[WXC/VFX] XNET / VFX Outage 07 Sept 2008

Forums › One NZ (including Farmside) › [WXC/VFX] XNET / VFX Outage 07 Sept 2008

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93 posts

Master Geek

#162861 7-Sep-2008 17:06

anyones usage meter working? mine not

Screw You Guys, Im Going Home!

BlakJak

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#162864 7-Sep-2008 17:13

msian: anyones usage meter working? mine not

I imagine theyre fairly busy right now. Usage Meter is probably the least of their worries.
Their website only came up a few moments ago.

No signature to see here, move along...

crichton

111 posts

Master Geek
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#162865 7-Sep-2008 17:15

Yes, no big deal for many of us. But do switch in the old-fashioned tape loop on the 0800 number with "We know. We're on to it." (A modern equivalent? Off-site with activation by mobile?) It would save so many from checking plugs and sockets, rebooting, etc. Unfortunately Xnet has been so reliable in the past that we just couldn't believe it was an Xnet problem!

Crichton

andrewcnz

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#162869 7-Sep-2008 17:19

sbiddle:
andrewcnz:
xpd: Do you want to be the one to sit round in a potentially burning building to setup a voicemail mesage ?

We used to do the same at IHUG and QSI whenever there was an alarm, just hang up the phones and leave. At EDS we had a system the manager could activate that just redirected all the phones to the Australian office.....

WXC/Xnet made the right decsision, worry about the consequences later in this case.

All the users screaming because Xnet were offline for a few hours need to get out more.... its their first major outage (since Ive been with them) in months and could not be avoided.

I don't expect anyone to hang around if there is a fire. But there must be an easy way to either hit one button on the way out to put a basic pre recorded message up. Or remote access with a laptop or cell phone?

That's all fine if the machine that would/could play you such a message was still running!

Would you not have some form of back up? Redundent equipment? Off site disaster managment?

What do the other ISP's do?

I am only asking basic questions. As I would like to know how my ISP/Phone provider will look after me when things go wrong?

BlakJak

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#162871 7-Sep-2008 17:20

sbiddle:
andrewcnz:
xpd: Do you want to be the one to sit round in a potentially burning building to setup a voicemail mesage ?

We used to do the same at IHUG and QSI whenever there was an alarm, just hang up the phones and leave. At EDS we had a system the manager could activate that just redirected all the phones to the Australian office.....

WXC/Xnet made the right decsision, worry about the consequences later in this case.

All the users screaming because Xnet were offline for a few hours need to get out more.... its their first major outage (since Ive been with them) in months and could not be avoided.

I don't expect anyone to hang around if there is a fire. But there must be an easy way to either hit one button on the way out to put a basic pre recorded message up. Or remote access with a laptop or cell phone?

That's all fine if the machine that would/could play you such a message was still running!

and as I said in the chatroom, I find it hard to believe that there isn't _something_ upstream of them who could redirect their 0800 number. 0800 is a service sold by Telecom isn't it? I found this - http://www.telecom.co.nz/0800 - I didnt see an 0800 service for sale on WxC's website. Perhaps I missed it.

No signature to see here, move along...

anthonynz

14 posts

Geek

#162873 7-Sep-2008 17:23

exportgoldman:
andrewcnz:
I don't expect anyone to hang around if there is a fire. But there must be an easy way to either hit one button on the way out to put a basic pre recorded message up. Or remote access with a laptop or cell phone?

Like a Big Red Button? Hmmmmm... Always wondered what happened if you pressed that.

Don't touch it! It's the History Eraser Button you fool!

Quic Broadband

Move to New Zealand's best fibre broadband service (affiliate link). Free setup code: R587125ERQ6VE. Note that to use Quic Broadband you must be comfortable with configuring your own router.

r33ks

75 posts

Master Geek

#162877 7-Sep-2008 17:31

I am just loving the comentary and assumptions everyone is making. Working as an IT engineer I can completely sympathise with WxC and the "incident" they have obviously had today.

`It would have taken any muppet about 2 minutes to figure out there were major problems with WxC today. Becuase...

1) Internet at home not working
2) Problems calling WxC 0800 number
3) Family couldn't get through to the WxC website.

I am sure that having no phone for VFX users was a bit of a pain, but if you are a telecom customer they have had at least 2 (that I can think of) outages to their phone network in Auckland in the past 12 months, in the middle of the day, during the middle of the week, and just be glad you aren't a telecom customer in Pukekohe.

At least this problem sounds like it was one of those things a bit out of anyones control. Telecom don't have the same excuse.

To the WxC crew... I hope that today has not been too stressful... and you can all have a quite beer when you get a chance :-)

JayADee

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#162878 7-Sep-2008 17:33

My phone is still out but my forwarded voice message forwarding and newly restored email tells me my boss called five minutes ago. The continued downage of my phone is a good reason to not call back! Hrm. Guess I'll reboot the router and see if the boss gets a call or not.

Niel

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#162879 7-Sep-2008 17:34

msian: anyones usage meter working? mine not

It works again.

You can never have enough Volvos!

Niel

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#162880 7-Sep-2008 17:36

msian: i just got back internet! missed alot of important emails and online discussions due to this. I hope we will be credited/compensated for this! very frustrating experience. Wanted to destroy my router as I thought that was what the problem was at one point of time. Sighhh

It is Sunday and (was) sunny, take a break. Your modem would have said that DSL is up but PPP failed, which means the modem is fine it is just the authentication with the server that failed. Don't expect any credit for such a short outage.

You can never have enough Volvos!

rphenix

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#162881 7-Sep-2008 17:37

sbiddle:
andrewcnz:
xpd: Do you want to be the one to sit round in a potentially burning building to setup a voicemail mesage ?

We used to do the same at IHUG and QSI whenever there was an alarm, just hang up the phones and leave. At EDS we had a system the manager could activate that just redirected all the phones to the Australian office.....

WXC/Xnet made the right decsision, worry about the consequences later in this case.

All the users screaming because Xnet were offline for a few hours need to get out more.... its their first major outage (since Ive been with them) in months and could not be avoided.

I don't expect anyone to hang around if there is a fire. But there must be an easy way to either hit one button on the way out to put a basic pre recorded message up. Or remote access with a laptop or cell phone?

That's all fine if the machine that would/could play you such a message was still running!

Shouldnt there be some sort of switchover even if its just for one number that can be setup for emergency so if nothing else works people can call that number and get some sort of automated message. That system I would expect to be in a completely different building.

Mighty Ape

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anthonynz

14 posts

Geek

#162882 7-Sep-2008 17:38

r33ks:
I am just loving the comentary and assumptions everyone is making. Working as an IT engineer I can completely sympathise with WxC and the "incident" they have obviously had today.

`It would have taken any muppet about 2 minutes to figure out there were major problems with WxC today. Becuase...

1) Internet at home not working
2) Problems calling WxC 0800 number
3) Family couldn't get through to the WxC website.

I am sure that having no phone for VFX users was a bit of a pain, but if you are a telecom customer they have had at least 2 (that I can think of) outages to their phone network in Auckland in the past 12 months, in the middle of the day, during the middle of the week, and just be glad you aren't a telecom customer in Pukekohe.

At least this problem sounds like it was one of those things a bit out of anyones control. Telecom don't have the same excuse.

To the WxC crew... I hope that today has not been too stressful... and you can all have a quite beer when you get a chance :-)

You're right there - it's very unusual that the fault isn't down to one of Telecom's circuits biting the dust!

It would have been much worse! We'd be out for a week while they passed the call on from team to team until someone took responsibility for it - in the Philippines!

JayADee

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#162884 7-Sep-2008 17:41

Darn the phone is working again and now I have no reason not to call the boss back. Sigh.

LordBoBCUP

8 posts

Wannabe Geek

#162892 7-Sep-2008 18:13

I have noticed quite a few people saying that they should have a DR offsite location to run essential services from. But for an outage that they could see a end to (time wise) of only a few hours how much time and money do you think it would cost to switch to the offsite location and get everything up and running, then when the outage at the main DC was fixed return services back to full capcaity etc over at the main DC?

This process would take probably 20-45 min to transfer services across to and such sites often are rented thus paying for the load and other things. Then it would take weeks to start switching connections back to the main DC costing more money and also causing more outages for customers. DRP's are only ever used in major outages that are likely to continue for many hours / days / weeks such as the power outage of '98.

Being in the industry and dealing with / advising on this type of event day in and day out, Xnet IMHO handled this to the best of their ability and honestly, if you require internet full time with no outages I suggest you employ your own backup DSL or other connectivity. There is absolutely no need to post all this crap about how they should be doing their jobs just because you were unable to view myspace/facebook etc for a couple of hours. Xnet don't tell you how to do your jobs so stop telling them how to do theirs.

sultanoswing

818 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 160

#162897 7-Sep-2008 18:29

Eminently sensible first post, LordBoBCUP! Loss of internet and landline telephony (in the age of cell phones), while annoying, is hardly the worst thing which happens in our world - even if you're running a business. The risk-reduction-to-cost ratio of any potential outage will always be a calculated guess - spend too much on redundant backup systems and that's inefficient. Spend not enough and that's negligent. And no matter what contingency plans you may think you have in place, there's always something which sneaks through. Always.

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