3 February 2008

The Reason we Have Crappy Internet

Today, I discovered a sad truth. A sad, sad truth.

We had an internet problem last week that left all of the Middle-East and parts of Asia with very slow internet access, if any at all. Turns out the problem was a ship with it's anchor down near Egypt managed to sever an internet cable.

Is that really all it takes to paralyse internet access for a whole continent? I was pretty sure it wasn't, and there was probably something else going on there. Anyhow, while joking about the whole situation a few days ago, I drew a little diagram of the world and how all the countries were connected to the internet. The Middle-East, however, had one single connection to the whole thing, and if cut, everyone would be internetless:

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Now this was supposed to be a joke; it's funny and all, yes, we're the only set of countries not really connected properly, ha ha, any sort of problem with one sole cable can screw us up, ha ha.

So while checking out Redbelt's page, I came across a diagram of how the world's internet underwater cables were connected, and man, was I in for a shock. We REALLY ARE connected by a single path. Bloody hell:

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That's pretty messed up, huh?

13 comments:

Bliss said...

*Shocked*
Aham shay the black lines in Asia! they're damaged :/
That's very messed up!!

Anonymous said...

interesting !!!

Anonymous said...

really ??
the picture was totally shrugged
why ?? asia isnt the hugest ?!!
thats so stupid

Missy said...

:@ I want my speed net back!

Anonymous said...

it didn't kill my internet connection =/

basameek Konan ok?

Anonymous said...

I thought a shark ate the wire; but was surprised it was because of a ship's anchor!

The connection is pretty Okay today :)

Anonymous said...

oh ... one path u say?! huh?! oooook, no, not really ok, but ... why?!!

*is speechless*

Nouph said...

a cabel? a single wire.. that's how were connected!!!

Shionge said...

Yes imagine all of us get 'crippled' as a result of internet downtime ;(

Luckily it didn't affect your handheld GPS kekekek...

Shwaish said...

yours looks prettier

Ammaro said...

oreo; yeah, can you f@#%$in believe it?

zainal; more like, dissapointing!

icon; it all cuz of bin laden!

missy; we all do! goddamit, load email, LOOOOAAAD!

outkasty; erm... why konan?

joel; its up and down... #@%^@$#...

moonlight; it aint ok at all!

fo0f; yeah! our only connection to the world

shionge; you got it over that far too?

la reine; akeed! :p

Anonymous said...

I find it weird that in less than a week there were 4 cuts in cables... Those 2 in Egypt (FLAG and SEA-ME-WE4), the FALCON link between UAE and Oman and last (but not least?) the link between the UAE and Qatar...

Redbelt said...

oh, kits 5 cuts by now. All leading towards Asia. Fishy, huh? A post and a poll about it is on my blog.
Sorry Ammar for giving you such a shock, but I thought you'd know better by now.
PS: Cheapness goes into everything, schools, sewerage systems, etc.