From a clever reader:

“Regarding the tech “glitches”… they all seem to be connected to router issues. If built correctly (a big assumption in a lot of large enterprises) the loss of multiple routers should only slow traffic, not stop it. The internet itself — Internet Protocol — was based on the concept of dynamic re-routing of traffic. You probably know this: the internet was the result of DOD project to build a communications network that can survive near-complete destruction resulting from a massive nuclear exchange. The key to making it work is the network’s ability to detect missing/damaged routes and network segments and intelligently find an alternate route. In the late days of Operation Desert Storm the old Unix geeks and hackers (they of the long, silver pony tails) went ballistic with joy because their invention got its first real-world test: we had bombed, smashed, sliced, and eviscerated over 80% of the Iraqi communications interconnects and infrastructure but command and control messages were still getting through from Baghdad to Basra… albeit through strange routes that took the traffic through Syria, Israel, Saudi Arabia, and even AT&T’s data networks before terminating at the intended end point. Traffic was delayed up to a few seconds but the messages got through.

So how does one router going down at United bring its network to its knees…. and was that an American-made Cisco or Brocade or HP or Juniper router or a Chinese made Huawei router?

You’re right… those who should care can’t understand, and those who understand already know.”