On March 31st 2012 there is the possibility of severe disruption to Internet services, particularly your ability to find and locate web pages. Although unlikely it is theoretically possible, and justifies a warning. This disruption could last all day or longer, and would affect the majority of users across the globe.
If there are interruptions in service the two most likely scenarios you will experience are either exceptionally degraded performance or you will be unable to view websites that you access by typing their names into your browser. An example of this would be typing http://www.facebook.com into a web browser and waiting patiently until an error message comes up.
The system that directs Internet traffic by using names such as http://www.google.com will potentially be unavailable. If this system is having difficulty, it may be possible to access your favorite websites using a different method. In order to use this method you need to gather what is called the “IP Address” of the various websites you visit often.
You can get this IP address by “pinging” this server. When you “ping” a website, it is returning that websites specific computer-readable numeric address. This address will contain 4 sets of numbers separated by periods, and it will look similar to 173.194.72.105
It is this code that you need to write down and use if you experience difficulty accessing the web beginning March 31st. After this date to access http://www.Google.com you may have to type http://173.194.72.105 into your browser.
Please take the time before March 31st to write down the IP Addresses for the websites that you enjoy visiting often. I use the example of www.Google.com, but you will need to do this for every website you will want to visit.
Find your computer’s operating system below and follow the instructions on how to ping:
- To do a ping in Windows XP, Vista, or 7
a. Click start -> all programs -> accessories -> Command Prompt
b. When you see the black screen that come up, type the following:
i. Ping www.Google.com
- On a Mac
a. Go to the applications folder -> utilities -> Network Utility -> Ping
i. Type www.Google.com in the box and click ping
- In Linux
a. Open a terminal
i. Type ping www.Google.com
Please follow these precautions now, as they will not work if there does turn out to be degraded performance or reliability problems. If there are no interruptions in service, please view this as a free tutorial on basic network troubleshooting.