There’s been bad news lately about the internet. As expected after last year’s election, the FCC has rescinded its Net Neutrality rules.

The arguments against Net Neutrality are, frankly, disingenuous. They range from the idea that companies won’t invest without guaranteed results (what about every other industry?) to assurances that consumers don’t really need protection and will barely notice any difference: “Nothing to see here, folks.”

Cruzio disagrees. We’re skeptical that those arguments are simply political cover for allowing the biggest ISPs to make a lot more money by making the internet less open and free. The tragedy of the commons.

There are plenty of places to read arguments for Net Neutrality, like these at Ars Technica and from the ACLU. And Cruzio has been sounding the alarm for some time. We’re happy to discuss it at length, from the point of view of an ISP — it’s often argued that ISPs are unilaterally in favor of dropping the rule. But that’s not true.

Cruzio tried very hard to preserve the Net Neutrality rule. We worked with the Electronic Freedom Foundation (EFF).  We joined other independent ISPs in a letter to the FCC defending it. Ajit Pai kept claiming that “ISPs” needed the rule removed. We’re an ISP. “Nope, not us, no,” we protested. Deaf ears.

But now that we’ve gotten outvoted at the FCC, what can we do next?

It isn’t over.

Next steps:

First: Congress can, by a simple majority vote, review and reverse a federal regulation if it acts within 60 days of the rule’s publication. This would be a simple fix. Chuck Schumer, the Minority Leader, has promised to bring this to the Senate floor. Net Neutrality polls extremely well. If Congress voted with popular opinion this could happen quickly. But lobbying money is a strong counter-incentive to public interest, and large ISPs and their parent companies are some of the top donors in Washington (check the charts below, from OpenSecrets.org).  Even supportive representatives will have a strong incentive to lose the fight. So this is the area where public support is important right now — we have to speak louder than money. Action steps are right here.

Second: States are looking at imposing their own regulations. A state like California, with its economic clout, can strongly influence the market. We see that in other industries. For example, California air quality regulations have caused car manufacturers to meet higher standards than what’s federally required. Perhaps the same could go for Net Neutrality. Or at least we’d enjoy it in our state. We support State Senator Scott Weiner’s bill for Net Neutrality in California.

Third: Lawsuits. There is good evidence that the FCC did not do its required due diligence in accepting public input: it appears that millions of “public comments” were entered by hackers, many of them from, of course, Russia. With such a muddled data set, how can the Commission say it has had a clear view on public opinion? The claim is also being made that the FCC did not make a fact-based study to back up its decision, which has merit but seems harder to prove.

Fourth: the most basic part of the discussion, for us, is that Cruzio is committed to Net Neutral practices and we’re not going to change that. To almost quote Arlo Guthrie, “You can get anything you want, at Cruzio’s restaurant ISP.”

By the way, we’ve had some questions from our customers about Net Neutrality.

Here are some of the questions, and our best answers right now:

Q: Can people avoid paying for content by using a VPN?

A: It doesn’t seem like Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) would help. Corporate ISPs which charge more for data from “out of network” sources would surely just classify all VPN traffic as “outside of network.”

Q: What about upstream providers? Will they charge more?

A: This question recognizes that the internet is a network, and that data travels not just inside one ISP, but is handed off from one company to another. But there is a difference between the ISP who serves individual customers and “NSPs,” or network service providers. Right now, the “backbone” of the internet is still fairly competitive. ISPs like Cruzio can choose from a number of NSPs. We should keep an eye out for over-consolidation of the internet backbone, but this is less of an immediate issue so far as we can see. If Cruzio found that an upstream provider violated Net Neutrality, we’d stop sending traffic through that company.

Q: Are Cruzio’s upstream providers fighting for Net Neutrality?

A: Many of our fellow ISPs, including a company called Sonic from which we rent circuits, are active in the pro-Net Neutrality cause. But NSPs aren’t generally involved in the discussion — see above.

It’s time to take action.

On December 14th, the FCC will vote on rolling back Net Neutrality rules. The change would hand a huge amount of control over the internet to large corporations.

Before that happens — and in the hopes that it might not — let’s sign petitions, call senators, email the FCC. We won this fight last time because a lot of people raised their voices.

The following instructions are from social media. We’ve tested them at Cruzio and they’re simple to do. Please feel free to copy and paste the steps below!

John Oliver has made it easy to voice your concern re: net neutrality. Here are the steps:
1. Go to gofccyourself.com
(the shortcut John Oliver made to the hard-to-find FCC comment page)
2. Click on the 17-108 link (Restoring Internet Freedom)
3. Click on “+Express”
4. Be sure to hit “ENTER” after you put in your name & info so it registers.
5. In the comment section write, for example, “I strongly support net neutrality backed by Title 2 oversight of ISPs.”
6. Click to submit, done. – Make sure you hit submit at the end!

Click here for more links to pro-Net Neutrality action. It’s easy and fast to make your opinion known. And if you’re a Cruzio customer, thank you. By supporting a competitive independent ISP you’re supporting Net Neutrality, too.

By now, most people know what Net Neutrality means (if you don’t, here’s a brief video explanation).

Basically, losing the requirement for Net Neutrality puts the decision of what you can see on the internet into the hands of internet service providers, or ISPs. Cruzio’s an ISP, but we don’t think we should decide what you see — we are staunchly Net Neutral and will continue to be even if the rules are revoked. Large corporate ISPs feel differently (and, despite rules,  act differently) and have spent a lot of lobbying money fighting Net Neutrality for many years.

When former Verizon lawyer  Ajit Pai became FCC chair under the Trump administration, he immediately began the move to strip Net Neutrality rules. That’s the issue in the December 14th vote.

Up next, corporate ISPs are pushing to prevent states from setting their own Net Neutrality rules.

Don’t let the ever-increasing consolidation of corporate internet companies force a consolidation of media sources, too. Protect the opportunity for startups to flourish — as companies like Google, Reddit, Tinder, Wikipedia and so many others have done not so long ago. We’re still at the beginning of the internet. We have so much more to create.

Maybe you’ve used the same password for a dozen years: your dog’s name, or a bunch of letters you put together at some point and just remember now. Hopefully your password of choice is not “password” or “123456”, two of the still-most-popular passwords in the USA.

But even with an unusual password, if it’s A) old and/or B) used for lots of different sites, it’s probably time for a change.

A lot of password-holding services—like Yahoo, or Target, or many more—have been hacked, and criminals know they can often succeed by trying the same login and password combinations on other sites: for example, they’ll try using your Yahoo login at every banking site, hoping to find your account.

Wondering if your information has been compromised? Haveibeenpwned.com looks to see if your password or other personally identifying information has been gathered in one of the many hacking incidents over the years. “Pwned,” by the way, is short for being “perfectly owned” —gamer lingo for someone completely getting the better of you.

When info is stolen, it goes out onto the so-called Dark Web for sale. Someone might want to buy your name, address and birthdate—and passwords, social security numbers and answers to security questions (like “what was your first car?”) are worth even more. Haveibeenpwned.com works by checking for your name or login on the Dark Web and telling you whether your information has been released.

If you see you’ve been compromised, think of the other places you may have used that same login and password, and change your passwords!

Or, just change your passwords anyway. It’s time, right?

More on how to choose a password (this is a fun idea) and how to remember passwords here.

Recently, the US Congress repealed important internet privacy protections. The repeal allows internet providers to gather and sell personal data — like location and browsing histories — without the user’s permission.

People have been asking Cruzio if we sell personal data.

The answer: No. Cruzio and Santa Cruz Fiber do not use or share your data for any purpose other than carrying out the internet service we’re providing you. And we don’t sell your data at all. Never have, never will. It’s that simple.

Whether or not it’s illegal, Cruzio and Santa Cruz Fiber believe it’s unethical to collect and sell your personal data without your permission.

Cruzio’s owners and staff are all deeply committed to keeping your personal information private and secure at every level of our company.

If you are concerned about privacy on the Internet, we urge you to take action. Let your representatives know that it is a concern. Support the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the ACLU.

The next big issue on the internet front may be Net Neutrality.

Cruzio and Santa Cruz Fiber practice Net Neutrality — we can get pretty passionate about it, just like privacy. Keep your eye on this issue too. We’ll be sharing updates on these issues in our newsletter, blog and on social media.

(Note: let your elected representatives know what you think about internet rules! To find contact information for all your representatives, we recommend the Needful News Network. If you enter your full address, you’ll get a list of all elected officials who serve you. )

On March 23rd, the US Senate voted to revoke privacy provisions put in place by the Obama administration. On March 28th, the House passed the bill as well. Now it’s just waiting for President Trump’s signature, and he’s indicated he will sign it.

Before getting into an explanation of the effect this will have on our privacy, we should mention that Cruzio Internet and Santa Cruz Fiber are strongly opposed to this action. In our 28-year history we have scrupulously protected customer privacy and we always will. With other independent ISPs, we’ve signed on to a letter from the Electronic Freedom Foundation protesting the recent vote.

What’s this loss of privacy about?

The new rules will allow internet service providers (ISPs) — the companies who connect home and business computers to the internet — to collect a wide variety of data from customers and use or sell it.

For example, your ISP can see when and from where you connect to the internet, and what sites you visit. Collecting this data and selling it without your permission is an invasion of your privacy.

If companies don’t have to ask permission, they also do not have to make sure you know they’re scooping up your data, or specifics about what or when they’re collecting and to whom it’s being sold. So likely most consumers will not even be aware of what they are revealing.

Why would anyone want to remove privacy protections?

The claim from Congress was that removing the regulations will “increase competition and cut costs for internet providers.”

The competition they’re talking about isn’t helpful to consumers, only advertisers. Rather than adding entrants to the ISP market, removing this regulation just allows complicit ISPs to compete with social media companies like Facebook and Google for advertising dollars.  But since those sectors don’t much overlap, we can’t expect increased competition in either of them. Big companies, with big ad revenue, will get bigger.

That’s why the biggest ISPs, phone and cable behemoths who control nearly all the market, pushed hard — and paid a lot — for this legislation.

More competition among ISPs is much needed. Right now, the vast majority of people in America have access to only one or two internet providers — their local cable or phone company. Deregulation hasn’t created a competitive environment as promised, it just hardened monopolies. Allowing the sale of private information is just another hollow claim.

Since big ISPs don’t have to be competitive, they don’t have to avoid unpopular practices. People might like a choice of privacy or other options, but the choice for most people will be, basically, internet without privacy or no internet at all.

In Santa Cruz we do have a choice. Cruzio is a local ISP with a strong commitment to customer privacy and security, as well as net neutrality. Cruzio has not, does not and will not sell your data. This is true throughout our organization. And every household or business that uses our service helps us stay in the game, enabling us to continue our commitment to principles our customers care about.

Can we just wait, and then re-establish privacy rules later?

Unfortunately, the resolution rescinding privacy rules prevents the FCC from reinstating the same or similar measures in the future. It’s one of the Congressional Review Acts (CRAs) that the 2017 Congress has used to turn over regulations enacted by the Obama-era agencies. The FCC under President Obama was able to simply create a regulation protecting internet users. Next time, because it’s been rescinded by a CRA, protection will require a vote by Congress.

Is there a silver lining to this situation?

We hope so: that the public will be more aware of internet privacy, as well as net neutrality. Cruzio and Santa Cruz Fiber regularly report about this issue in our newsletter, blog, and social media, pointing out ways to get your voice heard. Stay tuned!

(Note: let your elected representatives know what you think about internet rules! To find contact information for all your representatives, we recommend the Needful News Network. Enter your full address to get a list of all of the elected officials who serve you.)

Our coworker and friend Doug Ross passed away last week. He was a member of the Cruzio community for many years, and being forced to speak of him in the past tense is hard.

Doug at his marine mammal rescue post

Doug was a big man: strong, tall, enormously talented; generous, with a great big heart. He enriched what he touched and improved what he joined.

How to describe all that Doug did for us and for the world?

His art. We know his print-making best, but Doug could work in so many media. He once brought a beautiful Calder-esque wire horse sculpture to our workspace. He’d made it by twisting some wires together. Doug pivoted from commercial art to fine art several years ago, and we’re grateful for the freedom that gave him. His art is unique, memorable, and very recognizable.

Doug at Cruzioworks

His participation. At our coworking “Bounce Hour” get-togethers, Doug explained how he approached art, shared his Toastmaster training,and even organized an evening of sketching for our community. He led a chapter of Toastmasters. He was a beloved longtime member and leader, well known to other coworkers for his warmth and willingness to help.

His care for marine mammals. How many of us look out at the big ocean, full of wild creatures, and think, “I can help with that.” But perhaps the animal world has the most to thank Doug for. He regularly saved stranded sea lions and whales caught in garbage and debris. From time to time he’d get a call at work and he’d rush out to the beach or the bay to help a distressed animal. Doug’s strength, smarts and skill came in handy for cold water rescue operations, and he was summoned for the most difficult jobs.

His mad-scientist passion for solving problems. Doug invented equipment that will improve the process of untangling whales from debris.

Chris Neklason, Cruzio’s CEO, said

“A Venn diagram is a chart of intersecting circles. Each circle could indicate a talent or an interest. A Venn diagram of Doug would be an infinitely petaled flower with a blazing core.”

Most of all, we’ll miss seeing Doug walk toward us, coffee cup in hand, wryly smiling, saying hello. Any community is only as great as its participants make it. We all depended on Doug for his leadership and we will miss him terribly. Much love to his family.

An eagle watches the Loma Fire

September 26th in Santa Cruz was unseasonably hot. Fire weather.

At about 2:45 pm, one of our ham radio enthusiasts emailed us: “Fire in the Santa Cruz Mountains… Just a quarter acre, someone’s trailer caught fire,” he told us.

In an hour the fire had spread to 200 acres. Local TV news streamed a live feed, which we tweeted: a helicopter circling Loma Prieta mountain, watching the fire race uphill.

Small planes from Cal Fire dumped loads of flame retardant on a mountain covered with dry, brittle trees and brush. At first, Cruzio staff watched like anyone else would watch, worrying about the people, pets and animals who might be affected. But it got more personal as the hours passed.

2:48 pm, from Cruzio’s camera, we’re seeing nearby smoke

A telecommunications facility, used by many companies including Cruzio, sits on top of Loma Prieta. We serve some fiber-to-wireless customers from that site, and it’s an important backup to our fiber connections, protecting our network from outages. We’ve spent years acquiring and deploying expensive equipment there.

Starting at about 2:45 pm, we watched live TV footage of the fire approaching the bunker-like buildings and steel tower housing our equipment.

2:48 pm, a TV helicopter’s view of Loma

Cruzio has security cameras up there — we mostly use them to monitor weather, so we can make sure snow and ice don’t interfere with equipment in winter. The cameras can be swiveled, zoomed and aimed remotely, so we can see all around. Often, one of our technicians will spot mountain lions or eagles close to the buildings and they’ll email out screen shots. We love the cameras.

By 3:30 pm, our security cameras were picking up nearby flames.

3:42 pm, from Cruzio’s camera, the edge of the fire moving up the mountain

At Cruzio headquarters, we anxiously watched the live video. We hoped the fire would miss our facility. Winds were blowing away from the buildings — we could see embers blowing away from the camera. But the situation changed by the minute.

As we swiveled the camera, we saw fire in dozens of spots burning just down the hill.

If fire had engulfed the mountaintop facility, and burned the bunkers down, our equipment would have been destroyed. But the site is prepared for fire, with a wide dirt clearance, paved perimeter road and concrete buildings. And once we saw the fire moving south, we were relieved that the fire wouldn’t destroy our equipment. Now we worried about electricity.  Continue Reading: Night One

Cruzio and the Loma Fire: Night One

Loma Fire from Cruzio’s security cameras, 8:36 pm

Cruzio staff were glued to our video, watching the Loma Fire burn close to our hilltop equipment for hours. By early evening, the tall flames were very near our buildings, but luckily never crossed the paved perimeter.

They came awfully close, though. As we swiveled and zoomed our camera remotely, this is what we saw:

Loma fire from Cruzio security camera, 8:24 pm

Loma Fire from Cruzio security camera, 8:11 pm

At about 6 pm, PG&E had cut power for safety reasons. You don’t want live electrical wires on burning poles.

How We Prepare for Emergencies Like the Loma Fire

Now back a step, to Cruzio’s long years of planning. In 2009, when we started using mountaintop facilities, we had limited power backup at those sites. When there was a problem with power — which happens more often than you’d like, — we’d have to rush up to fix the situation.

One of Cruzio’s principles of operation is that we must do absolutely all we can to provide 24/7 service without fail. Plus, we hate going up to mountains in bad weather, in the middle of a freezing night.

So Cruzio has invested heavily in long-lasting power backups for mountaintops.

Now, we have backup batteries rated to last 24 hours. We refresh our batteries on a regular schedule every year so they are always in good shape. We regularly test our generators and monitor our power equipment. Our teams drill for emergencies and every member of our staff is ready to help. It all comes in handy at a time like this.

Those powerful batteries meant we maintained service all night while the fire blazed around the hilltop. The batteries also kept the cameras going so we continued to watch, transfixed, throughout the evening.

But after a day, we knew our batteries would run down. We needed to get up the mountain with a generator to recharge them — PG&E was estimating a whole week before power was restored.

We kept watching until late at night. Even though the fire had passed us, Cal Fire said there was no way we could get to our site until late morning. So our Field Operations staff prepared to go up first thing the next day.
Continue Reading: Day Two

In the morning on September 27th, Field Operations Manager Alison Lowenthal, engineer Colin Miller, and our new apprentices, Cameron Langston and Rafferty Lincoln, headed up in the truck to see if we could get to the mountaintop where fire had threatened. It was Cameron’s first day at work — what a first day. Ralph Silveira, one of our top field staff, drove out, too, but had to head home with a flat tire. Over 2,000 acres were now burning, but the fire had moved south of our site, so we were hoping to reach our equipment.

Trying to get to Cruzio’s gear, but not yet allowed up, September 27th

The mountain facility doesn’t have a permanent generator, so we have to bring our own when power is down. Usually we have enough battery power to last out any outage, but in this case the power could be down for many days, PG&E said. Over a dozen nearby utility poles had burnt or fallen or both.

Cruzio needed to get the generator running to recharge the batteries before they ran out of juice.

Emergency personnel stopped our team partway up the winding mountain road. “Not safe yet.” We know there are two entrances to the site — and our customers are depending on us — so the crew drove down the mountain, onto Highway 17, and tried going in the north entrance, opposite where the fire was burning. Chris Frost, our Director of Technology and Infrastructure, coordinated with Cal Fire to determine the safest way up the mountain.

They stopped at Tomita Hill, where they took this photo of Loma:

Loma Fire September 27th

The unpaved roads on that side are even more winding. Once again Field Ops were stopped by Cal Fire staff, who told them “But if you go back around the other entrance, maybe you can get in that way.” So they drove all the way back down to 17, and back up again to where they’d started. Then they waited at the road block for a few hours.

Cruzio’s Colin Miller (center, in white tee shirt) at the road block

Delay was pushing the limits of our equipment. Back at Cruzio, we were watching (on internet monitors) as the power supplies drained away.

Mark Hanford, our Chief Systems Engineer, was re-routing all the customers he could away from Loma Prieta. Networks have some amount of flexibility — that’s why every site is important, and redundancy is crucial — so Mark was reconfiguring the network to route around the emergency. In a short time, he had moved almost all our customers away from the problem.

Then we waited to see if the power would go down before our crew could get in.

One side of the mountain was burned to ash

At 5:30 pm, half an hour was left on the battery. Time ticked away. 15 minutes. 10. At 6 pm, Mark said “Okay. Power can go off any second now.” Our team was still waiting at the Cal Fire stop, waiting for entry. Capacity on the batteries went to zero.

But miraculously our power didn’t go out. The batteries kept running. They kept going past their expected charge. Mark stayed at the office, waiting for the power to go off so he could check on his emergency network routing. 7 pm. 8 pm. The batteries didn’t die. Our guys were waiting on the mountain. 8:30 pm.

Finally, the batteries were out at 8:50. They had run on “empty” for two and half hours!

Then, just after battery power went out, we got word: Cal Fire was escorting Cruzio’s team up the hill in a convoy of fire and water trucks, and onto our site. It was stop-and-go all the way up the mountain as the fire was hard to work around. Although diminished at that time, some flames were only feet away from the vehicles.

“We could hear the fire like a jet engine,” recounted Colin Miller, “You could see the embers flying into the trees [near] where the vehicles were.” It was clear, though, that the fire was moving away and our team made it up the mountain safely.

It only takes 5 minutes to power up the generator. Our crew had it going in no time. Then they took turns watching all night, and sleeping in shifts, to make sure everything ran smoothly.

Up there on the tower, above the smoke the air was clear. After a long day of braving the smoky air and fire, Field Ops took the opportunity to end the night with some stargazing. Alison Lowenthal summarized the day: “It’s intense, but it’s actually a lot of fun. I love being up on Loma.”
Continue Reading: The Aftermath 

The Loma Fire still burned on Day 3, but had passed our site

Cruzio went through a tense Monday, when the fire started, with flames roaring past our hilltop facility. Then all day Tuesday Cruzio staff was waiting, watching and then racing to re-charge our backup batteries before power ran out. We didn’t completely avoid an outage, but the number of people affected was small and the effect brief.

We felt good about our performance and lucky we’d escaped more damage.

By Wednesday, conditions on Loma’s hilltop had stabilized. The fire still raged south of us — 4,000 acres burning that day — but our access to the site had become pretty routine. The road block was gone. We worked with other folks on the mountaintop, sharing resources and helping each other out.

Burned and black bushes were all around

PG&E told us that power would be off for a week or more, so we settled in for the long haul. Chris Frost, our Director of Technology and Infrastructure, went on TV to explain the situation.

For several days our staff took turns going up the mountain and maintaining the generators. It was a grind, though what we went through didn’t compare to people who’d lost homes or were displaced.

A lot of fast food was consumed and a lot of time was spent looking out over the charred landscape and drifting smoke. Our team saw a dozen or more utility poles burned black and leaning, clearly a big job for PG&E.

Over the next few days, we watched fascinated as PG&E lowered pole after pole from a helicopter into place on the steep mountainside. The utility’s ground crew guided the poles into place and quickly had the new infrastructure up.

Cal Fire bravely walking toward the burn. PG&E is fixing the pole behind them.

Then, well ahead of schedule, just after noon on Monday October 3rd, PG&E restored power to the mountaintop. Cruzio’s staff breathed a sigh of relief. Our saga was over for now.

A week later, at this writing, the fire is 95% contained and people have returned to their homes. In all, the fire destroyed 12 houses along with many outbuildings. Luckily, no one was injured.

Things to know about fire:

• A fire grows much faster than you’d ever imagine, especially in such dry conditions. Fire coming? Get out!
• Preparation is essential. A generous perimeter saved our gear. Our batteries and generator prevented a serious outage.
• Working together in these situations is key. All companies in the facility helped each other, making the situation much more bearable.
• PG&E really has their process down, they were extremely efficient.
• Cal Fire is a heroic organization. We owe a lot to them and we’re very grateful for all their help. Over 2,100 fire fighters came from around the state to work in challenging, steep terrain. As our staff member Colin said, “The firefighters were the most amazing thing, I just had this feeling of WOW! Being up there with them is so different from just knowing they’re up there.”

Photo credits for these posts: Chris Frost, Alison Lowenthal, Colin Miller, and our security camera.