On 26 March 2013, we let you know about the damage to the SEACOM undersea cable caused by a ship’s anchor off the coast of Egypt and how the speed of Internet browsing has been affected for the entire university. Since then internet traffic to South Africa (including the university network) was rerouted to alternative routes until the undersea cables were repaired. This will mean the Internet browsing and speed will be slower than normal.
Since then there were reports of 3 divers that were caught by the Egyptian coast guard cutting undersea cables in an act of sabotage. There has been no confirmation if the SEACOM cables were targeted or affected by the sabotage. [http://www.infoworld.com/d/networking/sabotage-suspected-in-egypt-submarine-cable-cut-215376]
A undersea cable repair ship has been dispatched and the estimated time to repair the damage is approximately 15 April, since sea conditions and the extent of the cable damage have to be assessed. Internet will be slow until next week. Local network services like Webmail, WebCT and Blackboard are not affected, but overseas-based services like Turnitin, Gmail, Google searches and the browsing of library databases, based overseas, will be slower than usual.
(INFORMATION SUPPLIED BY DAVID WILES)
