I happened to be trying to diagnose a problem with the IMAP server (failing to accept logins from the web-mail application), when my connection dropped and failed to return. Drops happen, thus screen, but usually they are related to drops on the client side (WiFi node switching hiccups, for example). This time, the server didn't return.

I couldn't reach any of my exposed ports. I've got web and mail services open to the world (minus 9000 IP ranges...), and can SSH to a few servers. None of them responded. I waited and tried a half-hour later, still no response. It isn't often that all of the things go away, so I took a half-hour break from work and dashed home to inspect the situation on-site.

All of the machines were on and functioning. Checking uptime showed the systems had been up for days, and the newly flashed dd-wrt router (which I was fearing may be to blame for some of the outage) had been up since I finished tinkering with it last night. I couldn't reach the Internet from any of the machines on the LAN, though. I could reach from one to the other via public IP, so the traffic left my LAN, at least to the gateway router and back (evidenced by the fact I can post this from my LAN-based workstation, even though no one can read it from the Internet). I also couldn't ping any of my well-known IPs (how easy is 8.8.8.8 to remember? That's Google's public DNS server...) or anything by name, although some of the names did resolve probably due to my name server's cache.

I trekked to the equipment area and reset the gateway router. It's the router provided by Comcast, and, of course, the first line of troubleshooting is to reboot. Resetting routers is thankfully (usually) very fast; sometimes so fast that the only thing that notices are high-volume streaming content, like video or music. I've reset it before and not lost an SSH session going through it.

I noticed the indicator marked "cable" was flashing quite rapidly. On my way past I turned on the television and was greeted by the blue screen of no feed. That settled it, the cable itself was out. I made a pass turning off the monitors and headed back to the office, where I'd left my laptop and phone. It was meant to be a quick trip, after all, and including travel time I was back in the office 40 minutes after I left.

I spent some time checking the Comcast customer support site, and saw that no outages were being reported in my area. There's a "check for outages" button, that I assume knows what area I'm in based on my account. I'm not sure it actually checks my connection, because I was receiving a green "connection OK" indicator, even though I knew it was not OK.

I chatted with one of their techs with their chat tool, and she tried to reset the router but to no avail. In the end, she admitted that she couldn't see my device on their network, and that I'd have to contact business class support (I thought I had--the link was from the business class site), and she recommended I do that while on-site so I could reset the router and equipment when asked to do so.

I waited some more (well, worked a bit at the office), and when I got home, dutifully reset the router. Still no go. I called the business class support 800 number, and talked to a nice gal. She noted that there was a service vehicle in the area working on another complaint, and confirmed that she couldn't reach my device as she expected to be able to. We agreed that I'd wait a while, letting that other service finish, and hopefully benefit from whatever that corrected.

If my connection doesn't return tonight, I'll call back.