(Wendland is a technology columnist for the Detroit Free Press, where this column first appeared in the Extra edition the Free Press published Tuesday afternoon.)
At a time when information-starved Americans needed it as never before, the Internet failed miserably in the hours immediately following yesterday’s terrorist attacks.
Internet websites simply choked under the press of traffic. But huge rise in traffic was worsened by the World Trade Center destruction.
Thousands of long distance telephone lines and backbone connections linking the major sites to the Internet were routed right through the north tower and severed when it collapsed. It took several hours for Internet and telephone traffic to be rerouted.
So many people rushed online that the entire’Net ground to a halt. MSNBC.com, CNN.com, ABCnews.com, FoxNews.com, and most other major network sites were largely inaccessible for several hours because of the massive amounts of Internet traffic.
But there were ways around the Internet logjams.
In the first frantic hours after the World Trade Center was attacked, resourceful Web surfers were able to tune into a police radio scanner site and were able to listen to live New York City Police dispatches (http://www.policescanner.com/policeNYPD.stm). By mid-afternoon, that site, too, was mostly because of Net congestion.
Other police and fire audio feeds from other cities, including Fire dispatch calls in suburban Washington, D.C., near the scene of the Pentagon attacks, were occasionally accessible during the afternoon through a scanner portal site (www.netnowonline.com/scanner).
A news portal called Newshub (www.newshub.com) filled a huge information void for many unable to reach their regular sites. Updated every 15 minutes, the site links to hundreds of newspaper and trade publications and, perhaps because it is not as well-known as the big sites, performed reliably throughout the day.
By mid-afternoon, many news organizations added more computer servers to increase their capacity and the ‘Net began to offer marginally better access, providing a vital information resource for those seeking more details on the terrorist attacks as well as a place for stunned Americans to vent their feelings and share condolences.
With telephones clogged throughout the morning and early afternoon hours in many parts of the country, many people turned to e-mail to communicate with friends and relatives. E-mail service was largely unaffected during the huge traffic spikes.
Shortly after noon, with Web traffic showing no signs of easing and tens of thousands of Web searchers unable to connect, CNN.com stripped its normally graphics-heavy page of all but the essentials, posting an “America Under Attack” page that loaded much more quickly. The page detailed, in short bullet-point paragraphs, the latest developments and then linked to more detailed text stories.
MSNBC (www.msnbc.com) followed suit, with only news of the attacks appearing on the main index page. MSNBC also added a bulletin board for readers to post reaction to the incidents. It quickly filled with expressions of outrage and calls for revenge, but then was also hard to reach because of high traffic.
ABCNews.com also set up chat areas on the attacks. “Pray for America”. “Why? Oh Why??”.”Nuke the Middle East” were among the titles of the emotional messages posted.
The websites from the TV networks had links to streaming live video coverage, something that would have been welcomed by deskbound but ‘Net-connected workers in offices, but there was such a logjam that most were inaccessible during the afternoon, even on fast T1 or broadband connections.
Ironically, one of the better-performing sites throughout the early hours of the crisis was the Drudge Report (www.drudgereport.com), run by Internet gossip-monger Matt Drudge. Headlined “World Watches U.S. Attacks,” the site linked to less well known but more easily accessible news accounts from dozens of U.S. and foreign newspapers.
But throughout much of the day, frustrated Internet users, many in offices without access to television or radio and unable to reach their favorite domestic news Internet sources, turned to foreign news sites such as the BBC (http://news.bbc.co.uk) for the latest developments. The BBC collected eyewitness accounts, sent by e-mail, and offered links that profiled the World Trade Center and reports of recent terrorist activities.
Among relief organizations that immediately took to the Web for updates was the American Red Cross (http://www.redcross.org/) which quickly began soliciting blood donations for those injured in the New York and Pentagon attacks.
A website called Prayer Chain (http://www.waxdog.com/pray/) began compiling prayer requests for victims of the attacks and their families. The official website of the Palestine National Authority (www.pna.net) , which issued a statement condemning the attacks, was heavily visited and sometimes unavailable.
A terrorist profile database kept on a Web server at the Dudley Knox Library of the U.S. Naval Academy (http://web.nps.navy.mil/~library/tgp/tgpndx.htm) offered profiles of known terrorist organizations.
The U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (http://www.fema.gov/) posted alert notices and promised to post information as emergency plans are implemented.
A fact sheet on the FEMA site (http://www.fema.gov/library/terrorf.htm) offered tips on dealing with terrorist threats. And the Federal Aviation Administration, which halted all air traffic over the U.S. immediate hours after the attack, had not a word on the
incidents on its website.
But the Internet was not alone.
Wireless telephone traffic in many parts of the country also suffered logjams. With millions of portable phone users calling for updates on office closings or to make contact with loved ones, busy signals and jammed circuits added to the confusion and frustration.
Wireless telephone systems were overwhelmed across the country as millions of Americans, many in their cars on the way to work when the attacks began, tried to call loved ones or offices only to encounter jammed circuits.
By mid-afternoon, Verizon Wireless, Detroit’s largest wireless provider, was near the limit of its capacity, according to spokesperson Michelle Gilbert.
“Normally, our peak usage is at 5 pm during rush hour. It reached those levels right after the bombings and has stayed that way all day long.” Regular land line phone traffic also reeled under the extra load.
“”We’re experiencing double call volume of a normal busy day, which is generating network congestion. The network is fine; there’s just too many calls,” AT&T Corp. spokesman Dave Johnson said.
