Internet Services Affected in the UAE

When February passed, the popular month when a fish or a ship cuts Etisalat’s internet lines, we thought “Hey, no Internet breakdown this year!” But curse our luck, that was not to happen. Almost a yearly recurrence now, like the jaded Dubai Shopping Festival, Etisalat today stated in a press release that the “international submarine cable provided by Sea-ME-We 4, in the Mediterranean Sea connecting Alexandria and Marseilles, has had a unexpected breakdown affecting the Internet traffic in the UAE”.

Right here...

Etisalat, however, says that they have rerouted most of the “essential” Internet services to minimize the impact. “For the business segment and service users, Etisalat has already undertaken immediate corrective steps to minimize the impact of the cable cut on business customers.”

If you are still experiencing problems with your internet, gives us a shout out in the comments section.

Here is a tip while your at it: I knew something was amiss when the Internet at my home shut off all of a sudden (no trouble in our office, though). Yet the router and Windows showed I still had internet access. All I did to get it working back is by turning of the proxy. IE users can turn it off by going to Tools> Internet Options > Connections tab > LAN settings > untick ‘Use a proxy server for your LAN’. Opera users: press ctrl+F12 > Network> Proxy Servers > untick for ‘HTTP’. Firefox users: Edit > Preferences > General > Connection Settings… > check “Direct connection to the Internet”. Chrome users: it shares the settings with IE, so just follow the instructions for IE.