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INTERNET WOES COME FROM MORE THAN ONE SOURCE by Shaun A. Pennington If you have had trouble accessing the Internet recently, there are lots of reasons why, and the recent attacks on national websites by hackers aren't helping, according to local Internet maven Gordon Ackley. A combination of an insufficient number of phone lines, information highway traffic jams as a result in part of the attacks this week, exponential growth of Internet traffic and normal technical problems have all converged, resulting in limited Internet access for many Virgin Islanders. "We have 100 lines that should be installed any minute," Ackley said, explaining why so many people have been waiting, sometimes for hours, to get on-line. "Vitelco is processing the order," Ackley said. No one could have predicted the growth of the Internet, Ackley said, noting, "The Internet as a whole is doubling every 90 to 120 days." And with the recent attacks on e-commerce sites, portals and news publications, the problem has been exacerbated dramatically. Ackley explained that every time an Internet user requests a site, a "packet" is sent. When the site cannot be accessed, as happened this week with several popular websites such as ebay and amazon.com , the user "clicks" again, sending another "packet." When the site finally does respond it sends back an equal number of "packets," creating a massive logjam. On top of all of this, when normal phone lines on the U.S. mainland fail, it affects the whole system  dramatically slowing down the process. A long distance carrier's curcuit in Vero Beach, Fla., experienced problems Wednesday night. It is a line used by local Internet Service Provider VI Access to route traffic from the Virgin Islands to sites elsewhere. "We've been working on it since 7 p.m. last night (Wednesday)," Ackley said. He said he hoped the problem would be solved sometime Thursday. As far as the hackers are concerned, Ackley said one person can write a program that with one single command can attack an e-company. Theoretically, according to Ackley, one person could start a chain reaction that could take down the entire Internet. VIAccess provides a page on its website that tracks the status of lines in and out of the V.I. To check that page click here or go to www.viacess.net and under the members heading, click on "bandwidth status."

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-- Dee (T1Colt556@aol.com), February 14, 2000

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INTERNET WOES COME FROM MORE THAN ONE SOURCE by Shaun A. Pennington If you have had trouble accessing the Internet recently, there are lots of reasons why, and the recent attacks on national websites by hackers aren't helping, according to local Internet maven Gordon Ackley.

A combination of an insufficient number of phone lines, information highway traffic jams as a result in part of the attacks this week, exponential growth of Internet traffic and normal technical problems have all converged, resulting in limited Internet access for many Virgin Islanders. "We have 100 lines that should be installed any minute," Ackley said, explaining why so many people have been waiting, sometimes for hours, to get on-line. "Vitelco is processing the order," Ackley said. No one could have predicted the growth of the Internet, Ackley said, noting, "The Internet as a whole is doubling every 90 to 120 days." And with the recent attacks on e- commerce sites, portals and news publications, the problem has been exacerbated dramatically.

Ackley explained that every time an Internet user requests a site, a "packet" is sent. When the site cannot be accessed, as happened this week with several popular websites such as ebay and amazon.com , the user "clicks" again, sending another "packet." When the site finally does respond it sends back an equal number of "packets," creating a massive logjam.

On top of all of this, when normal phone lines on the U.S. mainland fail, it affects the whole system  dramatically slowing down the process. A long distance carrier's curcuit in Vero Beach, Fla., experienced problems Wednesday night. It is a line used by local Internet Service Provider VI Access to route traffic from the Virgin Islands to sites elsewhere.

"We've been working on it since 7 p.m. last night (Wednesday)," Ackley said. He said he hoped the problem would be solved sometime Thursday. As far as the hackers are concerned, Ackley said one person can write a program that with one single command can attack an e- company. Theoretically, according to Ackley, one person could start a chain reaction that could take down the entire Internet.

VIAccess provides a page on its website that tracks the status of lines in and out of the V.I. To check that page click here or go to www.viacess.net and under the members heading, click on "bandwidth status."

==========================================

-- Dee (T1Colt556@aol.com), February 14, 2000.