Widespread problems with Telstra BigPond

 

Emails safe but no word on when services will be back up for all users.

UPDATE 1500, 15/9

Telstra's widespread problems with user login and email on its BigPond internet and Foxtel cable services continued into its third day, defying the telco's assurances that it would be back online yesterday.

At noon today a Telstra spokesman reiterated assurances made yesterday that emails would be saved and forwarded to subscribers once the network was resurrected but Telstra stepped away from yesterday's guarantees about when the service would be fully operational.

Some accounts were still locked, he said, and there appeared to be other outages as far afield as Bassendean in WA. At 3pm, Telstra's service status page still showed amber lights denoting service difficulties across the board. It showed the next scheduled update for email status will be tomorrow morning.

Telstra's spokesman would not say if an incident report would be circulated to explain the outages.

Telstra said yesterday the problem occurred with a server on Monday. Telstra apologised for the inconvenience.

"The issue was fixed this morning [yesterday] and we are now working to ensure the remaining backlog of emails are being distributed to customers," Telstra's spokesman said.

"Also, some accounts have been locked due to the repair works that have taken place, we expect these accounts will be operational also by the end of the day."

The outages affected dialup, cable, ADSL, satellite and 3G Next G wireless services across the east coast and email nationally, Telstra said.

Telstra's status pages showed that users started experiencing problems yesterday at about 10am.

"Due to scheduled maintenance, customers ... may experience difficulties connecting to the internet during the service disruption period," Telstra status page showed. "We recommend that customers power cycle their computer and modem before attempting to reconnect. We apologise for any inconvenience."

Cable users afflicted were in Lindfield, Waverly, Northbridge, Maroubra, Drummoyne and Harbord in NSW; Eltham, Cheltenham, Caulfield, Highett and South Oakleign in Victoria and Albany Creek in Queensland.

It also showed cable login timeouts on its hybrid-fibre coaxial network across the east coast.

Australia's biggest ISP also apologised for a national email outage.

"We are currently having problems with BigPond Mail.

"This is affecting customers nationally. Customers may experience delays in receiving mail or accessing their accounts.

"Technicians are treating this issue as a priority and are working on the problem."

* updated 1500 15/9 with Telstra spokesman's email comments.

click to view full size image
Telstra status page showing widespread BigPond outages

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Widespread problems with Telstra BigPond
"Now I am annoyed status says problem fixed but emails that were sent have not been recieved. So much for them being safe!!!!. Ring Technical support so far have not been able to correct it."
By Fdken
 
 
 
Comments: 9
motza
Sep 14, 2010 2:34 PM
What is not made clear in the above is that emails have been lost.
Spookytooth
Sep 14, 2010 2:42 PM
Yes Telstra do you anticipate lost Emails it would be good to know.
ccoughlan
Sep 14, 2010 4:45 PM
I suspect that all email sent to me between 6am and noon today has been lost. Anybody that sent me an email received a return notice that said in effect that my email account didn't exist and the email could not be delivered. I'll be very surprised if I receive any of these emails. Telstra spin?
Ezy2Confuze
Sep 14, 2010 4:49 PM
So if this is all because of a single Server, where's their DR plan? Do they have a DR plan?

Do they have a backup DR Server for the one that failed?

If I was a business customer, I'd be seriously ticked off at Telstra.
realitybites
Sep 14, 2010 5:43 PM
@ccoughlan - If the notice the sender received stated that the delivery address did not exist then that would be a 550 fatal notice. No further delivery attempts will be made, so don't expect any to turn up unless resent by the original sender.

@Ezy - I have no idea what DR plans Telstra have. What I do know is that the servers that send mail out for them are not RFC compliant. Unfortunately they are not the only ones, yahoo are shocking for RFC compliance, but that's getting off topic.



Edited by realitybites: 14/9/2010 05:48:59 PM

Edited by realitybites: 14/9/2010 05:54:54 PM
ADSLNerd
Sep 16, 2010 12:07 AM
Im on ADSL and have had no issues with emails via my Bigpond account - no issues at all.
Fdken
Sep 16, 2010 5:54 AM
Well on wed morning after not being able to check emails the previous day made 6 bookings for hotels for an upcoming o/s holiday. I have yet to receive the confirmation emails and presumably two or three business opportunities in Nigeria.

If the confirmation emails don't arrive soon I will be annoyed.
OhSmeg
Sep 16, 2010 4:01 PM
Hmm.... Satellites affected as well?
Are Aussies actually watching something like this being implemented and suffering teething problems?
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/3203448/NZs-cyber-spies-win-new-powers
Fdken
Sep 16, 2010 4:55 PM
Now I am annoyed status says problem fixed but emails that were sent have not been recieved. So much for them being safe!!!!. Ring Technical support so far have not been able to correct it.
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