Pokerstars Down Again?

[Thriller]

working on it now Jeff

[Bravehart]

WooT WooT...I'm connected!

[scarr]

I was doing the report...and now I can connect to ps!

[Travis]

"It really just looks like a routing issue in a part of SBC's network. They happen from time to time and are usually resolved within hours.

- A.P. "

Cool. I'm an idiot when it comes to networks. In that case I'll just call it a night and check it again tomorrow. Thanks for talking me down there. I was getting pretty worried.

[Thriller]

PS up and running!!!

[Topflight]

I'm connected too!!

He gave me a solution over the phone. As I tried it it was working, but it now appears to have been a coincidence since you guys are all back online.

[ADBjester]

I'm very glad to hear it! We got the tracerts just in time. ;-)


Our preliminary analysis shows that this outage was possibly caused by an outage on the Sprintlink backbone in Texas, where at least once we saw a "circular route", where data went back and forth between two SprintLink routers until dropped. If your connection had to traverse these routers, this is likely why you were unable to connect.

Even though this problem was not at all related to PokerStars' servers or connection, we do apologize for this problem, and hope you continue to enjoy our games here on PokerStars.

Good luck, everyone, and thanks for your patience while we worked to diagnose the problem, and while Sprint and SBC worked to resolve it.

Best Regards,

Jeff
PokerStars Support Supervisor

[scarr]

Pokerstars support rules!

Even if it isn't their problem they are there to help. Sure felt reassuring to see "tracert".

Something tells me we'll never know what happened...but...I suspect a routing problem was it.

Thanks,

-scarr

[Bravehart]

Just sent PS a request for a refund. I'm sure it wasnt their fault but am I wrong to request a refund? I was in a heads up tourny and had a 2:1 lead

[ADBjester]

Hi Scarr,

Well, we do have a pretty good idea.....

9 --- [ 144.232.9.95], Pings=3 , Quality=20 , Lost=2 , Min=16 , Max=16 , Avg=16
History: 16, -1, -1, 16, 16,
10 --- [ 144.232.20.16], Pings=5 , Quality=100 , Lost=0 , Min=16 , Max=141 , Avg=47
History: 31, 16, 31, 16, 141,
11 --- [ 144.232.20.17], Pings=4 , Quality=60 , Lost=1 , Min=15 , Max=125 , Avg=42
History: 16, -1, 125, 15, 15,
12 --- [ 144.232.20.16], Pings=5 , Quality=100 , Lost=0 , Min=15 , Max=31 , Avg=18
History: 15, 15, 31, 15, 16,
13 --- [ 144.232.20.17], Pings=3 , Quality=50 , Lost=1 , Min=15 , Max=32 , Avg=21
History: 32, -1, 16, 15,
14 --- [ 144.232.20.16], Pings=5 , Quality=100 , Lost=0 , Min=15 , Max=31 , Avg=21
History: 31, 31, 16, 15, 16,
15 --- [ 144.232.20.17], Pings=3 , Quality=50 , Lost=1 , Min=15 , Max=31 , Avg=20
History: 15, -1, 31, 16,

Ad infinitum until packets dropped.

These two routers, apparently in Ft. Worth on Sprintlink, had a circular route, and packets just ping-ponged until TTL was exceeded and the data dropped.

This is likely why SBC had no idea what was happening. It was not on their network. We got this data just about as you were all reconnecting, so I'm sure that Sprint knew about this and was scrambling to fix it.

In any case, I'm quite glad everyone's back online.

Best Regards,

Jeff
PokerStars Support Supervisor