back to article Hyperoptic customers left in dark as power outage takes down systems

UK broadband provider Hyperoptic has taken a long weekend, leaving some customers disconnected after the company's systems went down following a storm. The outage affected several of the company's Scottish customers and, according to a Register reader and the company's helpline, parts of the Glasgow region remain resolutely …

  1. abend0c4 Silver badge

    UPSes are a common feature of...

    ... extended outages.

    They are rather prone either to not starting or to emitting magic smoke when the load suddenly switches, defying attempts to switch it back. I do wonder if they're always worth the expense.

    1. AJ MacLeod

      Re: UPSes are a common feature of...

      I realise the scale is slightly different but I got sick of UPS self-destructing a couple of years ago and switched to my own cobbled together setups.

      My office is powered through a Victron inverter with szeable LifePo4 batteries and a couple of decent solar panels; it runs everything in the office off the solar if enough sun, failing which it uses the grid or seamlessly switches to battery power if there's a power cut (I have the heaters on smart switches which turn them off when the grid drops out).

      The internet feed is from a different building so it has its own even more cobbled-together (but reliable) arrangement; another 12v LifePo4 battery which feeds the ONT via a buck converter and also the router (and from there a WAP) through a 12v to 48v PoE injector. The battery is permanently connected to a Victron smart charger which is set to keep the battery at "float", when the power goes off everything just carries on running from the battery and when the power comes back the charger automatically brings the battery back to the correct charge.

      I'm very happy to be rid of very expensive and yet unreliable UPS with hopeless run times and prone-to-cooking lead acid batteries...

      1. Tron Silver badge

        Re: UPSes are a common feature of...

        Very impressive set up, AJ MacLeod. If my power goes off I boil some water for a cuppa on the gas hob, put my feet up and listen to some music.

        El Reg should know that customer services in Brexit Britain only share information on a need to know basis to respect privacy and national security. Anyone calling themselves customers or journalists do not need to know, especially if the service is 'critical infrastructure'. They might be the Russians, the Chinese or the French in disguise.

        1. Hans Neeson-Bumpsadese Silver badge

          Re: UPSes are a common feature of...

          They might be the Russians, the Chinese or the French in disguise.

          I believe they weed them out by only picking up the phone after the caller has been on hold for at least an hour - Johnnie Foreigner doesn't do this queueing lark.

        2. nobody who matters Silver badge

          Re: UPSes are a common feature of...

          <....."El Reg should know that customer services in Brexit Britain only share information on a need to know basis to respect privacy and national security"........>

          In my experience, they had the same attitude before Brexit too.

    2. Paul Crawford Silver badge

      Re: UPSes are a common feature of...

      A few years back we bought three 5kVA Dell-branded APC UPS (now Schneider) and they were useless! In the first year two had been replaced under warranty as they self-destructed during a self-test, we ended up with an extra 'spare' that Dell never asked for back, and within 3 years of operation all 5 were dead.

      We since bought Riello UPS (similar 5kVA single phase size) and the three units we have so far have been good, and typically we test them weekly now when running the new backup generator so they are forced to switch back/forward at regular intervals. Web interface sucks as usual, but is not significantly worse than APC...

      1. AJ MacLeod

        Re: UPSes are a common feature of...

        Funnily enough one of my more dramatic (OK, terrifying) UPS failures was also with a big Dell branded APC rackmount UPS... those have some very large capacitors in them which make very loud noises when they are unhappy. When you're the only one in the building (and it's not your building and you can't get to the main power switch without leaning over the exploding UPS) it's even more exciting!

        I do have some experience of bigger Riello UPS - not sure on capacity off-hand but they're the big floor standing units on castors (with a train of big batteries on castors too). Had a couple of them fail too (in a non-exciting manner) but to be fair they're working in a pretty warm and not particularly dry environment.

        For all that, the most scary for me was the much smaller 1500VA APC I previously had looking after my PC... I noticed a weird acid kind of smell when I came through the door one morning, eventually traced it to the UPS which was too hot to touch for more than a split second. Somehow I managed to rip the cables out and literally threw it out the door before it set fire to anything; the batteries had been boiled to death and were swollen enough to have become one with the case of the UPS.

        I haven't a lot of confidence in these devices for some reason!

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: UPSes are a common feature of...

      Way back when I was wearing shorts and Clark's shoes, the local telephone exchange had an open day.

      I found the most exciting part to be in the basement which, IIRC, was just a big open lead acid battery.

      Falling in notwithstanding, these things seem a lot more reliable and resilient

      https://www.ringbell.co.uk/ukwmo/Page240.htm

  2. Vestas

    Probably doesn't help...

    ...that they're sacking a lot of their "infrastructure team" in a continuing attempt not to go bust. They pay more in interest charges on their massive debt than they make in revenue.

    Out of contract pricing is stupidly expensive unless you haggle but frankly they're worse than Virgin Media which I didn't think possible.

    They have no USP and will disappear in the next couple of years just like most of the rest of the altnets.

    Also a third of their network is on Openreach EAD 1Gbps links which they can't afford to upgrade. Also some PIA connections which will become a problem soon enough. Again they have no cash to upgrade.

    One to avoid - their honeymoon period is well and truly over.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Probably doesn't help...

      We have been having intermittent connectivity drop outs for weeks with barely any credible investigation, let alone a fix. Simultaneous drop outs across many neighbours in the same development.

      Seems like something is going very wrong…

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