News | internet-planet

News:

Blocked Websites Notification

Thursday, February 9, 2017 - Can’t get to a website you used to be able to access?

We have blocked hundreds-of-thousands of IP addresses over the last 3 weeks. IP addresses are unique addresses (like your driver's license or Social Security number) that are assigned to website and email servers around the world. We have seen an incredible increase in the number of cyber attacks from China, Russia, India, South America and elsewhere. In all cases, we then block the attackers at our core router (the front door to our network). But many times hackers have broken into servers of innocent sites and waged their attack from their address. That means we blocked them too, even though they are not directly responsible.

So if you can no longer get to a site you once were able to, call the office during normal business hours or email us with the specific website you are having trouble accessing and we'll see what we can do for you.

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Weather-Related Outages Notification

Monday, January 9, 2017 - Over the past week or two, Internet Planet has been experiencing water damage to several network components, both interior and exterior, at several of our communication towers. This has resulted in periods of outage across our network. We know this has hampered many of our customers’ ability to conduct their businesses and receive Internet access. We ask for your patience as we repair cables and equipment. We have crews on site at many locations today and through the week making those repairs. Since this is the wettest year we have seen in a decade, all repairs are being made with future storms in mind so that large quantities of rain will not continue to affect the network. Creating a reliable network for our customers will always be our main goal.

Other updates: Our waitlist has been opened and we have been performing new installs since last November. The "Travis Effect" has been successfully managed for the past several months through the addition of a secondary line coming into Rio Vista on a different frequency. We are still in negotiations to obtain access to the Hwy 113 tower that will increase our capacity and further stabilize our network.

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Outage Notification

Monday, October 17, 2016 - Internet Planet experienced an outage today from its upstream provider, Cogent Networks, an international Internet wholesale distributor. This was not caused by the "Travis Effect" we have referenced before. We are hearing there was a fiber line cut somewhere in Sacramento that houses major trunk lines for the Internet. This outage was widespread, disrupting internet connections in most major metropolitan areas in Northern California. Our connection was offline from approximately 8:30am this morning to 12:15pm this afternoon. Thank you for your patience in this matter, providing you with reliable internet service is our utmost priority.

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"Travis Effect" Notification

Wednesday, October 12, 2016 - A few weeks ago we sent out a notification concerning some issues we are having with frequency interference. We are following up in this notification to give a little more information that we have gathered, and to keep you updated on our progress of resolving the issue.

We have dubbed this issue the “Travis Effect”, because the interference seems to be coming from Travis AFB. The signal interference (and our resultant speed degradation) happens mainly on the weekends, and lasts for 10 to 20 minutes at a time – with occasional disturbances during the week. We can only surmise that the government, or some contract agency at the Air Base, has installed transmitting equipment that intermittently acts as a barrier to our signal between Vacaville and Rio Vista – we believe this is coming from Travis AFB since they are the only entity directly in the path.

To overcome this interference, we are in the process of obtaining access rights to a tower on HWY 113 that would enable us to “steer” around Travis. This tower will also enable us to more than quadruple our bandwidth to Rio Vista, for it cuts the transmission distance from 18 miles to two 9 mile transmissions; effectively increasing our signal strengths because of the shorter distances with a repeater in the middle. The red tape and bureaucracy in obtaining the tower space is taking time, but will eventually happen… it is still several weeks away.

We appreciate your patience during this transition. Please be assured the quality and consistency of your Internet experience is our top priority.

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Waitlist Notification

Wednesday, August 3, 2016 - Internet Planet has begun a waitlist for new prospective customers in Trilogy at Rio Vista due to the rapid growth of our network over the past year. We are working on a capacity upgrade that will quadruple the bandwidth we are currently bringing in to Trilogy at Rio Vista and allow us to continue to offer quality high speed service to more of its residents. Once this capacity upgrade is completed, we will contact the people on the waitlist to move forward with the installation process. The completion of the project is expected to take several more weeks. We appreciate your patience with us during this time of growth. If you would like to be added to our waitlist, call or email our office today.

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