Sat Dec 1 17:44:31 PST 2001 — In a move that peripherally affects Sonic.net customers, Excite@Home cut off Internet access for AT&T Broadband cable modem customers on Saturday morning at about 2:15AM. With about 850,000 end-users affected, this is a major impact for broadband end-users. Included in these are cable modem customers in Petaluma and Windsor.
Here at Sonic.net, we’ve noticed a large decline in the amount of outgoing traffic, as @Home was one of the largest single consumers of content from sites hosted here. If you have your own website here, you may notice less traffic.
We have also had some user calls regarding websites which were hosted by @Home customers on their cable modem connections (side note – this isn’t allowed by the AT&T terms of service) which are now offline.
To check if a site that you cannot reach is on the @Home network, use our Ping/Traceroute/MTR tools at www.sonic.net/stats/. If the address is behind a router at “home.com”, and is unreachable, it’s likely that it is an AT&T cable modem customer who has been cut off.
AT&T has told customers that they can expect to be without service for “a few weeks” (CNet). Sonic.net has received DSL orders from some AT&T customers to replace their cable modem service, and we’re glad to be bringing these customers back online with us directly! -Dane