Office 365 errors with users on Telecom New Zealand

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Ultimate Geek

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#741724 8-Jan-2013 15:46

Ditto for me.

For a while I was convinced it was my PC as I first noticed the problem after installing some updates. Eventually narrowed it down to an Office 365 problem and logged a call to MS Support.

Now I know there's nothing I can do except sit and wait. I'm just glad it hit this week and not next as most of my customers are still on holiday.

Regs

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Snowflake

#741726 8-Jan-2013 15:54

ZeeBOB: Yummy!

Took me 12 attempts to get to the diagnostics page

an APAC o365 CRM org over callplus fibre:

an APAC WLID CRM org over the same connection:

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plambrechtsen

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#741729 8-Jan-2013 15:57

Update:

Spoken with the folks at Global Gateway peeps who have logged a case with SingTel. From the sounds of it there is a problem with Microsoft's platform / SingTel routing.

They haven't seen any drop-offs in traffic NZ Global Gateway <-> Singtel so this issue seems to only be related to Office 365 customers not SingTel in general.

I would hope everyone who is using Office 365 has logged a case with Microsoft as that is the first place for the problem investigation, then that information can be forwarded through to the CTS folks.

If anyone has got a decent level of debugging and diagnosis information feel free to forward the information through to me, pl at telecom dot co dot nz and I will forward it onto the cts folks.

But I would say this is a Microsoft / SingTel routing issue rather than a Telecom issue per-se.

ZeeBOB

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Geek

#741733 8-Jan-2013 16:01

Regs:
an APAC o365 CRM org over callplus fibre:

an APAC WLID CRM org over the same connection:

I tried the InPrivate browsing trick, no success. It is very quick to the LiveID signin page, but it just times out when attempting to access https://port.crm5.dynamics.com (part of the token authentication process I guess). If i hit refresh a couple of times sometimes I get past the authentication and into CRM where the header and side bars load but the main body panel does not.

blur

384 posts

Ultimate Geek

#741741 8-Jan-2013 16:10

plambrechtsen: Update:

Spoken with the folks at Global Gateway peeps who have logged a case with SingTel. From the sounds of it there is a problem with Microsoft's platform / SingTel routing.

They haven't seen any drop-offs in traffic NZ Global Gateway <-> Singtel so this issue seems to only be related to Office 365 customers not SingTel in general.

I would hope everyone who is using Office 365 has logged a case with Microsoft as that is the first place for the problem investigation, then that information can be forwarded through to the CTS folks.

If anyone has got a decent level of debugging and diagnosis information feel free to forward the information through to me, pl at telecom dot co dot nz and I will forward it onto the cts folks.

But I would say this is a Microsoft / SingTel routing issue rather than a Telecom issue per-se.

Thanks for the update - comforting to know that something is happening.

I have to say that I am unsure if this is a Microsoft issue as I am unable to even open SingTel's website www.singtel.com in my browser.

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allan

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#741746 8-Jan-2013 16:24

blur: I have to say that I am unsure if this is a Microsoft issue as I am unable to even open SingTel's website www.singtel.com in my browser.

Yes likewise can't open www.singtel.com from an Xtra ADSl connection, but opens fine from a work ICONZ connection.

bigal_nz

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Ultimate Geek
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#741788 8-Jan-2013 17:35

And I can open the Singtel website from behind a Vodafone connection.

Some sort of blocking of Xtra by singtel?

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blur

384 posts

Ultimate Geek

#741794 8-Jan-2013 17:54

bigal_nz: And I can open the Singtel website from behind a Vodafone connection.

Some sort of blocking of Xtra by singtel?

From what I understand Vodafone broadband customers who use Office365 are not affected by this issue so I am not surprised that you can open the SingTel website.

freitasm

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Geekzone

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#741802 8-Jan-2013 17:59

[sarcasm]
Sure, report this to your ISP help desk.

Good luck convincing the CSR that this is a known problem, already under review by upstream providers and Microsoft, you don't need to reset your router or your PC, and could they please escalate it just to make numbers.
[/sarcasm]

I know ISP people here on Geekzone put lots of effort in help folks, out of hours, during holidays and so on. But I don't expect a help desk CSR to take a call like this and understand what's going on...

plambrechtsen

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#741830 8-Jan-2013 18:39

freitasm: [sarcasm]
Sure, report this to your ISP help desk.

Good luck convincing the CSR that this is a known problem, already under review by upstream providers and Microsoft, you don't need to reset your router or your PC, and could they please escalate it just to make numbers.
[/sarcasm]

I know ISP people here on Geekzone put lots of effort in help folks, out of hours, during holidays and so on. But I don't expect a help desk CSR to take a call like this and understand what's going on...

But at the same time how else is any isp supposed to get an idea of impacted customers without logging cases with similar impacts and then they know how to contact them to test and confirm when its sorted.

You know the score here MF.

But without impacted customers first logging case with Microsoft then forward that debugging info to their isp how does anyone expect the problem to be investigated?

freitasm

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Geekzone

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#741831 8-Jan-2013 18:47

Look, I'm not saying people shouldn't log the problem.

I am saying that it is a painful process. For all that I know from looking around ISPs don't tend to use signal from users as a flag to indicate problems. I've asked before if help desks look at different users reporting similar problems and most ISPs I talked to replied "Hmmm. No".

Many times I posted in my blog, Twitter and here that ISPs should be smarter and if a lot people complain about something then start looking around - signals should be coming from all over the place: NOC, call centres, Twitter, Facebook, Geekzone.

Help Desk can be used for individual problems sure - "hey I have a problem with my account, it was double billed for this month", but there are many other sources of signals that indicate trouble. Relying on help desk alone is counter productive, mainly because help desk people aren't looking at the whole picture.

I just think ISPs (and any organisation in general) should be smarter when it comes to finding problems in their network (network here used as a generic terms for services, products, logistics, etc).

For example you know how this specific problem can affect businesses all around, but the CSR will most likely go through the whole "reset your modem, reset your PC, clear your cache, don't use wireless" script that we all know will be just a waste of time.

Take this as a suggestion to improve services.

Valks

27 posts

Geek

#741835 8-Jan-2013 18:55

freitasm: I have just tried to sync my Windows Phone Office 365 account via Telecom mobile data and it worked fine. It could be something on their fixed structure only?

Yip no probs here either, knock on wood >_<

Valks

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Geek

#741845 8-Jan-2013 19:06

allan:
blur: I have to say that I am unsure if this is a Microsoft issue as I am unable to even open SingTel's website www.singtel.com in my browser.

Yes likewise can't open www.singtel.com from an Xtra ADSl connection, but opens fine from a work ICONZ connection.

singtel opens fine here, admin can check my ip addy and will see where I am ;)

Kellysu

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Geek

#741846 8-Jan-2013 19:06

Hi plambrechtsen / all

What kind of diagnostics could help? TRACERTS from affected sites to affected pods? We have a number of clients affected and they are all connected via Xtra - its quite frustraiting that a problem like this can take so long to resolve.

A similar issue happened about 6 months ago (July 2012) and the problem was actually resolved by Microsoft - it appeared to be a routing issue, symptoms identical, and the final explanation from MS was vague - but it was one of their edge servers.

What may be helpful for others is to change the DNS servers from the xtra DNS servers to google DNS (8.8.8.8) - this allows users to get on to OWA which is better that nothing, as google will resolve different FE servers.

in the meantime - problem still apparent.

blur

384 posts

Ultimate Geek

#741872 8-Jan-2013 19:35

I have received another email from Microsoft's Customer Support team. I have to say that it is not encouraging as they are only NOW asking me to perform some tests. I wonder if they are having trouble tracking down the issue or convincing someone at SingTel that there is in fact a problem? Has anybody else received one similar? This was received at 6:50pm this evening:

Dear Mr. XXXX,

This is Andrew from Microsoft Office 365 Technical Support.

I am writing this e-mail because our Operations Team would like us to gather some information from the affected computers and also computers that aren't experiencing the issue. We would need the following:
1. Run 'tracert mail.office365.com' on an affected PC and capture the results.
2. Use Network Monitor (http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=4865) to capture a tracing log that demonstrates the issue. Capture approximately 5 mins of log.
3. Perform steps 1 and 2 again on a healthy PC that isn't encountering the issue.
4. Gather MOSDAL (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/960625), ExRCA for Autodiscover (https://www.testexchangeconnectivity.com/), gather a list of affected users, and get the customer's server information (XXXXXXXXXX.outlook.com in OWA's URL).
5. What ISP is the customer using?
6. Can the issue be reproduced on another ISP?

I will follow up with you tomorrow afternoon to see if you were able to gather the information requested from our Operations Team so I can forward that over to them. If you have any questions, please give us a call at Toll-free: 0800 194197, or Local: 09 9127298

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