Telecom Email (Yahoo / Xtra) Problems 1/7/2014

Forums › Spark New Zealand (including Skinny and BigPipe) › Telecom Email (Yahoo / Xtra) Problems 1/7/2014

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637 posts

Ultimate Geek
Inactive user

#1080963 4-Jul-2014 13:48

I see they updated the message again,,., saying if cant login use the telecom password resetter..

nah... not the problem

then they say login via the web mail... yep that works.. no more action needed HAH

pop3 still randomly saying service not available! worked right away web login though but not
after that. seems to be a issue with imap or.and pop3

and I think people like me use isps email as it has the NZ extension to it.. other emails dont like gmail.

also I notice it running very slow download headers of the emails on pop peeper... like one was using dialup

not fibre :/

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Spong

951 posts

Ultimate Geek

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#1080966 4-Jul-2014 13:51

PeterQ: Looks like they are having problems again, really getting sick of this , might have to consider another provider

It's annoying that their status page updated today says the problem's all fixed, when people are still clearly having intermittant issues.

I'm really sick of fielding calls from my clients with XTRA addresses every time there's another Yahoo mail problem. Even though there's nothing I can do except encourange a move to something better, they still expect a shoulder to cry on. They stubbornly hold onto their XTRA address even though they know they shouldn't. This doesn't produce income.

Surely Telecom must realise that people have had enough of this 3rd world email service. Dump Yahoo please!!!

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adx

21 posts

Geek

#1081052 4-Jul-2014 15:59

Could Telecom / Spark be persuaded to hand over control of the xtra domain to a likely group of open source admins, who could probably run rings around Yahoo while still wearing their pyjamas? Or do Telecom still hold out hope of monetising something that they are seemingly incapable of handling (of course they do, I know, but still it must be biting them...) I sometimes wonder if I could do a better job with my meagre server skills than Yahoo (and evidence would suggest I can, since my incoming mail isn't down every second day - just outgoing via Xtra).

Andib

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#1081056 4-Jul-2014 16:10

adx: Could Telecom / Spark be persuaded to hand over control of the xtra domain to a likely group of open source admins, who could probably run rings around Yahoo while still wearing their pyjamas? Or do Telecom still hold out hope of monetising something that they are seemingly incapable of handling (of course they do, I know, but still it must be biting them...) I sometimes wonder if I could do a better job with my meagre server skills than Yahoo (and evidence would suggest I can, since my incoming mail isn't down every second day - just outgoing via Xtra).

The difference between running an email server of 100-1000 users vs the hundreds of thousands of accounts Telecom have let alone the 200+Million yahoo run is a very big leap.

I'm sure Telecom will do what they believe is best for their business / customers.
I don't believe there is any other company in NZ apart from Vodafone who would even be close to having the same volume of email accounts to manage.

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Paul1977

4785 posts

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#1081058 4-Jul-2014 16:16

Andib: I'm sure Telecom will do what they believe is best for their business / customers.

The amount of issues Yahoo has is in no way best for the customers. It may be best for Telecoms bottom line, but it is at the expense of the customer. If they want to outsource their email service, fine; but outsource to someone who doesn't have problems every second day.

adx

21 posts

Geek

#1081063 4-Jul-2014 16:23

I had thought about that, but what I was thinking of was a co-operative (if that is the right word) forming a non-profit (or whatever) where admin is split (but somehow managed and integrated) on a suburb by suburb basis - with servers effectively local to most of the users. Apart from the management functions, they don't need to be connected together at all (except to the net of course), it's just mail in and mail out. That may be swinging the ball too far from the current situation where everything wastefully goes through Perth (I believe) and a bit too utopian to work as stated with any random admin, but given a good connection even a meagre single CPU server should be able to support a few thousand clients sending video of their cats back and forth, it's how the internet was built and has hardly changed (apart from the cats).

(Another edit, 2 from 2! I should have said my reply was to Andib)

mattwnz

19388 posts

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#1081071 4-Jul-2014 16:33

Spong:
PeterQ: Looks like they are having problems again, really getting sick of this , might have to consider another provider

It's annoying that their status page updated today says the problem's all fixed, when people are still clearly having intermittant issues.

I'm really sick of fielding calls from my clients with XTRA addresses every time there's another Yahoo mail problem. Even though there's nothing I can do except encourange a move to something better, they still expect a shoulder to cry on. They stubbornly hold onto their XTRA address even though they know they shouldn't. This doesn't produce income.

Surely Telecom must realise that people have had enough of this 3rd world email service. Dump Yahoo please!!!

They have updated it now to say that people are having problems logging in, although no explanation as to why or when it maybe fixed. Interesting the lack of telecom staff posts about it. Although I don't blame them as they are probably fed up with it too.

Personally I only use my telecom email account as a disposable email address. But some of my clients use xtra, so it is useful to help them with that, as I am also using the same service.

adx

21 posts

Geek

#1081119 4-Jul-2014 18:13

When it happened a few weeks ago I mentioned greylisting (due to the SMTP error and the way it would always get through on the second try), they said absolutely not, but I got the sense they really don't know and can only go on what they're told. The error was also apparently at my end, even though their server was bombing out for some internal reason.

A few 100k users and 200M users is a big difference, that's the problem. Someone trips over a cable and unplugs 1M users at Yahoo, it's "meh". It happens in NZ though and it's all over the evening news. I'm not seriously suggesting 'taking over' Telecom's user base would be trivial or even practical, but the numbers are closer to some back-yard web host than Yahoo, so I am suggesting it would be possible, and on mere mortals' hardware too. Someone high up in Telecom seems to have forgotten that. That person doesn't care about the customer, they care about profitability and their own butt - I'm yet to meet anyone with Telecom shares who does it for the satisfaction of knowing they are helping their customers!

I think the obvious solution is for Telecom to bring it in house, as there are probably many people screaming internally to do already. If people want the bells and whistles sure team up with some major provider, but for basic email it's about as simple as it gets for the scale and how low the bar is set - if it's not already rolling about on the ground. That way they'd have the best of both worlds (or at least be able to offer more than the one flawed option).

mattwnz

19388 posts

Uber Geek

#1081121 4-Jul-2014 18:21

adx: When it happened a few weeks ago I mentioned greylisting (due to the SMTP error and the way it would always get through on the second try), they said absolutely not, but I got the sense they really don't know and can only go on what they're told. The error was also apparently at my end, even though their server was bombing out for some internal reason.

A few 100k users and 200M users is a big difference, that's the problem. Someone trips over a cable and unplugs 1M users at Yahoo, it's "meh". It happens in NZ though and it's all over the evening news. I'm not seriously suggesting 'taking over' Telecom's user base would be trivial or even practical, but the numbers are closer to some back-yard web host than Yahoo, so I am suggesting it would be possible, and on mere mortals' hardware too. Someone high up in Telecom seems to have forgotten that. That person doesn't care about the customer, they care about profitability and their own butt - I'm yet to meet anyone with Telecom shares who does it for the satisfaction of knowing they are helping their customers!

I think the obvious solution is for Telecom to bring it in house, as there are probably many people screaming internally to do already. If people want the bells and whistles sure team up with some major provider, but for basic email it's about as simple as it gets for the scale and how low the bar is set - if it's not already rolling about on the ground. That way they'd have the best of both worlds (or at least be able to offer more than the one flawed option).

One of their option could be to stop offering email altogether, and to let their customers signup to third party email providers, but they the big ones don't provide personal email or phone support.
Some new ISPs don't provide email at all. But telecoms userbase have a lot of mum and dad users, who probably wouldn't be happy without an ISP email address, and phone or email support for that email.

mattwnz

19388 posts

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#1081261 4-Jul-2014 23:34

Andib:
adx: Could Telecom / Spark be persuaded to hand over control of the xtra domain to a likely group of open source admins, who could probably run rings around Yahoo while still wearing their pyjamas? Or do Telecom still hold out hope of monetising something that they are seemingly incapable of handling (of course they do, I know, but still it must be biting them...) I sometimes wonder if I could do a better job with my meagre server skills than Yahoo (and evidence would suggest I can, since my incoming mail isn't down every second day - just outgoing via Xtra).

The difference between running an email server of 100-1000 users vs the hundreds of thousands of accounts Telecom have let alone the 200+Million yahoo run is a very big leap.

I'm sure Telecom will do what they believe is best for their business / customers.
I don't believe there is any other company in NZ apart from Vodafone who would even be close to having the same volume of email accounts to manage.

Maybe they need to look at how vodafone are doing their email. I am still getting the same popup box now, even though their status page has been recently updated to say it has been fixed.

farcus

1455 posts

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#1081264 4-Jul-2014 23:51

this is a wider Yahoo issue not related to Telecom (other than they use yahoo for email).

It looks like a lot of users (including me - who is not a Telecom customer) have been having trouble sporadically over the past few weeks accessing yahoo via either pop or imap.
Looking at downrightnow shows spikes in users reporting problems (at the same time as I have been having imap access problems).

seems to be taking them an awful long time to sort the problem out.

mattwnz

19388 posts

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#1081265 4-Jul-2014 23:56

farcus: this is a wider Yahoo issue not related to Telecom (other than they use yahoo for email).

It looks like a lot of users (including me - who is not a Telecom customer) have been having trouble sporadically over the past few weeks accessing yahoo via either pop or imap.
Looking at downrightnow shows spikes in users reporting problems (at the same time as I have been having imap access problems).

seems to be taking them an awful long time to sort the problem out.

It is telecoms responsibility though, as Yahoo is their supplier, and telecom have chosen to use them, and remain committed to them after a review after past problems.Telecom customers contract is also with telecom to provide the email, and not with yahoo. So telecom do have to take ownership of it, even if it is a problem with their suppliers network.

adx

21 posts

Geek

#1081273 5-Jul-2014 00:39

mattwnz: ...
One of their option could be to stop offering email altogether, and to let their customers signup to third party email providers, but they the big ones don't provide personal email or phone support.
Some new ISPs don't provide email at all. But telecoms userbase have a lot of mum and dad users, who probably wouldn't be happy without an ISP email address, and phone or email support for that email.

I use them for outgoing mail because I believe it's part of the ISP core service. Ie if you're paying international rates to get the data out of your house, then they might as well send the email for you. Otherwise you're paying international rates to get it delivered to your server a few km away in the city centre, and (for one of my servers at least) pay international rates to get that in to it, then again to get it delivered to the destination mailserver.

Not to mention that could well be your neighbour's account at Xtra, in Sydney (just checked the pings, send.xtra.co.nz isn't in Perth), and whatever convoluted path it takes back to him, just because I can't be arsed putting that vid of his cat doing something humorous onto a USB stick and taking it over. (But I did mention it.) In that case my idea earlier of suburb-based mailservers (say at the exchange a gigazillion miles away) means the mail doesn't even have to be delivered.

But my belief is probably flawed these days, with cheap data, the trifling size of emails (even of cat vids), and free email services. Still, I don't see why an ISP can't just deliver local mail locally. The fact "economies of scale" make it cheaper to take it to Perth and back, to me shines the light more on something being broken and unsustainable with those economies, than them being real.

Anyway I digress like a politician. I must admit Xtra's support is good, considering what they've got to deat with (at both ends now). Still, that same system is unaware of Pegasus Mail, a NZ product, that I've happened to use for 24 years...

mattwnz

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#1085965 9-Jul-2014 19:30

Still getting these annoying popups most days and always seem to be always around this time. I am guessing from telecoms non response here, that they can't really do much either.

Spong

951 posts

Ultimate Geek

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#1085990 9-Jul-2014 19:49

mattwnz: Still getting these annoying popups most days and always seem to be always around this time. I am guessing from telecoms non response here, that they can't really do much either.

Maybe they hope the problem will just go away on its own?

I have to say I'm pretty disappointed that we haven't heard from at least one Telecom employee about what is or isn't being done. I see they still allow access to their old insecure outgoing mail server - smtp.xtra.co.nz for now anyway, despite threats to close it down some months ago. At least it worked. They now have another deadline for its demise.

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