911 GLITCH CAUSED BY COMPUTER PROBLEM DISRUPTION EXTENDS THROUGHOUT THE STATE.Byline: Troy Anderson Staff Writer A statewide computer data line problem Friday morning caused a glitch A temporary or random hardware malfunction. It is possible that a bug in a program may cause the hardware to appear as if it had a glitch in it and vice versa. At times it can be extremely difficult to determine whether a problem lies within the hardware or the software. See glitch attack. for 911 emergency systems, financial institutions and some Internet service providers Internet service provider (ISP) Company that provides Internet connections and services to individuals and organizations. For a monthly fee, ISPs provide computer users with a connection to their site (see data transmission), as well as a log-in name and password. , officials said. From 8:08 a.m. until 10:30 a.m., Pacific Bell experienced a frame relay A high-speed packet switching protocol used in wide area networks (WANs). Providing a granular service of up to DS3 speed (45 Mbps), it has become popular for LAN to LAN connections across remote distances, and services are offered by most major carriers. outage that caused a disruption on data lines, including some that link credit card terminals Several types of credit card terminals are available to merchants nowadays. Most have the same basic purpose and functions. They allow a merchant to swipe or key in required credit card information and transmit such data to the merchant service provider. at stores and automated teller machines automated teller machine (ATM), device used by bank customers to process account transactions. Typically, a user inserts into the ATM a special plastic card that is encoded with information on a magnetic strip. at banks. One of the biggest impacts was on hundreds of the state's 911 emergency systems, where dispatchers could receive calls but their computers did not automatically display the address of the caller. ``This is the first time it has ever happened on this scale where the entire state was affected,'' said Daphne Rhoe, manager of the state Department of General Services' Telecommunications 911 Program office. Rhoe said there were no reports of people calling 911 who did not receive help. ``That's not to say that tomorrow we might get some information like that,'' she said. ``As far as we know, there was no impact.'' Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department This article is about the Los Angeles County Sherriff's Department, not to be confused with the smaller Los Angeles County Police The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department (LASD) is a local law enforcement agency that serves Los Angeles County, California. Deputy Rich Pena said 911 dispatchers could receive calls Friday morning, but their computers didn't show them the callers' addresses. ``The 911 call was getting through, but dispatchers had to type in the name and address of where the call originated,'' Pena said. Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. police and fire officials said their 911 systems were not affected. Pacific Bell spokeswoman Jennifer Langan said the frame relay outage affected 22,000 circuits that transport data. ``Customers impacted include large and small businesses, some Internet service providers and 911 dispatch agencies,'' she said. She said the cause of the outage is under investigation and service was expected to be restored by Friday evening. Pacific Bell's regular telephone service uses a separate voice network and was not affected. The outage was limited to Pacific Bell's territory, which involves about three-fourths of the state. |
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