Hargray customers suffer multi-day Internet outage (update: what happened)

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Mid-morning update, what happend: I just got off the phone with Andrew Rein, a Hargray vice president of sales and marketing.

What led to the outage was a software failure in a critical Internet routing piece of hardware the translates site names, like http://google.com, into their numeric addresses, like 66.102.7.104.

That piece of hardware started suffering intermittent issues over the weekend leading to an impaired service for many customers but one that would occasionally work (and this is why you may have had to restart your modem many times.) Then on mid-day Monday that piece totally failed and resulted in downtime until about 8:45 p.m. when the software was fixed and the company could once again route Internet traffic. 

First reporting: First off, lets establish what the lucky Internet users in Beaufort County heard about, and the unlucky with Hargray Internet service suffered through: The regional company experienced a major Internet outage.

What's below is just a recap what most foaming-out-the-mouth Hargray customers already know, but for those of you with other service providers, it'll show you what it's like on the other side of paradise. 

Reports of outages first sprung up on area Facebook, Twitter, and blog accounts on mid-Saturday but it wasn't until Monday afternoon that things really seemed to blow up.

Here's an excerpt from Twitter around 4 p.m. on Monday:

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And customers seemed loathe to get an e-mail from the company explaining that they couldn't get online, and, yes, probably that they couldn't check their e-mail.

We have experienced an equipment failure which has temporarily destabilized our internet service.  We deeply apologize for the inconvenience and want to assure you we have every available resource committed to resolving this issue to a satisfactory, complete and prompt resolution.  We will continue to post updates as they become available.

We deeply apologize for any inconvenience this has caused you, your family or your business. Thank you for your understanding and your continued patronage.

Sincerely, 
Chris McCorkendale
Vice President, Operations & Engineering

But by 8:45 p.m. on Monday the company appeared to have most service back online and sent out another e-mail.

Dear Valued Customer,

We are pleased to report that our Internet services have been restored as of 8:45 pm this evening.  However, we continue to perform diagnostic checks and testing which may result in slow or interrupted services until completed.

We will send another update as soon as events warrant.

Thank you for your continued patience as we resolve this equipment failure. 

Sincerely,
Chris McCorkendale
Vice President, Operations & Engineering

And in the words of @plukevdh, "internets is finally back. geez hargray."

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