MAjor Computer outage Right Now!!!

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I'm in Memphis....Hertz computers down when I checked in....Delta computers down system wide.

Northwest Airlines also down.

AT&T Network unavailable also.

I hope I;'ll be able to get out today!

-- Duke1983 (Duke1983@aol.com), January 21, 2000

Answers

Anything on the local news about it Duke? Any way to verify the extent of whats going on?

-- Carl (clilly@goentre.com), January 21, 2000.

Darn squirrels again, gnawing on those wires, No?

-- snooze button (alarmclock_2000@yahoo.com), January 21, 2000.

Duke,

Now listen and listen tight...we need more detail or verification, but thanks for the heads up partner. =)

-- Dee (T1Colt556@aol.com), January 21, 2000.


Snooze.....can't be the squirrels, I just ran over the last known varmit in PA. RoadKill rules!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

-- gomer (gnomer@dot.com), January 21, 2000.

Went to Wachovis 11:30am, computers were down. Hampton VA.

-- Hokie (Hokie_@hotmail.com), January 21, 2000.


Checking in Duke. Any word yet?

-- Dee (T1Colt556@aol.com), January 21, 2000.

Ok, back in Marietta Ga, now. Here's the deal...

Went to the Hertz return lot in Memphis at the Airport at about 3:05pm cst. Drove my car up, and the return girl tells me that the computers are down. So I note my mileage on the contract, leave a fax number for them to fax me the receipt later.

I get on the bus to the terminal, wait a bit, and get to the terminal at about 3:25 for my 3:50 Delta flight to Atlanta. No problem, plenty 'o time. I walk in the terminal, and see a line like I've never seen before in Memphis at the counter; about 50 deep. Even the medalion/first class check in is 10 deep.

So even though I want to get myself activate for a first lass upgrade, I figure no way am I going to wait in that line, I'll miss my plane.

So I go straight to the gate, and see a line of about 75 people for my flight, but see no one at the counter. About 3:30 now, for a 3:50 flight, I look out the window, and see the equipment is at the gate.

So what's going on, I wonder. I figure I don't want to wait in that line, either, so I go to the crown room.

I get inside there, and am told all the computers are down, and that they are not boarding yet. I'm also told that they are going to try to process passengers manually.

I'm going to submit this post, and continue on another.....

-- Duke1983 (Duke1983@aol.com), January 21, 2000.


To continue....

I tell the guy behind the counter that the Hertz computers are down also, odd! Someone passing by tells me that the AT&T calling card he has is just getting him a "fast busy signal".

The Delta guy tries to reroute someone on Northwest, so they won't miss their connection, and he finds out their computers are also down!

Ends up, all the airlines at the airport (specifically geard American also, but also heard all airlines) were down, as was Hertz, at least.

People trying to dialout, depending on how they were doing it, were just getting fast busy signals.

I was able to dial in to my comany's server, and get my itinerary to print out, to prove that I have an e-ticket for my flight. Otherwise, how can I prove that I belong on the plane if they are processing manually? I started this thread real fast while on-line.

The computers came back up at about 4:10, and we ended up landing about 45 minutes late. I can't verify if the other airline computers also came back up. And no, I didn't get an upgrade...that's ok, though, it's a short flight.

Before we took off, of course over the PA they apologized for the delay, which they said was due to an AT&T feeder cable being cut.

After I landed, I called Delta's main number to see if they had information on why the flight was late. The reason listed in the computer was "due to congestion."

I told the rep of the computers being down, and he offered to check to see if they could get more info. I held for 4 minutes, he came back and said that after calling the airport in Memphis, all they could confirm to him was that they were down for about 1 hour, They didn't tell him anything about a cable being cut...

That's my story!

OBTW, I also asked the Delta rep why so many flights to Boston were being cancelled for weather reasons...After all, the snow went through yesterday. The report he saw was that it was due to high winds. Anyone in the Boston area able to confirm that???

-- Duke1983 (Duke1983@aol.com), January 21, 2000.


Now, as far as an AT&T cable being cut. Doesn't the technology these days allow for immediate re-routing via alternative paths? And don't most companies have redundant hot backup on alternative carriers in the event of an occurnce such as this?

I don't know if there was a cable cut, or if it was just conjecture. Any news sources on this anywhere? I haven't done a news search yet. Will start now.

On a personal note.....When I was going through this, I definitely started wondering how widespread is this. I wondered if I would get hom today, because, afterall, how can they send out planes full of people that they couldn't verify had paid for tickets.

I also was recalling that on this board, there were reports of AT&T haveing problems in Texas, I believe.

Yeah, breakdowns happen, of course, but in 15 years of business travel, I have never experienced anything like this. Coincidence? I seriously doubt it.

TEOTWAWKI? Of course not....but extend the outage for a day, or across a broader part of the country, and we are talking MAJOR disruption.

Anyone in Memphis have trouble using credit cards at stores during this same time period? Or ATM's????

-- Duke1983 (Duke1983@aol.com), January 21, 2000.


Duke,

Thank you so much for your posts. This is certainly curious. Glad everything is okay for you. Hope you can get some rest. Take care,

~Dee

-- Dee (T1Colt556@aol.com), January 21, 2000.



Yes you should be able to reroute, but having setup a few netowrks, I've come to find that the backup lines in most buildings go out the same physical steel pipe that the main lines do, so when you get a backhoe or something through the pipe, all lines get knocked out. Backup is really backup against electronics at a CO or switch from failing. Services in a building usually always go out from one location.

Stupid but that's the way it is in many places. Now you'd figure an airport would be designed a bit better, but from what you've just described it would seem not.

-- Interested Spectator (is@the_ring.side), January 21, 2000.


Thanks for the eye witness observations. Glad it all worked out for you.

Whatever the cause... lessons to learn.

Diane

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), January 21, 2000.


Interested Spectator,

The interesting thing about this event is that the Hertz lot is physically 2 or miore miles from the airport terminal. Would they both be using the same pipe?

And also, there is still no verificatio on the cause of the outage.

I did a news search on altavista and the AP site and got no hits for search terms:

memphis

outage

AT&T

Delta

Will this go unreported???

-- Duke1983 (Duke1983@aol.com), January 21, 2000.


Can verify the high winds in Boston causing a wind chill of -38F. Brrr! Glad you made it home.

-- HangingOnTight (windy@Boston.com), January 21, 2000.

Well it depends on the airport layout. If there only one real way into the airport and Hertz is down the same route then its likely all those services are running down the same road out to the world.

I don't know but you can generally assume when these places were built (20-30 years ago), no body checked with network engineers to have them look over the designs and like most old stuff out there you'd be amazed.

I recently read a report about the software in the Space Shuttle is laoded from tape by the pilots during orbit because the CPUs still use magnetic core memories and don't have the capcity to hold all of the software at one go. But the good thing is that they have only had 6 errors. Is this true, I don't know, but these days almost anything is possible.

-- Interested Spectator (is@the_ring.side), January 21, 2000.



Hmmm, don't know IS. Hertz isn't on the same road. Also, FedEx set up shop 26 years ago and has re-made what was the Memphis Airport infrastructure with TREMENDOUS growth over the last ten years, esp.

Alot of the airport is new. I'm still hoping we can get a news report on this!

-- Duke1983 (Duke1983@aol.com), January 21, 2000.


Duke,

I am working on researching the news end of this, but still have not found anything. I feel certain that something will turn up, but might now be until tomorrow.

-- Dee (T1Colt556@aol.com), January 22, 2000.


Okay...so far the only thing I've turned up are some private reports of phone problems in that area today...circuit busy signals. Will check back tomorrow...signing off.

-- Dee (T1Colt556@aol.com), January 22, 2000.

I called the local Memphis newspaper this morning to inquire about a story on this event. The man at the Metro desk knew nothing about it, but said they will look into it. The name of the paper is Commercial Appeal, or some such thing. I'll let you know if anything comes of it. Interesting, huh?

-- Duke1983 (Duke1983@aol.com), January 22, 2000.

Duke, Thanks for following up...I came up dry. Amazing...

Hope all is well for you. Appreciate the update.

-- Dee (T1Colt556@aol.com), January 23, 2000.


OK, I really want to know what was the cause of this event. I called The Commercial Appeal again this morning, and spoke to a Metro reporter - Richard Thompson.

He told me this was the first he'd heard of it, and thanked me for my call. I gave him my name and number, and asked him please to call me with any update.

The phone number for the newspaper is 901-529-2211. Please, anybody out there, if they get 2 or 3, or even 10 calls on this, they may do some legwork, and find out what happened.

Leave a post here if you plan to call, and follow up to let us know what came of it. Even some of you pollies out there. Care to do some de-bunking to prove the cause of this strange event? Or maybe see for yourself that this really happened?

-- Duke1983 (Duke1983@aol.com), January 24, 2000.


Any takers to call the news paper on this???

-- Duke1983 (Duke1983@aol.com), January 24, 2000.

Duke,

Thank you for the info.

-- Dee (T1Colt556@aol.com), January 24, 2000.


Did anyone out there call the Memphis newspaper today? A little pressure on the press might yeild some answers!

-- Duke1983 (Duke1983@aol.com), January 24, 2000.

Geeez.

Just talked to Richard Thompson againg. I asked if he'd made any headway. He told me he called the airport, and they didn't have anything in their records, but hae was still waiting to hear back.

I suggested he speak to the airlines station managers, that they would have information. Great investigative reporter, huh?

-- Duke1983 (Duke1983@aol.com), January 24, 2000.


I've just called the Delta people at the airport. I got them though calling the paging number @ 901-922-8241.

I talked to a Ron Davis, who said that he was told that "AT&T lost all long distance service out of Memphis" last Friday afternoon.

That's all the info he had. I called airport operations, and they didn't knnow anything about it. (Main number 901-922-8000). They suggested I call the power company. I explained that it wasn't a power problem, but potentially a telecommunications problem. He refered me to Billy Porter-Smith in telecommunications.

Billy had already left for the day. I will call her tomorrow.

I wish I had a number for AT&T operations in Memphis....

I'll see if I can come up with one.

-- Duke1983 (Duke1983@aol.com), January 24, 2000.


Duke,

Thanks for the real-time grass-roots news (all the networks are running is noise about grandmothers/Cuba/Elian...

-- sickofhay (karlacalif@aol.com), January 25, 2000.


Update to this story here:

Link to Update

-- Duke1983 (Duke1983@aol.com), January 25, 2000.


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