Problems accessing Google via Qwest DSL

UPDATE TO THE ORIGINAL POST @ 6:30 PM PST 05/14/09: Computerworld - Google suffers major failure Well it does look like there was an issue with Google today, though not everyone affected in the same way. My plan now is to develop a protocol for dealing with such outages by taking such steps as "Don't panic", take a deep breath, do a little more research before calling tech support, and wait it out if all practical. I still believe though that ISPs should have a better way of alerting their staff when such acute outages occur so that they can change the way they deal with end users who call in.


ORIGINAL POST:

Sorry for throwing this entry up here, but I have been dealing with an ongoing problem, and I am trying to connect with others who have also been dealing with this same problem in the hope of getting to the root cause. I have been having problems with temporary outages to all Google services (search, GMail, Blogspot, etc.) via my DSL connection from Qwest. I am still able to access other sites when this problem occurs, it is only Google services that are affected.

So far the outages have occurred on the following days:

• Tuesday, May 12, 2009 from Noon to 1:00 PM PST
• Thursday, May 14, 2009 from 8:00 AM to 9:00 AM PST
• Note: My location is in Seattle, WA. and because I am expecting more outages I will update this list as they occur.

For the first two outages I went through the steps of calling Qwest customer service and went along with the standard triage of my DSL router/modem. Of course checking the DSL router/modem didn't fix the problem, and only after a lengthy conversation with Qwest was I told that there seems to be a problem with accessing Google. In each case prior to calling Qwest I checked with friends via chat to see if they could access Google and they could. Some of the friends were in the Seattle area while others were out of state, but in all instances they were using ISPs other than Qwest for Internet access.

If you live in the Seattle area and are a Qwest customer, and you have been having trouble accessing Google, please leave a comment or send me an email. I have been trying to find out what has been going on, but Qwest hasn't been very helpful. One manager even went so far as to tell me to call Google at 650-253-0000 which was useless, since Google doesn't offer tech support. By the way, if you work for either Qwest or Google, and you know what is going on feel free to leave an anonymous comment.

Thanks ~ Jim