Internet2 Taken Out by Stray Cigarette

AlHunt writes "A fire started by a homeless man knocked out service between Boston and New York on the experimental Internet2 network Tuesday night. Authorities say the fire, which also disrupted service on the Red Line subway, started around 8:20 p.m. when a homeless man tossed a lit cigarette. The cigarette landed on a mattress, which ignited and led to a two-alarm fire."

An MIT student's take

[Jazzer_Techie]

It apparently also knocked out normal service to MIT students living on the Boston side of the Charles. One of my friends called me around 9:20PM (an hour after the fire started) to see if my internet connection was down. Fortunately, I live on the Cambridge side (with the main campus) so I wasn't affected. Here's what MIT IS&T had to say.

--
Wed, May 2nd:
Internet2 Service has been restored.
We have re-routed our connectivity to the Verizon TLS service, so all ILG's should be back in service as of 01:47AM this morning.

Tue, May 1st, 2007:
There was a fire earlier this evening under the Longfellow Bridge, on the Boston side of the river. This fire appears to have destroyed electrical and communications conduits that run over the Longfellow, including fiber used by MIT and other Boston area institutions to connect to Internet2.

MIT and other New England Schools are currently disconnected from Internet2. Traffic to Internet2 institutions is being routed via the Commodity Internet, but performance may be less then normal experienced.
--
They got things back going again in less than 6 hours, even though it started in the evening. Not too shabby.

Re:reliability?

[dread]

The Internet was designed originally as a means of communication in the event of nuclear war.

No it WASN'T. It was certainly financed through DoD but go read a book on the subject instead of talking out of your ass. Where wizards stay up late is recommended, nay required reading.

Re:Level3?

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't know if you're trying to be funny but I'll presume not. Level 3 is a backbone ISP - www.level3.com

Re:Geek priorities...

[vancbc]

Take it easy, nobody died, as well there is no structural damage.

Re:G0d@|\/|N smokers!

[zakezuke]

You know cigarette smokers somehow think that flicking their butts isn't littering. It pisses me off to no end. HEY SMOKERS, YEH YOU! Put them out and then throw those butts in the trash, pathetic litterbugs. It's bad enough we have to smell your stink, we shouldn't have to look at your trash strewn all over the place.

Well, the problem is in daylight it's hard to actually tell if all the ambers are 100% out, and just throwing them in the trash can result in a fire. Hell, not being careful with an ashtray can lead to a fire.

Re:G0d@|\/|N smokers!

[Grimbleton]

I hate getting them flicked deliberately out windows when I'm behind someone on my motorcycle. They look, wave, and flick. Wtf?