It’s a question that all too many users have asked: Is the Internet down? As many as 1,900 a month type that question into Google’s search engine. It is, of course, an absurd question.
It’s a question that all too many users have asked: Is the Internet down? As many as 1,900 a month type that question into Google’s search engine. It is, of course, an absurd question.
It’s a particularly absurd question to be typing into a Web browser that is currently connected to said Internet and accessing a search engine.
Imagine if it weren’t an absurd question – if all of us were connected to a single, monolithic entity called the Internet, and when someone trips over the power cord every computer screen and mobile device around the world goes black. Or blue, like a Blue Screen of Death?
The Internet, for all its faults, is pretty resilient. Parts of it may slow down. Parts of it may go dark. Maybe your part – so, for all you know, the Internet is, for all practical purposes, down. But routing around failures is one of the strengths of the Internet and one we should all be thankful for.
If you want a somewhat more specific answer to the question of whether the Internet is up or down, you can go to Internet Traffic Report, which monitors traffic around the world, displays average response times and packet loss, and then grades the speed and reliability of connections on a scale from zero to 100. The site is updated every 5 minutes.
A very specialized site lets you know whether a site is reachable from other locations, or if it’s just you. It is, of course, called “Down for everyone or just me?” People were passing this link around last week when Bank of America’s site was down.
You also have some control. If you go here, you can safely turn off the Internet at any time with the push of a button.
