Was there System problem yesterday night?

[mjbad2]

I found softphone stopped working during night and could not login to web site...forum site was down...
Was there System problem yesterday night?

[FONGO_steve]

Looks like there was a minor hickup now - you're the second person who's reported this so I'm thinking it wasn't isolated to just the customer who emailed me earlier. We'll be sure to take a look at what happened and why!

[Jake]

When I tried to look at the forum last night I got an error from the phpBB script saying that it could not display the page because of too many connections to the database.

From my own forum I know this happens when a lot of people view the board, or it gets hit by a spam bot that requests lots of pages all at once or in a short time.

[mjbad2]

cmon jake. Its not that many people use this forum.
I use clearpoint softphone that also didn't work. It was some serous issue with database.
luckily FPL line with ATA was working fine but with little delay and echo.
FPL there are cheap software available which checks preset time to check database, web site etc...
If FPL has missed this then FPL has some serous issues. Or they were watching Hockey game and just didn't want to do anything for some time.

I noticed this problem wen users in other forum started complaining.
It was just after 10pm. May it was down for few hrs.

[FONGO_steve]

It's looking like the increasing popularity of freephoneline lately has caused some issues with that particular server that handles website/softphone databases. Even we are shocked at the number of registrations on any given day lately!

This has come to our attention and we are working fast and taking the appropriate actions to remedy it as fast as we can.

[j8van]

I also encountered the same problem last night, everytime I tried login the softphone was hung and a while later prompted message box showing "null".

[Jake]

cmon jake. Its not that many people use this forum.

Yes I know, but I can only say what I saw, and a message telling me there were too many connects is just what I saw. There must have been some sort of database error or max out somewhere along the way. It could have been a badly written spam bot hitting this forum, or it could have been lots of people signing into their softphones, if the databases are on the same server. It could be even a combination of both.

I was just trying to help a little by saying that there was a problem getting on this forum last night. I know from fault finding for many years that a lot of the time the answers comes from someone just mentioning something.

[neglector]

I am a $50 config file user, didn't notice any issues last night, but I have to ask:

How do you guys make money off the free softphone users? I understand it has something to do with terminating incoming calls? Even the one time $50 "lifetime" customers seem like they couldn't possibly sustain a business.

I don't really care how your business model works, I just care that you stay in business because I have signed up and recommended the service to family and friends.

[FONGO_steve]

I am a $50 config file user, didn't notice any issues last night, but I have to ask:

How do you guys make money off the free softphone users? I understand it has something to do with terminating incoming calls? Even the one time $50 "lifetime" customers seem like they couldn't possibly sustain a business.

I don't really care how your business model works, I just care that you stay in business because I have signed up and recommended the service to family and friends.

It's a combination of many things actually. The core of our company, Fibernetics, is a CLEC. Therefore, like any phone company, any call that comes onto our network brings along the appropriate termination fees that we collect. Of course we also have to pay termination on outgoing calls, but if they are within our network then we pay nothing (hence our trying to get all of Canada on this service!). The termination fees are relatively balanced to sustain the calling. We encourage people to consolidate services and sign up for our DSL because that, along with config file and ATA sales, are what generates our sustainable revenue that employees get paid from. Also, a lot of our support guys do support for some of the other companies that Fibernetics owns too which means that freephoneline isn't paying 100% of their paycheques.
For this reason, people don't need to worry about freephoneline simply "disappearing" because we are free. We're run on the backbone of one of Canada's fastest growing telecommunication companies and are full of big and exciting expansion plans for 2010! I also encourage our users to sign up for our DSL, not only will it help you consolidate services, but it will also aid with even faster developments!

[neglector]

thanks for the reply, congrats on an exciting venture, happy customer so far.

[neglector]

If I switch my DSL to your company and only have a FPL number, is there a dry loop fee on top of the $34.95?

[FONGO_steve]

If I switch my DSL to your company and only have a FPL number, is there a dry loop fee on top of the $34.95?

Dry loop is $8.95/month flat-rate
I have put in the request to have this more clearly visible on the next update to the site. A lot of our users don't switch ISPs, so we don't include dry loop pricing in the price because so many people wouldn't use it.