Loss of service reports

[Glenn]

     BT Wholesale - Broadband Incident Report    
          
     Please read the following incident report as it could have an impact on some of your end users    
          
     BT Incident Reference:    32643         Issue :    2    
     Detected Date:    20/11/2010         Detected Time:    10:08    
     Start Date:    20/11/2010         Start Time:    10:06    
     Anticipated Clear Date:    20/11/2010         Anticipated Clear Time:    12:06    
          
     Incident Headline:    : LIVINGSTON MUX 101 AND EDINBURGH PENTLAND MUX 101: LOSS OF SERVICE    
          
     Incident Details:    At the moment some of your Broadband End Users may be experiencing a loss of Broadband service.


   
     Progress Details:    BT is making progress towards full restoration of Service.
Latest Update:
An Engineer has been tasked to site.
Further updates will be provided as soon as possible.

   
     Dialling Codes Affected:    
013144   013145   013146   013147   013153
013162   013166   01506

[Rik]

The Celtic Disconnection continues.

[Glenn]

From the IDNet RSS feed at 20:35

     BT Wholesale - Broadband Incident Report   
         
     Please read the following incident report as it could have an impact on some of your end users   
         
     BT Incident Reference:    32722         Issue :    2   
     Detected Date:    21/11/2010         Detected Time:    19:50   
     Start Date:    21/11/2010         Start Time:    19:19   
     Anticipated Clear Date:    21/11/2010         Anticipated Clear Time:    22:00   
         
     Incident Headline:    : READING NODE 05211 MR16 CARD :PARTIAL LOSS OF SERVICE   
         
     Incident Details:    At the moment some of your Broadband End Users may be experiencing a loss of Broadband service.


   
     Progress Details:    BT is making progress towards full restoration of Service.
Latest Update:
An Engineer has been tasked to site.
Further updates will be provided as soon as possible.

   
     Dialling Codes Affected:   
01132   01159   01162   01179   01183
01189   01202   01209   01223   01225
01226   01235   01242   01243   01249
01252   01256   01258   01262   01268
01269   01273   01275   01279   01290
01297   01305   01308   01325   01329
01367   01379   01392   01394   01404
014133   01433   01454   01473   01483
01489   01493   01494   01522   01542
01548   01566   01590   01604   01628
01634   01635   01666   01672   01709
01720   01725   01726   01733   01747
01749    01752   01753   01761   01775
01784   01787   01788   01793   01803
01823   01827   01840   01869   01903
01904   01929   01933   01935   01963
01977   01980   01983   0207228   0207499
0207538   0208205   0208337   0208475   0208534
0208552   0208851   0208883   0238024   0238062
0238089   0239226   0239232   0239245   0239246
0239260   0239263   0239269   0239275   0239285
0247622   0247666   0247671   0289336   0289447
0289751   0247671   0289336

[Conrad]

Got no internet AGAIN! Using my old P910 to post this. Anyone else lost service?

[aurichie]

Yeah my idnet connection dropped out and won't reconnect. I've powered off the router and will try again in the morning. My other line on the same exchange (with a different ISP) is working fine. I'm posting from it now.

[zappaDPJ]

This could be due to the planned engineering work detailed here and quoted below:

Planned Engineering Work is required to be carried out on BT's 21st Century Network Planned

Duration details: Planned start: 22/11/2010 23:00 - planned finish: 23/11/2010 06:00

Customer Impact Statement:

BT Wholesale 21CN broadband WBMC shared platform is undergoing a Programme of works. Work is now planned at LONDON STEPNEY GREEN to increase capacity and resilience which will allow for more edge routers to be connected to the network. This planned work will result in an outage of up to 6 hours, to minimize the impact on customers the work will be carried out between Midnight to 6AM

Please note that this will affect all connections, 20CN and 21CN and may result in stale sessions. If you find yourself in sync on Tuesday morning, but are unable to reach the web, please power down your router for 30 minutes, then try again. If you still have a problem, contact support.

[Conrad]

It is back now so looks like it was due to that planned work.  Is there any way to get e-mail notification of any planned outages in future?

[DorsetBoy]

Status RSS feed >>  http://www.idnet.net/statusrss.php

The planned work was notified well in advance on the web site and here on the forum,over the next month there is a lot more work to come right across the UK.

[aurichie]

Mine came back this morning too. I guess the BT Total Broadband line had no problem reconnecting late last night when it dropped because BT connections don't use username + password to authorize users.

[Conrad]

Couldn't we have been switched to an alternate circuit or something?  These outages are killing me!  I NEED to find a more stable service.  Maybe someone here can help?  Ideally I would like a hosting service where I have complete control over the http/mail server config (i.e. full LAMP root access).
Hosting a site at home is all good fun and an excellent learning experience, but it makes you realise just how important uptime is, and I can't put up with these regular outages anymore (for my hosting at least - not quite so bothered about the browsing side of things).
Any recommendations would be appreciated.  Thanks.

[Rik]

In a word, no. This is BT's network we are talking about, not IDNet's. An ISP can do nothing to work around BT engineering work.

You could try someone like 1&1 for hosting, but you still wouldn't be able to connect to them yourself if BT takes the network down.

[pctech]

Could always fit a PCI modem card in your PC and use it to dial up (assuming here IDNet have a dialup number or alternatively you could use one of myriad of other ones on the net but its likely to cost you a local rate call)

As for mail hosting you can use 1&1 as I do as its very cheap and they provide an SSL secured webmail interface but will be a bit useless without a connection and the telephone support is dire but have only had to ring them twice in the past six years when the webmail server has fallen over.

[Rik]

IDNet do provide a dial-up backup, Mitch. 0845 602 1131

[DorsetBoy]

Couldn't we have been switched to an alternate circuit or something?  These outages are killing me!  I NEED to find a more stable service.  Maybe someone here can help?  Ideally I would like a hosting service where I have complete control over the http/mail server config (i.e. full LAMP root access).
Hosting a site at home is all good fun and an excellent learning experience, but it makes you realise just how important uptime is, and I can't put up with these regular outages anymore (for my hosting at least - not quite so bothered about the browsing side of things).
Any recommendations would be appreciated.  Thanks.

ALL communication systems have periods of downtime for maintenance be it , BT ,Tiscali Wholesale, CPW, Virgin ......... the infrastructure needs constant work.

BT give advance warning of their scheduled work and that as has been explained to you previously is notified on the IDNet website, via theStatus RSS feed and here on the forum where there was not only an announcement but also a large news banner showing the information.

If you are ( or want to be)  a site/forum admin you need to be checking these details on a daily basis and making plans around them. There are also other backup connection systems available and you need to investigate what suits your needs.

I have run various forums for years now , it is up to me to know what is planned and be able to work around any connection issues.

Web space and servers are available at IDNet , otherwise take a look around places like Webhosting talk for hosts, just remember that hosts also have some downtime, you need to be checking their status on a daily basis and have to have an alternative access plan, do you have UPS for your router/s ? What happens if your area has a prolonged power cut?

Be aware that there is a lot more BT work coming up that "could" affect your connection >> http://www.idnetters.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=23400.0 << have a read of the schedule to see if your exchange is covered.

[Rik]

Good point, Dorset. If resilience is paramount, you need to have a second, non-BT, circuit. It costs more, but resilience does. (Yes, I do have a UPS on my router. )

[Technical Ben]

That's why I love the things Google come up with and try to do.
It's not there yet, but I'd love to see a 100% fail safe internet, run like the Google server farm. I think it was Google or Valve Software that had one of their server farms catch fire, another get knocked out in a storm, and it all just fell over (as in transferred, no crashed! ) to the next one seamlessly for customers and users.
They use back up systems between drives, servers and sites. But this does need a massive network, and BT don't have the available connections really.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_platform
Not sure how well them and BT get on. 

[Rik]

I like the list of original equipment. I think BT may have bought it from them.

[pctech]

Google are working on something called Spanner http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/10/23/google_spanner/ to do just that though by the looks of what happened with IDNet they aren't there yet.

I think Valve are further ahead in that particular area as Steam has been running for years and I only remember a couple of times when I wasn't able to log in when they took the whole thing down for maintenance.

[Bill]

PPP went down last night at 00:10 for 70 minutes, couldn't find anything in the status reports... anyone got any ideas beyond BT not telling anyone in advance?

FTTC, Didcot (01235) exchange.

Whilst I remember... usually the router just reports "Disconnected", then nothing until "Connection established [my IP address] -> [Gateway IP] when it comes back up, but occasionally it connects me to a BT address with a local IP which changes about every ten minutes, again until it comes back up. Can I infer anything from what it does?

[Rik]

That sounds like engineering work where the PPP session is not being re-established, Bill.

[Bill]

So, oversimplifying, if I get a BT address it just means that the network can't find the IDNet RADIUS servers for whatever reason, if I don't then something is probably broke? (Either by accident or design)

[Rik]

I think that about sums it up, Bill. The BT addresses were seen widely when BT decided that IDNet wasn't a customer anymore.

[Bill]

Cheers Rik, it's always nice to know these things even when there's bugger all I can do about it

[Rik]

You are but a mere shrimp to the whale which is BT, Bill.

[Bill]

the whale which is BT

I think "basking shark" might be a better analogy... whales display more activity and intelligent behaviour