Internet crash

[SteviegtrParticipant @steviegtr]

Next door neighbour is man director of a large glass company in Essex. From next monday all there meetings are going to be done from home with conference calling. I don't know what kind of band width is needed for that to work.

Steve.

[Stuart BridgerParticipant @stuartbridger82290]

I work for a software company with offices on the East and West coast of the US, Milan and Belgrade, plus a large number of home working staff. As of today, all offices are closed and we are all working from home, I am home based in the UK. For reasons of team morale we are being encouraged to have video enabled on all web conferencing. This obviously increases bandwidth demands. I haven't noticed any form of slowdown, or even thought about it.

[not done it yetParticipant @notdoneityet]

My daughter is now working from home on, I think, a two week rolling rota (not sure if it is two weeks at home or alternate weeks). Child care for a 17 month-old is still a problem to resolve.

Her partner rarely goes to “the office” so works from home most of the time. He works on the computer security side of banking, but she runs a development section at a major processed food manufacturer. She is not over-enthusiastic that the system is completely appropriate for her working operations, but is just taking it as it comes. She says it is better to be as safe as possible.

My wife, who is in a hotel at Crewe this week, is about to give up on a trip to see her daughter and granddaughter in Scotland. Hopefully they will not lose all the hotel bookings they have made for a weekend in Edinburgh. But better to take the monetary hit than catch/spread the virus. Cancelled theatre ticket costs were at least insured.

SiL has not yet ’officially’ given up on visiting from Canada, but that is basically dead in the water now. Only issue is recovery of air-line ticket monies. Transferring flights to later in the year might seem a good idea – but will the air-line still be operating then?😕 Same with wife‘s and her daughter’s hotel bookings.

[SteviegtrParticipant @steviegtr]

Partners sister stuck in Tenerife. Told to stay indoors all week. Struggling to find a flight home. Seems Ryanair are still going there.

Guy next door, his mother is stuck in Mexico with no sign of getting home.

We have lost our holiday with Jet 2 to Tenerife on the 2nd April. Hope to get money back but mnn on that one.

Travelling abroad a total no no. Travelling around the uk going to maybe get tough. It is a suck it & see situation at the moment. One thing that helps is if someone can work from home then at least they still have a job. My son (Electrician) looks after the Aldi stores, they have even cut his hrs back.???. Daughter in law a teachers aid & teaches swimming on an evening. That is ending so no income there.

It is not bad for us retired & decrepit old uns but the working population are not so fortunate.

Steve.

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

Posted by Steviegtr on 17/03/2020 23:37:10:

teaches swimming on an evening.

You'd think being dunked in dilute bleach would be quite a safe option at the moment.

Turning the video on during conferencing gets old quickly – only our VP does being a millennial.

If you can't live without video Netfix and probably amazoom have adaptive rate so compensate for congestion and poor speed because they are designed to get the picture out and hence the revenue in whatever the connection in deepest jungle or up Everest.

 

Edited By Bazyle on 18/03/2020 00:36:16

[Enough!Participant @enough]

Posted by not done it yet on 17/03/2020 23:23:46:

SiL has not yet ’officially’ given up on visiting from Canada, but that is basically dead in the water now. Only issue is recovery of air-line ticket monies.

Since we're on Federal Government imposed lockdown here (no one in or out … except USA), I wouldn't think getting the ticket money back ought to be a problem.

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Steve attracted some rather ‘assertive’ comments on this thread [nudging towards ridicule and abuse], but this morning’s BBC News feed includes this:

[quote]

The European Union has called on Netflix and YouTube to limit their services because of fears the continent's broadband networks could crash, according to the Financial Times. There are worries that domestic broadband connections which were designed to cope with evening surges could not handle adults' video conferences and children's online classes.
[/quote]

I can contribute no informed opinion, I am simply presenting a fact.

MichaelG.

[Cornish JackParticipant @cornishjack]

"because of fears"

Says it all, really

rgds

Bill

[OldironParticipant @oldiron]

Posted by Martin W on 17/03/2020 19:27:42:

In view of the above comments regarding potential internet speed problems I decided to run a speed test. I don't think my connection speed had varied much as it is still running at it's normal pedestrian rates of 216 Mbps download and a miserly upload speed 20 Mbps. I will keep a close eye on it and flag up any significant changes regarding the speed thereof.

Martin

Almost the same as I am getting this morning Martin. 218.19 / 23.85

My wife was off to Las Vegas on Friday. Booked tickets direct with Virgin. Has been told tickets can be on hold for 12 months or a refund whatever she decides.

[larry phelan 1Participant @larryphelan1]

I agree with N-D-I-Y, so what if it packs up or the Telly goes belly-up [might be a good idea, in fact ]

There are loads of other things to do, you might be surprised. Last time I bothered with Telly was about two years ago, nothing seems to have changed much.

Now if the beer runs out ?????? That might be a different matter !

[SillyOldDufferModerator @sillyoldduffer]

Posted by Michael Gilligan on 19/03/2020 07:38:35:

…

The European Union has called on Netflix and YouTube to limit their services because of fears the continent's broadband networks could crash, according to the Financial Times. There are worries that domestic broadband connections which were designed to cope with evening surges could not handle adults' video conferences and children's online classes.

…

Michael's link takes me to an eye-catching headline and an invitation to subscribe to the Financial Times before being allowed to read the article in full.

So I called on DuckDUckGo and turned up this report on the same issue on this US website (DNyus). Although there are some issues, notably in Spain, it appears mobile phone networks have been stressed rather than the internet. Read it in full for concerns and examples, but note the internet has held up in countries in front of the UK. In Italy, full lock down increased domestic internet traffic by 75% without breaking the network.

Video streaming of high-definition entertainment is much more network intensive than video-conferencing and video phone calls. I'd guess entertainment usage is self regulating – films that buffer badly are unwatchable and likely to be abandoned by the watcher.

Don't bet the farm on a major internet outage. Instean plan to pelt Steve as per his kind offer of the 17th: 'If or when it comes to a lockdown then I will stand by what I said. If not I will post out bags of rotten tomatoes to throw at me.'

Now there's a lock-down project – how about a steam powered, Arduino controlled, laser-guided, fully automatic tomato throwing machine?

Dave

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

We have some stocks near me. Not stocks of tomatoes just stocks. I'm wondering if when they were in common use as a punishment tomatoes were a common produce in the UK. Also eggs were much rarer and precious back in the day before battery hens.

Any way the bit "broadband connections which were designed to cope with evening surges" is journalistic rubbish. It's not like we turn off half the equipment during the day. There are some occasional problems if daytime maintenance work has to disconnect something for a while bit like roadworks but it's not a design feature. Apart from a few inner city areas most places have a lot of spare capacity.

Oh I should mention if you are having problems in you house check that it is not your wifi. A very high proportion of our call centre calls are actually a wifi problem in the house because they are trying to use devices in far flung bedrooms and the like. When you are at a distance from your modem the wifi has to use a less compact form of transmission which reduces the total capacity available. Tell the kids to come down to the living room. If you can see your neighbour's wifi network name then that means they may also be using some of the airwaves capacity.

[SteviegtrParticipant @steviegtr]

Don't bet the farm on a major internet outage. Instean plan to pelt Steve as per his kind offer of the 17th: 'If or when it comes to a lockdown then I will stand by what I said. If not I will post out bags of rotten tomatoes to throw at me.'

Now there's a lock-down project – how about a steam powered, Arduino controlled, laser-guided, fully automatic tomato throwing machine?

Dave

I'm listening.

Steve.

[Swarf, Mostly!Participant @swarfmostly]

Posted by Bazyle on 18/03/2020 00:25:10:

Posted by Steviegtr on 17/03/2020 23:37:10:

teaches swimming on an evening.

You'd think being dunked in dilute bleach would be quite a safe option at the moment.

SNIP

Edited By Bazyle on 18/03/2020 00:36:16

In my younger years I used to spend a lot of time in swimming pools. In the process I had some contact with Pool Managers and technical staff.

'Oh, no, it's not chlorine that stings your eyes, it's too low a concentration. It's the ammonia that stings your eyes.'

'Why do you put ammonia in the water?'

'We don't – it's the swimmers that put the ammonia in!'.

I underatand that the modern technique is either to irradiate the water with ultra-violet light or else to inject ozone.

For reasons that have nothing to do with water treatment chemistry, I don't swim these days.

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

I honestly don't know what you lot use this superfast broadband for.. my connection is 2.8Mbps, and although it won't stream a HD movie I can still watch the rugby or Dr Who OK.

10 Mbps would be nice for downloading software and the like, but does anyone really need 200 Mbps at the current state of tech?

Neil

P.S. Yes I WILL be demanding 10Mbps when the USO comes into play tomorrow.

Edited By Neil Wyatt on 19/03/2020 13:34:33

[SteviegtrParticipant @steviegtr]

Well we have a supposedly 35mb guarantee. But that is debatable. I love the formula 1 & anything engine. WE have the sky package with 4k for the motor racing. I record it all both on H.D & U.H.D. at the same time. The reason is we have had occasion when one has gone down, so missing it. My missus records lots of series. This is all done from the home wifi. On top of that I have this P.C, then she has a phone of which she never puts down, facebook etc. Looks like I will not need the high speed for a while. Most sports are cancelled.

Steve.

[GeorgineerParticipant @georgineer]

Posted by Michael Gilligan on 19/03/2020 07:38:35:

Steve attracted some rather ‘assertive’ comments on this thread [nudging towards ridicule and abuse], ..

I was irritated by the fact that the headline "Internet Crash" (which looked like something important that I should know about) didn't match the opening post of the thread (which was all rumour and supposition, of which we have more than enough at present).

Many commercial websites are littered with what are called 'clickbait' headlines and are rightly held up to ridicule. In this case I plead guilty as charged concerning nudging toward ridicule, but not guilty of abuse. In mitigation I would put forward the fact that I have had a hard life, and am now metamorphosing into a grumpy old man. I await sentencing.

George B.

[Enough!Participant @enough]

Posted by Neil Wyatt on 19/03/2020 13:33:34:

10 Mbps would be nice for downloading software and the like, but does anyone really need 200 Mbps at the current state of tech?

Per person using the connection? – probably not.

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Apparently Jersey has made gigabit internet available for everyone today >boggle<

Neil

[Alan VosParticipant @alanvos39612]

I am the IT department for my employer, I have spent most of the week scurrying around to arrange working-from-home for people who were not expecting to need it. There are some hardware shortages. Internet bandwidth is not proving to be a problem. To paraphrase the Openreach representative interviewed on Radio 4 a few days ago, leisure time use of Netfiix etc is what creates the heavy load, home working is easy to handle.

Instead of the usual 5 or so VPN clients, today I had aounrd 30.. No performance issues reported. The 100Mbps internet connection remained mostly close to idle, just the usual brief peaks when somebody or something moves a large lump of data.

Earlier in the week there were signs of stress on business services such as Microsoft Teams. These will not affect domestic internet connections.

[Dave HalfordParticipant @davehalford22513]

Posted by Georgineer on 19/03/2020 15:31:14:

Posted by Michael Gilligan on 19/03/2020 07:38:35:

Steve attracted some rather ‘assertive’ comments on this thread [nudging towards ridicule and abuse], ..

I was irritated by the fact that the headline "Internet Crash" (which looked like something important that I should know about) didn't match the opening post of the thread (which was all rumour and supposition, of which we have more than enough at present).

Many commercial websites are littered with what are called 'clickbait' headlines and are rightly held up to ridicule. In this case I plead guilty as charged concerning nudging toward ridicule, but not guilty of abuse. In mitigation I would put forward the fact that I have had a hard life, and am now metamorphosing into a grumpy old man. I await sentencing.

George B.

Oddly I don't react much to contrived jeopardy, I get enough on the news.

[GeorgineerParticipant @georgineer]

Posted by Dave Halford on 20/03/2020 10:53:14:

Oddly I don't react much to contrived jeopardy, I get enough on the news.

I get more than enough on the news, Dave. Perhaps it was finding it here where I had sought refuge that sparked me up.

George B.

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

No need to panic over the initial topic of this thread. Although traffic is up during the day due to home working it is still below daily network peaks from pre-lockdown and oddly evening traffic is actually down owing to the bandwidth reduction by Netfix.

Just a reminder that if you are having problems first check that you are in wireless range as that is still the biggest issue and with about 30 million extra devices in use at home round the country the chances of interference from your kids or neighbour's phone is highly likely. (figure is my extrapolation of excusive data available to me) Next best solution is to turn it off and on again. Sometimes the order in which you do this makes a difference.

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