Google, Wikipedia, etc down

For a couple of hours already. Looks like some DNS server or router is down. Can't access a number of addresses.

Anyone else experiencing the same?

Google.com, wikipedia.org, en.wikipedia.org all work for me.

Where are you, if you don't mind asking?

Must be my ISP then. I think you take the same Atlantic pipeline as I; UK-New York.
Thanks.

No problem.

I've had this error, it was always ISP related. If your ISP is as responsible as mine, you should be able to call the number and they will have a recorded message regarding this right away.

Thanks Sly. I phoned them then. It's already solved, thank goodness.

If all the big sites seem down, you can usually assume it's a problem on your end.

It was my guess too. But hate to call my ISP without knowing any details. They'll just say everything is fine, even though they know its not and might be in the process of fixing it, and I'll be left in the dark.

If instead the call goes like this:

- Hello, This is your customer number xxxx. I'm unable to access this and this addresses. A traceroute timeouts in your servers and I just got confirmation that outside your servers, the Portugal-UK link is active and the pipeline UK-US is too.

I'll be treated with more respect.

Really? My support calls of this kind are treated with incomprehension, because the first line of support are people with no technical knowledge, trained to run down a checklist that weeds out the customers with common problems.

Well, with my ISP I speak only of a technical problem and they pass me along to their tech staff. They have that on their favor.

Yah... I'm on the boat with CornedBee. I don't even bother trying to speak technical with my cable company. Last time I tried, I was asking what the RJ-45 port was used for on the back of my cable box (for television). After he asked around and could not discover what that was, I decided to say the "Ethernet port". Which he kept insisting that I meant "Internet port" and that Ethernet wasn't a word. Bear in mind, this was the "tech" guy on the phone center staff.

In all respect to the cable company, though, the in-house technicians are much more knowledgable.

I enjoy from a small ISP, I guess. It is really as I described; I make the call, say I have a technical problem and would like to speak with tech support and I'm redirected to someone who, until now, has been able to answer all my questions.

The service is not so good, however, for a few reasons. But have nothing to say against the folks on the other end of the line.

Three examples:

- I had this lady once patiently describing to me all about line atenuation, SN margins and rates, FEC, CRC and HEC errors, and output power. Around 30 minutes phone call.

- This once I was experiencing really depressing speeds, I had them doing this line test I forget the name, that took maybe 10 or 15 minutes to complete. And I didn't even ask.

- They filled themselves a complaint about my area poor phone service hoping it carries more weight.

I get this at least once a week, but sadly I know that it's just my wireless router pitching its guts up all over itself once again. Frustrating.