As Internet dependence grows, so does inconvenience of outages

Cheri Sisson had a meeting scheduled for 8 a.m. Monday morning in Arlington Heights, so on Sunday night, she tried to ask the Internet for the address of the appointment.

But the Internet didn't work as she naturally assumed it would.

So Sisson, executive director of the Hoffman Estates Chamber of Commerce, was left to look elsewhere to figure out where she was supposed to appear. She didn't exactly do it the old-fashioned way. She used her GPS.

“I made it...” Sisson said. “But it would have been a lot easier if I would have gotten on the Internet last night.”

Such are the complications that come with relying on the Internet to manage the ins and outs of daily life. At one time, the Internet may have been a valuable supplement to the activities of business or personal life, but these days, for an increasing number of people, it's critical both for information and for a variety of ways to connect with work, family and friends.

And sometimes, it goes down, as it did for many Illinois Comcast customers Sunday night. Then what?

People who store their calendars and contacts online, as well as search the Web for nearly everything they need to know, can be out of luck.

“It's more than just getting online to do surfing,” said Kamlesh Sanghvi, Chief Information Officer at College of Lake County.

Comcast continues to investigate what kind of technical glitch caused Sunday's problems. That night, those with Internet-capable phones flocked to Twitter and Facebook both to complain about the outage and to learn a way around it. Various tweeters, including Comcast's own account, suggested that if people directed their home setups to use Google's servers instead of Comcast's, the Internet would once again be available.

So the most tech-savvy in the suburbs were able to keep their Internet Sunday night after a little extra research. Still, not everyone has Internet on their phones or enough know-how to make that fix.

“It was a mass disappointment,” said Paul Booth, assistant professor in DePaul University's College of Communication.

But, Booth said, it's a disappointment that will be a fact of life as Web use increases. Booth said it's easy to overreact and blame Comcast, but that blaming the company isn't entirely fair. The sad irony for prolific Internet users is that increased traffic could lead to more breakdowns for any service.

“I guess we are just going to pick up a book or something, God forbid,” Booth said.

Books, though, don't help you communicate with your friends, family or even college teachers.

“Without their access to (the Web), they really lose contact with their friends,” said Dave Braunschweig, associate professor of computer information systems at Harper College. “People feel really out of touch.”

Braunschweig's students had assignments due to be submitted at midnight Sunday as Comcast's Internet services were down. Braunschweig said one lesson of Sunday night's outage is to perhaps have a second Internet option available if you really need it.

“The other lesson is to not wait until the last minute, because technology may fail,” he said.