Everytime I read a story like this I'm reminded of "The case of the 500-mile email"

https://www.ibiblio.org/harris/500milemail.html

"...But then I tried to send an email to Memphis (600 miles). It failed. Boston, failed. Detroit, failed. I got out my address book and started trying to narrow this down. New York (420 miles) worked, but Providence (580 miles) failed...."