What happens to the internet if the power goes off?

Question

If the power is gone in a residential or commercial block, does that also mean there is no internet traffic moving through that area? i.e.: Let's assume the power is gone for a city in California. Will AT&T's network still be routing 1's and 0's through their routers in that city? I assume ATT would have backup power stations through their network.

Answer 1

What you got to understand is:

"the Internet is not something you just dump something on. It's not a truck. It's a series of tubes.

"And if you don't understand those tubes can be filled and if they are filled, when you put your message in, it gets in line and it's going to be delayed by anyone that puts into that tube enormous amounts of material, enormous amounts of material."

Seriously though- DARPA designed the TCP/IP protocol suite to survive a nuclear attack. While parts of the internet may periodically go down due to one reason or another(i.e. power loss), it would be very hard to bring down the entire internet- notwithstanding a major exploit in a large chunk of the Infrastructure devices.

Answer 2

Zeroes and ones would continue to go through the network through the city as long as the routers are powered. If they have backup generators, they would run off those, while you sit without power with a computer that doesn't work. If the generators give out, the routers will shut down and this local part of the global internet grid will stop functioning. But otherwise, the power grid and the internet grid are unconnected, they use different wires.

Answer 3

If the telephone or cable company has back up power and your computer and modem (laptop) has a battery, chances are you should be able to get in. Some sites located within the power outage area may be down, but the Internet itself should be there.

Answer 4

The nature of the net is such that the traffic will "find a way round" a section which is damaged or offline, by seeking alternative routing's... if, say, a mail is in transit to somebody whose local infrastructure is "out", the mail will simply sit at the last active node until it can be delivered - or until it times out, whichever is sooner. If it times out, the sender gets a reply telling you that it could not be delivered.

Answer 5

Generally, the network itself will stay up as most data centers and telephone office have back up power batteries, UPS's and generators. The real problems start when the power comes back on.

Answer 6

damn! um,maybe i mean i once sent an email and like the second i sent it the power went out seriously and it showed up it was a day late but it showed up. i think that what the emails get wired through will hold them untill the power goes back on

Answer 7

Nothing. You are unable to connect. If you can run on batteries you can use the Internet. If you are using dial up connection then naturally you can not connect.

Answer 8

i don't know the server is down is all i really klnow and they need to get it up and workign again.
alyssa

Answer 9

I don't know let's find out! :}