sounds like you’re connecting to a wonky DNS server at your ISP, based on that “unable to resolve target name” error. > > To see if that’s the case… can you go to [www.apple.com](http://www.apple.com)? If not, what happens if you try to access 17.112.152.57? Nice suggestion. But the result is inconclusive since _just when I was trying this experiment_ full connectivity seemed to return. It wasn’t all at once: Idlemafia started working 2 hours or so before other sites. I’ve heard vaguely about mischievous DNS-spoofing(?) or some such. I wonder if this could be what was happening. 😕 ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2010, 11:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-internet-wire-is-broken-today/552365/9 "2010-09-03T11:09:29Z")
I’d suggest learning the IP address of your most frequently used sites, and putting them in your hosts file–if this thing happens very often. Note that it won’t on places where multiple sites use the same IP. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2010, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-internet-wire-is-broken-today/552365/10 "2010-09-03T13:19:31Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > I’d suggest learning the IP address of your most frequently used sites, and putting them in your hosts file–if this thing happens very often. With Gmail, Google, Google’s cache and some major news sources all OK I have little problem; my interest is largely curiosity. It recovered completely last night, but then failed for several hours midday today (with SDMB also out). I see nothing about the problem via Google news, but found this in a Thailand forum: > [@](#): > > Many sites yesterday and the day before were the victim of DNS-rebind attacks, from where exactly this originated I have no information. Usually it would overload and reboot the routers. Several sites I know of with the same symptoms were in widely different areas - Kalasin, Korat, Bangkok, MapTha Phut. In most cases trapping and redirecting all DNS queries at the router and diverting them to a known safe DNS server, immediately stopped the problem in its tracks. There is usually a virus involved, which cannot easily be eliminated, running on the affected PC’s, set to prevent virus checkers from reporting anything. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2010, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-internet-wire-is-broken-today/552365/11 "2010-09-04T00:48:39Z")
Have not had any Net problems in Bangkok. ---
**Author:** ![ChrisBooth12](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e95f7d/32.png) [@ChrisBooth12](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ChrisBooth12)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2010, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-internet-wire-is-broken-today/552365/12 "2010-09-04T05:32:15Z")
12.34.56.78 IP address for your hosts file in a big DNS crash EDIT: hmm doesnt seem to work anymore. Anyways there used to be a very easy to remember IP that would have backup of major hosts files you could use. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2010, 8:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-internet-wire-is-broken-today/552365/13 "2010-09-04T08:37:21Z")
I’m very ignorant about DNS, etc. > [@ChrisBooth12](#): > > IP address for your hosts file in a big DNS … I’ve a simple laptop connected to ISP via modem. Does it resolve some hosts by itself, or leave all up to ISP? I could replace, say, “[apple.com](http://apple.com)” with the actual IP and bypass DNS ? But even so the href invocations from a page would get me, right? And what of hosted domains that don’t have their own IP? From the Thailand forum, where someone seemed to know what he was talking about: “There is usually a virus involved, which cannot easily be eliminated, running on the affected PC’s, set to prevent virus checkers from reporting anything”. Does “affected PC’s” refer to the name-servers used by my big government ISP? Or are they malicious machines spoofing as name-servers? I’m just curious about all this. My Internet is inessential; indeed outages are _good_ for me: more time to go swimming with my kids, read books, etc. ---
**Author:** ![\_Undecided\_Adrian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/_/eada6e/32.png) [@\_Undecided\_Adrian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/_Undecided_Adrian)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2010, 9:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-internet-wire-is-broken-today/552365/14 "2010-09-04T09:25:49Z")
If it’s a DNS problem, you should be able to use [OpenDNS](http://www.opendns.com/) or [Google Public DNS](http://code.google.com/intl/en/speed/public-dns/) instead of your ISP’s servers.