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AFN Internet service hits speed snag By Myles Murphy Ashland Daily Tidings The Ashland Fiber Network's Internet connection is operating at just a fraction of its normal speed for the second day today, but city officials expect it to be back to normal by Tuesday. "Our high-speed bandwidth provider, Various, is having some problem with bad equipment," Ashland Electric Department Director Dick Wanderscheid said. "It started on Sunday, and we've been getting a lot of calls from concerned customers," he said. The exact cause of the problem was unknown this morning, according to Wanderscheid, but the failure apparently occurred somewhere between Eugene and Portland on equipment the city pays Various to use. "It's still down and we don't know when exactly it will be up again," said Various technical support person Stacey Thomas said at 10:13 a.m. today. The 45-megabit DS3 line went down late Saturday or early Sunday, causing AFN to employ its backup plan - four one-megabit T1 lines to handle all the Internet traffic with about one tenth the capacity. "It's like trying to take a 16-lane highway down to one lane. It really slows things down," Wanderscheid said. There is a push to create two 25-megabit lines in the near future, so that one can be used for a backup if the other goes down, according to Wanderscheid. However, that plan did not make it through this year's budget process. It will likely happen down the line. "In the meantime, we will try to get the line back up and do what we can," Wanderscheid said. LINKS: DAILY TIDINGS: Main | News | Sports | Obituaries | Opinion | Columnists | AP News | Subscribe | Archives | Weather | Classifieds | Contact Us | Privacy REVELS: Main | Calendar | Dining | Movies | T.V. OTHER: Road Cams Copyright 2003 Ashland Daily Tidings 541.482.3456. 1661 Siskiyou Blvd., Ashland, OR 97520. Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. - Advertisers -