01/05/2000

Y2K at SNET Internet

I initially intended to write a funny column about Y2K preparations right after Christmas. It was going to start off something like this:

"Yes, I will be working New Year's Eve -- as will many of the employees of SNET Internet. What better place to be for Y2K than a major telecommunications hub? As the New Year dawns, we will be alertly following its progress and its affect on computers and networks as the sun races across the Pacific, Asia and Europe. By the time it gets here -- well, if Tonga or Russia or France has a problem, we'll know about it, and we'll have abandoned our posts and headed out to stock up on bottled water, assorted other beverages and snacks before everyone else knows what's going on. There are advantage to being Us.

"Seriously, folks - I wouldn't be making light of Y2K if I didn't think SNET Internet has taken every possible measure to ensure that your online experience will not be disrupted, and that if you are such a loser that you have nothing better to do at midnight on Dec. 31 than to surf the 'Net and watch the ball drop on a TV window opened on your screen, we'll be able to accommodate you. That's what I plan to be doing, after all. So we expect to be ready. We've been upgrading. We've been testing. And we've been filling out forms like you wouldn't believe, all with one purpose in mind - making sure that you, the customer, will have no conceivable grounds for a lawsuit against SNET Internet should everything go to hell in a handcart on Jan. 1."

Haha! However, it was pointed out to me that my smart-aleck comments would not be very funny at ALL if, in fact, come Jan. 1, all our subscribers were without telecommunications services, along with freezing in the dark without food or water! Not funny!

And then, of course: Nothing Happened. We turned out to be overwhelmingly well-prepared for Y2K. About 20 of us were gathered at SNET Internet headquarters in Meriden on the night of Dec. 31. We left the "real" parties early. We dined on shrimp and ham and some non-alcoholic bubbly champagne substitute. We watched the ball drop on the TV in the conference room. And then, after it was officially the Year 2000, we spent a couple of hours making sure everything worked pretty much the same way as it had before midnight.

That everything did, in fact, work, is testament to countless hours of planning and work by countless people over the previous year. (OK, someone was counting the hours, and someone probably also could tell you how many people were involved. But they would be in corporate accounting, and I don't feel like asking.)

I made it home and crawled into bed at about 3:30 a.m.

"Everything go all right?" I was asked, by a very sleepy Significant Other.

"Everything works as well as it did yesterday," I replied.

And that was about the best anyone could have expected, I think.

Please send questions or comments to web.editor@snet.net.