Internet Outage: Reports of Internet Problems in Midwest and California Propel Users to Check Internet Status

As of 4 p.m. Thursday, Internet outages have been reported from various locations in the U.S. over the last several hours, both seen in Twitter and in Google Trends. With recent concerns over Google Trends spam, the validity was initially in question. Yet, several individuals at DSL Reports have noted problems in Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri and other Midwestern states.

Some domains originating in California have websites with apparent Internet problems, at least as experienced in Arkansas. Among websites that were encountered with sporadic Internet connections, Internet outages or Internet problems are not limited to:

PriceGrabber: Los Angeles, California

BizRate: Los Angeles, California which earlier could not be reached with the message"[whois.tucows.com] IP Address: 128.121.95.55 Maximum Daily connection limit reached. Lookup refused."

NexTag: Sateo, Calfornia

News.com.au: San Francisco, California

Selected at random, the extent of the so-called Internet outage and problems at this time is unknown, however, the Internet status report at Keynote (internetpulse.net) includes both warning level and critical latency periods over the prior four hours for a number of Internet Service Providers (ISPs).

Internet provider SBC appeared to function normally yet is among the Internet providers with higher search traffic concerning California. However, customers of any Internet service provider may have experienced connection difficulty if they visited affected routes or websites.

Internet Outage or Internet Connection Problem?

So what should be done when seeming Internet outages and connection problems strike? If there is an apparent Internet connection or WiFi signal, but webpages do not display or e-mail does not function, the first thing to do is to verify that the Internet outage is not on the user's end.

Sometimes what appears as an Internet outage may be spyware related. (See the HijackThis Tutorial to isolate and fix spyware problems) Alternatively, Internet problems may be a run-of- the-mill ISP issues. One way to check broadband speeds and function is to visit dslreports.com (See DSL Speed video).

Internet Outage Status

Today's Internet problems seems to be resolving and appears isolated. Yet, significant Internet status problems occurred enough to warrant an above average inquiry. Given the potential loss of productivity and finances when Internet outages occur, it is best for users to become familiar with Internet connection problems, evaluating ISP and Internet status and how to remedy connection problems that may occur on the user end.

Sources:

Keynote Internet Status
(http://internetpulse.net)
DSL Reports
(http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20808423
Whois.net, Networksolutions.com
Summize.com
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