Why this page exists

Somebody should just answer the question

Every few months a large service goes down, a headline announces that the internet is broken, and a great many people get sold something they do not need.

So we publish one number and one sentence, every day, in language that does not need a translator. Today the number is 1 and the sentence is "the internet is good."

Somewhere right now a server really is on fire, a cable really has been cut, and a data centre really is running on batteries. That is true on a good day. It is the ordinary background noise of a system this size, and none of it is going to change your afternoon.

Guidance

Do you need a protection service?

If anyone tells you otherwise this week, you are listening to a sales pitch. We have never recommended a product and we never will. Our guidance for the public covers the few things worth doing anyway, all of which were worth doing last year too.

The scale

What the number means

One figure from one to five. It moves when a person moves it, and this page always says when that last happened.

1. 1 NormalThe internet is working the way it usually works. Ordinary faults are happening somewhere, as they always are, and almost nobody notices them. Current
2. 2 UnsettledOne large service or one region is degraded. If you are not using that service, your day looks normal.
3. 3 DisruptedA service that millions of people depend on is down, or a whole country has lost a big piece of its connectivity. It is in the news.
4. 4 SevereMore than one of the systems everything else sits on is in trouble at the same time, and the problems are feeding each other.
5. 5 On fireThe honest top of the scale. It has never been used.

Read how the assessment is made

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