It’s not quite as exciting as carrier pigeons delivering data, but it turns out hunters who can’t find woodland creatures to murder habitually shoot down aerial fiber links around Google’s data center in Oregon.

Google is taking matters into its own hands this year though, and trying to prepare underground pathways for the fiber before the looming hunting season arrives in November.

The season being in winter also makes repair work harder than it would be in a more forgiving climate.  Apparently once because of problems getting through snow, Google’s usual strategy of sending in a repair-helicopter or tractor wasn’t manageable, so they had to send in a repair crew on skis.  Vijay Gill, infrastructure extraordinaire for Google, was pretty hilarious on this subject: “These guys had to go in and fix the fiber while facing gunshots... so the internet - more dangerous than you realize.”

Get all the details on IT News.

Elizabeth English

photo by striatic under flickr creative commons license