Mail issues

[David]

Im not 100% but I think thats it and we just wait and see is the answer I think I expect some update will be there tomorrow or hope so 

I have tried logging in to the  alternative webmail but it wont allow me in just states password incorrect....is this something else I dont,but should know how to use...

[David]

As unpopular as it will be Dopamine has raised some very good points and I do find myself in some agreement .I dont expect hourly updates or anyone to post anything and they may be hard at it,or they may be in bed..  IN truth I dont know but it is when all said and done thier jobs if I get called out in a minute I will just go thats what I get paid for I cant see a difference........

[Bill]

I don't often post on this board, though I keep a weather eye on it.

I've been surprised at the number of references to people leaving to join another ISP because of the recent email failure.

Granted it was a major failure on IDNet's part not to have a reliable backup system in place, but that's been acknowledged and I've no doubt that the disaster recovery plans are going to get a major inspection and overhaul.

But if you quit IDNet for another ISP, where are you going? To another ISP with rock-solid email but slow and flaky internet connection? An ISP with overseas script monkeys who'll go through their script for three weeks before passing you to second line support?

IDNet provide you with a connection to the internet, anything else is frippery. Lose that connection and I don't care who your mail provider, Web provider, blog provider is YOU'VE LOST IT.

Get into the real world folks.

[David]

I don't often post on this board, though I keep a weather eye on it.

I've been surprised at the number of references to people leaving to join another ISP because of the recent email failure.

Granted it was a major failure on IDNet's part not to have a reliable backup system in place, but that's been acknowledged and I've no doubt that the disaster recovery plans are going to get a major inspection and overhaul.

But if you quit IDNet for another ISP, where are you going? To another ISP with rock-solid email but slow and flaky internet connection? An ISP with overseas script monkeys who'll go through their script for three weeks before passing you to second line support?

IDNet provide you with a connection to the internet, anything else is frippery. Lose that connection and I don't care who your mail provider, Web provider, blog provider is YOU'VE LOST IT.

Get into the real world folks.

This is asuming that there is only the one isp in the market (leaving the rubbish ones out) in the real world Bill there are may be 6 in this league with proven track records I have had the srcipts from India to Katmandu so just a little wiser I wish I could say this is out of proportion its all relative to each and every one of us..

Hope its sorted when I turn on tomorrow........

[Dopamine]

Very true, but how else does one protest?

Now, I'm not one of those thinking of moving..... yet. But, the manner in which this is being dealt with by IDNet is unacceptable to all but the fanboys and the undemanding. The vast majority of IDNet customers probably never visits this forum, their first port of call in incidences like this either being the IDNet website homepage or the telephone helpline. Why has IDNet not posted a status report on its site? RSS feeds, forums and any other forms of communication are the playgrounds of the technically competent or interested, and aren't used by the majority.

All this really shows is how abysmal ISPs are in general. IDNet can't be bothered to keep its customers informed when a major problem arises, yet is rightly considered to be one of the best ISPs. Doesn't say much about the industry, does it?

I don't often post on this board, though I keep a weather eye on it.

I've been surprised at the number of references to people leaving to join another ISP because of the recent email failure.

Granted it was a major failure on IDNet's part not to have a reliable backup system in place, but that's been acknowledged and I've no doubt that the disaster recovery plans are going to get a major inspection and overhaul.

But if you quit IDNet for another ISP, where are you going? To another ISP with rock-solid email but slow and flaky internet connection? An ISP with overseas script monkeys who'll go through their script for three weeks before passing you to second line support?

IDNet provide you with a connection to the internet, anything else is frippery. Lose that connection and I don't care who your mail provider, Web provider, blog provider is YOU'VE LOST IT.

Get into the real world folks.

[Simon_idnet]

We've made good progress tonight and should now be in a good position to crack on with the service migration tomorrow.
Regards
Simon

[rumi]

I just knew Gordon Brown was behind this somehow.

The only thing Brown is behind is Ed Balls.

Allegedly.

[Malc]

We've made good progress tonight and should now be in a good position to crack on with the service migration tomorrow.
Regards
Simon

Nice to see updates, thanks Simon. Hope it goes well.

Having read all the comments, I am disappointed with this email situaltion, and I don't treat email as free, nut as part of the package. But, at the end of the day, I would not jump ship, as long as my connection is excellent, (as it always is) and as long as there's no line throttling and lies about unlimited.

My horrendous year with poopex/toscalli comes to mind amidst all this.

[Dangerjunkie]

Hi,

Up until this IDNet's SMTP has been fantastic for me. It's the only provider I've ever been with where I could create an email account and use its password to access my ISP's SMTP server from whatever connection I happen to be using. I travel and the way IDNet do it is so much easier than messing about with traceroutes, trying to work out who the ISP is that supplies the hotel I'm in, finding the name of their SMTP server, reconfiguring my client then finding out their ISP is on one of the spam blacklists and half the world won't take my emails.

Bearing in mind that a significant proportion of people won't use their ISP's POP3 service but almost everyone will use the SMTP server to send stuff I really think that the outgoing SMTP should be spun off onto a separate machine to give it some isolation from any attack on the incoming server. I do give IDNet credit for having a second SMTP server

Cheers,
Paul.

[talos2]

We've made good progress tonight and should now be in a good position to crack on with the service migration tomorrow.
Regards

:
Simon

[Rik]

(Tell'em what telex was Rik!  )

Telex was what I predicted to the then PMG in 1967, would be the means by which daily newspapers would be delivered. I got the technology a bit wrong, but I was preicting the web.

[Rik]

We've made good progress tonight and should now be in a good position to crack on with the service migration tomorrow.
Regards
Simon

Now go to bed, Simon.

[Gary]

I don't often post on this board, though I keep a weather eye on it.

I've been surprised at the number of references to people leaving to join another ISP because of the recent email failure.

Granted it was a major failure on IDNet's part not to have a reliable backup system in place, but that's been acknowledged and I've no doubt that the disaster recovery plans are going to get a major inspection and overhaul.

But if you quit IDNet for another ISP, where are you going? To another ISP with rock-solid email but slow and flaky internet connection? An ISP with overseas script monkeys who'll go through their script for three weeks before passing you to second line support?

IDNet provide you with a connection to the internet, anything else is frippery. Lose that connection and I don't care who your mail provider, Web provider, blog provider is YOU'VE LOST IT.

Get into the real world folks.

This kind of comment is so one sided, there are other good ISP's out there, I'm not with IDNet anymore, i just pay for my mail to be hosted as I had great addresses, my ISP has 24/7 english support being LLU adsl2+ better speeds over my long line, so can we cut the fan boy stuff out!
Now back to the situation at hand, having spoken with Tim yesterday I got an apology which I did not ask for, we chatted about what happened and he was open and honest, basically a big mistake happened and they have learnt from it. You cant ask for much more than that, and jumping ship would be pretty silly unless you have a good ISP to go to, I changed due to bad BT line issues and o2/be worked great for me, but I would not use another BT adsl max service without it being with IDNet simply because of the normally excellent level of service.
As for Indian script jockeys DO YOU SPEAK THEIR LANGUAGE! Give the people a break its a job and the ISP choose to out source, yes its frustrating sometimes but they do the best with what they are given, if slamming them is an excuse to be racist, zip it!
Simon is providing updates they are working hard, and its easy to kick someone when they are down so can we cut that bullying out? They are doing more than Tiscali/Orange etc so be glad and understand no one is infallible, and then if you want to jump ship go ahead, but the grass is not always greener on the other side, and you should all know that, that's why you are here!
Finally hindsight is a great thing but constantly saying "they should have done this, or that" WE KNOW/THEY KNOW, its old news, they are helping. Can we move on please, this thread is getting dull, we just need the updates not the playground semantics.


Thanks for the update Simon and hope we are reconnected soon.

[talos2]

Simon is providing updates they are working hard, and its easy to kick someone when they are down so can we cut that bullying out? They are doing more than Tiscali/Orange etc so be glad and understand no one is infallible, and then if you want to jump ship go ahead, but the grass is not always greener on the other side, and you should all know that, that's why you are here!
Finally hindsight is a great thing but constantly saying "they should have done this, or that" WE KNOW/THEY KNOW, its old news, they are helping. Can we move on please, this thread is getting dull, we just need the updates not the playground semantics.


Thanks for the update Simon and hope we are reconnected soon.

I agree, having been pushed around , lied to and generally pi**ed of by Orange for three years of appalling service,  the grass is not so green out there, those that want to, go and try it, but come and tell us how you get on. I for one am staying, I know when I am well off.

[Malc]

Quite right as a said My horrendous year with poopex/toscalli comes to mind amidst all this. a while ago.

[Simon_idnet]

We're still on the case and will give a progress update when we've got news.
Simon

[Rik]

Thanks, Simon. 

when do you think you'll get it open then?

[Malc]

Thanks, Simon. 

when do you think you'll get it open then?

Simon says...   

[cavillas]

Honesty has always been at the root of IDNETS philosophy and they are not backing away from criticism,(fair or unfair) but just getting on with restoring the situation and then going on to increase reliability of the email system.  Unfortunately, all this takes time as and ,beleive it or not, Simon and the team are actually human with the same emotions and feelings as the rest of us.

As Killhippie said Hindsite is always an easy argument but never solves present situations.

Well done to Simon and Team for all their hard work and late nights/early mornings.  We should appreciate their commitment as they too have families who are probably missing them at the moment.

[chrisga]

Firstly,  IMHO it's complete bunkum  to suggest that IDnet  email / Web space  (etc) is "free".  As has been  mentioned,   these  facilities  are in the menu of  facilities  advertised with the service, so  are costed as part of the package !  They will also  have been considered  by a proportion of  customers in their purchase decision.

ID Net is  at the  expensive  end of the spectrum for non business use.  I moved from Tiscali because I wanted a "reassuringly expensive" service  (with corresponding reliability) after their regular outages and lost emails over there  !   So please don't  speak of  Tiscali  in the same breath as Idnet ! They aim to  give a  completely different level of service,  at a completely different price break !

I run a small hobby business,  and host my site on my IDNet Webspace, and although I have alternative email  facilities, I do use my IDnet supplied one.

I agree that it would be foolhardy to run a "day job" business from a general ISP's server, but I took an economic  / service judgment when setting up my current   situation.  The Hobby Business does  not make  vast amount of money, so business grade facilities  are not really justified.  To this end  I factored in non 24/7 availability.   However I  believe that for  the money I pay monthly to IDNet,  I deserve  a platform that isn't subjected to  an outage for days on end !

WRT the basic connectivity, sure,  this has been good over the time I have been using IDnet, but  bad IT practice is bad IT practice - Why should anyone assume that    the core task of keeping  everyone on line is run superbly while email  (etc) is  run on a "Fred in a Shed"  basis ?

Bottom line with a premium service: if  it's part of the advertised service,  it has to work - and work at a premium level !

However, no one is perfect,  so I am not going to jump ship  on  this occasion alone, but if  a long duration outage  occurs again - on any of IDnet services that I pay for -  you won't see me for dust !

[Niall]

Thanks, Simon. 

when do you think you'll get it open then?

/slap

[Ted]

Thanks, Simon. 

when do you think you'll get it open then?

Oooooo..........Low blow!

[Rik]

It might be worth mentioning a couple of the terms & conditions we all signed up to:

Operational faults

We agree to use reasonable efforts to remedy any reported operational faults in relation to the Service as soon as reasonably possible, but cannot guarantee to maintain uninterrupted availability of the Service.


Extended period of suspension

We shall not be responsible for any inconvenience, wasted expenditure, loss of goodwill or reputation, loss of opportunity or financial loss caused as a result of a suspension under Clause 3.2, but if such suspension continues for more than 14 days then you shall be entitled to terminate the Agreement by notice in writing to us.


No-one, including IDNet, are happy about the failure. They are doing their best to resolve it as quickly as possible (and there are signs of progress as I type). However, I've had a similar failure from a dedicated email company - these things happen. One thing I am certain of is that IDNet will have learnt from this and will do all they can to ensure it never happens again.

[davej99]

Please may we offer our apologies to everyone for the trouble and inconvenience that this downtime with mail.idnet.com has been causing ........

I think this posting and the rest of the message is a first class response from Simon and IDNET.

It takes courage to put your hand up, admit to a problem and commit to a solution. Communication is everything. My last ISP was in denial and completely unable to face and deal with an enraged customer base. Fellow IDNetters will no doubt have similar stories.

IDNET are facing their customers and dealing with the outage. Sure, the hindsight-rich and the armchair engineers will throw a few rocks. The toys will be out of the pram for some and a few might migrate. Such is the nature of customers and they have that right because their perception is the reality of how well you are doing.

I see Simon's response as a big positive and feel more rather than less confident in my choice of ISP. Things go wrong. What counts is fixing them and moving on. So I am sticking with IDNET, for all my internet services, including email.

Hang in there IDNET. I do think I am alone in this view.

[Rik]

You aren't, Dave. Denial is easy, admitting errors is much harder.