The Fastmail outage - longest ever by a major mail service? - Page 2

Trip · 13 Nov 2005, 10:50 AM

Wow k, looks like we've got our record then!

Trip

kchess79 · 13 Nov 2005, 11:03 AM

It was terrible! I remember helping out in the computer lab, and trying to explain to people that if the website keeps timing out, you simply cannot access it. And they'd just look at me and go "But I need my mail." Someone actually told me it had to be someone else's fault, because Yahoo doesn't go down. I emailed yahoo support, but never found out what happened. I do know that most of the US was able to get to their mail just fine...it was just odd spots here and there that were without it.

David · 13 Nov 2005, 11:08 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by kchess79
One time Yahoo mail was down for ten days. And it wasn't just me.

I remember this; it was a long time ago. It was so long ago that I just accepted it, as a fact of life

Assuming we are talking about the same failure - I know the failure that I am remembering, was of more than a weeks duration.

kchess79 · 13 Nov 2005, 11:16 AM

I'm hoping it was just one failure that lasted that long! At the time, Yahoo wasn't my main account, but I did have some mail there that was time-sensitive, so it was very frustrating.

sreenadh · 13 Nov 2005, 11:58 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by David
How many times have a small percentage of Hotmail, Yahoo, and Gmail users been unable to connect? When that happens they don't post here.

Well, i am ONE Gmail user who had a lot of troubles even my friend's account did not have any problem.

alexu2000 · 13 Nov 2005, 01:08 PM

Not the longest outage but the worst experience I had with Mail2world. Couple of years ago I lost all my messages, and I stayed with mail2world saying that it wasn't gonna happend again. Then, after a few months I lost my messages again, and my sister who also had an mail2world email account lost all her messages also. Very frustrating.

Regarding the extended outage: my webhost had a server crash and it took 2 days to restore the back-ups. It was the only problem or outage I experienced with my webhost.

In my oppinion, there's no such thing as perfect service. The service depends on 2 components: the hardware and the people behind them. It might be the best team of professionals running a service, the hardware may fail. That's why everybody knows this line: "Back-up all the time!" I use a payed email account and I am sure that for the money I pay I receive a better service and a better support. But nothing is perfect. Even the most perfect things might fail sometime. Because of this I use a more convenient way:

1. my domain is set up from my registrar to use my hosting's NS

2. from my hosting account I forward copyes of messages in 3 accounts: 1 yahoo, 1 gmail and 1 payed account.

If my payed account fail, I still have yahoo and gmail. If my hosting server fail, I can turn on the forwarding from my registrar. If the forwarding from my registrar fail I can use an external free DNS service who can let me forward my emails even if my registrar has it's mail servers down. This is the best sollution I found.

Remember: nothing it's perfect, no matter how much you pay. It's better than a free account, but it's not perfect.

Also, please encourage and support the team behing fastmail. I am sure that they are doing everything it's human possible to clear this mess. If you look behind you will see that fastmail was the most stable email service.

Trip · 13 Nov 2005, 01:13 PM

I think for many people (myself included) the Gmail novelty has really worn off. Of course, this is due in part to the quota increases that have reached across the industry and as a result have turned the game back into a competion on features, a place where Gmail is still far behind. But most of all it's probably due to the privacy concerns over Google's content filtering and activity monitoring.

I know that all services compromise your personal data to some extent, but each of us has a line that we draw, and I think for many Gmail has crossed that line.

Trip

alexu2000 · 13 Nov 2005, 01:18 PM

Email messages are sent over the world trough millions of servers unencrypted. So, why bother that anyone is gonna read your mail? Have you ever heard of encryption tools? Try one, it might make you feel safer

P.S. There's an urban legend here in Romania regarding an administrator of the mail server for an ISP. The legend says that he used to keep a back-up at his home of all emails sent and received on the ISP' server... because... nobody knows when you might need some informations

Trip · 13 Nov 2005, 01:29 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by alexu2000
....legend says that he used to keep a back-up at his home of all emails sent and received on the ISP' server...

Ouch! Hope that legend isn't true!

Trip

alexu2000 · 13 Nov 2005, 01:33 PM

As far as I know it's just an urban legend... but I also know that every legend has just a little piece of truth in it...

Qiwi · 13 Nov 2005, 03:21 PM

Quote:

"what was longest ever outage by a major mail service that affected at least 15,000 users?"

Many Hushmail users were locked out of their accounts for over two months in July-September, 2001:

article at silicon.com

usenet thread

[Admin warning: linked Usenet article above contains severe profanity]

FMRocks · 13 Nov 2005, 04:15 PM

Hmm......

How do you define a "major" email service?

unhappysoul · 13 Nov 2005, 05:50 PM

I had FM account ever since they came out back in 2002(?)
and this is first time I experience outage like this...

It happens, I don't see fastmail spelled G O D so I don't see
why people complain about this. BTW I've been paid customer since they provide paid service.

pin · 13 Nov 2005, 06:37 PM

I used to have an account with Mailandnews.com some years ago which went down for around a week due to raid corruption.

Unlike Fastmail they decided to repair the volume instead of restoring from a backup. It took forever.

digp · 13 Nov 2005, 06:52 PM

go and play golf or something whilst fm sort out the problsm!

13 Nov 2005, 05:50 PM	#28
unhappysoul Cornerstone of the Community Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Los Angeles, California Posts: 504	so what? I had FM account ever since they came out back in 2002(?) and this is first time I experience outage like this... It happens, I don't see fastmail spelled G O D so I don't see why people complain about this. BTW I've been paid customer since they provide paid service.

13 Nov 2005, 10:50 AM	#16
Trip Master of the @ Join Date: Apr 2001 Location: USA Posts: 1,347 Representative of: Runbox.com	Wow k, looks like we've got our record then! Trip

13 Nov 2005, 11:03 AM	#17
kchess79 Master of the @ Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Chicagoland Posts: 1,142	It was terrible! I remember helping out in the computer lab, and trying to explain to people that if the website keeps timing out, you simply cannot access it. And they'd just look at me and go "But I need my mail." Someone actually told me it had to be someone else's fault, because Yahoo doesn't go down. I emailed yahoo support, but never found out what happened. I do know that most of the US was able to get to their mail just fine...it was just odd spots here and there that were without it.

13 Nov 2005, 11:16 AM	#19
kchess79 Master of the @ Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Chicagoland Posts: 1,142	I'm hoping it was just one failure that lasted that long! At the time, Yahoo wasn't my main account, but I did have some mail there that was time-sensitive, so it was very frustrating.

13 Nov 2005, 01:08 PM	#21
alexu2000 Cornerstone of the Community Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: Bucharest, Romania Posts: 596	Not the longest outage but the worst experience I had with Mail2world. Couple of years ago I lost all my messages, and I stayed with mail2world saying that it wasn't gonna happend again. Then, after a few months I lost my messages again, and my sister who also had an mail2world email account lost all her messages also. Very frustrating. Regarding the extended outage: my webhost had a server crash and it took 2 days to restore the back-ups. It was the only problem or outage I experienced with my webhost. In my oppinion, there's no such thing as perfect service. The service depends on 2 components: the hardware and the people behind them. It might be the best team of professionals running a service, the hardware may fail. That's why everybody knows this line: "Back-up all the time!" I use a payed email account and I am sure that for the money I pay I receive a better service and a better support. But nothing is perfect. Even the most perfect things might fail sometime. Because of this I use a more convenient way: 1. my domain is set up from my registrar to use my hosting's NS 2. from my hosting account I forward copyes of messages in 3 accounts: 1 yahoo, 1 gmail and 1 payed account. If my payed account fail, I still have yahoo and gmail. If my hosting server fail, I can turn on the forwarding from my registrar. If the forwarding from my registrar fail I can use an external free DNS service who can let me forward my emails even if my registrar has it's mail servers down. This is the best sollution I found. Remember: nothing it's perfect, no matter how much you pay. It's better than a free account, but it's not perfect. Also, please encourage and support the team behing fastmail. I am sure that they are doing everything it's human possible to clear this mess. If you look behind you will see that fastmail was the most stable email service.

13 Nov 2005, 01:13 PM	#22
Trip Master of the @ Join Date: Apr 2001 Location: USA Posts: 1,347 Representative of: Runbox.com	I think for many people (myself included) the Gmail novelty has really worn off. Of course, this is due in part to the quota increases that have reached across the industry and as a result have turned the game back into a competion on features, a place where Gmail is still far behind. But most of all it's probably due to the privacy concerns over Google's content filtering and activity monitoring. I know that all services compromise your personal data to some extent, but each of us has a line that we draw, and I think for many Gmail has crossed that line. Trip

13 Nov 2005, 01:18 PM	#23
alexu2000 Cornerstone of the Community Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: Bucharest, Romania Posts: 596	Email messages are sent over the world trough millions of servers unencrypted. So, why bother that anyone is gonna read your mail? Have you ever heard of encryption tools? Try one, it might make you feel safer P.S. There's an urban legend here in Romania regarding an administrator of the mail server for an ISP. The legend says that he used to keep a back-up at his home of all emails sent and received on the ISP' server... because... nobody knows when you might need some informations

13 Nov 2005, 01:33 PM	#25
alexu2000 Cornerstone of the Community Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: Bucharest, Romania Posts: 596	As far as I know it's just an urban legend... but I also know that every legend has just a little piece of truth in it...

13 Nov 2005, 04:15 PM	#27
FMRocks The "e" in e-mail Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: FM does NOT refer to Fastmail (anymore). Posts: 4,034	Hmm...... How do you define a "major" email service?

13 Nov 2005, 06:37 PM	#29
pin Essential Contributor Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Warrington, UK Posts: 233	I used to have an account with Mailandnews.com some years ago which went down for around a week due to raid corruption. Unlike Fastmail they decided to repair the volume instead of restoring from a backup. It took forever.

13 Nov 2005, 06:52 PM	#30
digp Master of the @ Join Date: May 2003 Posts: 1,326	go and play golf or something whilst fm sort out the problsm!