SERVER STATUS page

[Askarii]

This was suggested by someone in the forum following the recent server crash (sept 10th).

In a situation where the server's are down, all the phone system crashes with them. In the first minutes (sometimes hours) most people will be angry at the system, thinking that the service is unreliable or thinking that their phone or router is the issue.

Solution
Have a webpage "www.freephoneline.ca/server-status" which displays info on the state of the server. Or in the header (or sidebar) of every page.

Advantages?
It would:

• Reduce excess posts of "my line isn't working what's wrong...?"
• Reduce e-mails to the suppot team
• Avoid certain client frustration as to wondering whether the problem is only with them or the whole network
• It would Quickly inform clients, and it would be automated

[FONGO_steve]

In the next little while we will be adding a "user agent registration status" on your account page when you are logged in. Although not the same, it will help give some indication if whether or not your device is registering to us or not.

I'll pass this suggestion along as well and see what the thoughts are.

[callopsitte_himself]

I love Askarii's suggestion.

[OverDrive]

I third it. It's a great Idea.

[Funkytown]

on your account page when you are logged in.

Good Idea BUT it shouldnt matter whether the person is logged in or not cause some people are not registered and the frequently visit the forums so then that means they would never know if they wernt logged in.. So the best would be to announce it on the Index page for everyone to know on all sites clearpointel,freephoneline,295

PS: Just my thoughs

Thanks!

[Askarii]

on your account page when you are logged in.

Good Idea BUT it shouldnt matter whether the person is logged in or not cause some people are not registered and the frequently visit the forums so then that means they would never know if they wernt logged in.. So the best would be to announce it on the Index page for everyone to know on all sites clearpointel,freephoneline,295

PS: Just my thoughs

Thanks!

I fully agree with FunkyTown.
If, for some reason, you do not wish to indicate server status on each page (such as in the header or sidebar), there should at least be a webpage with the necessary information which does not require a login.. i.e http://www.freephoneline.ca/server-status/ or something of the sort.
The URL should also be quite user-friendly, the objective here is to make this an easy access to network information.

[sl9280]

I would suggest in additional to show the server status in the web page, also send an automatic e-mail to the users in case of major server down time for more than 30 minutes and any scheduled maintenance works.

So that users can plan ahead of finding alternatives.

As ppl today always have their e-mail on their smartphones or desktop, so they will know right away what has happened and reduce the frustration and posts on forum that will negatively impact the freephoneline's reputation.

To be fair to freephoneline, with the long outage on Sep 23/24, 2010, their responses to facebook and forum were in timely manner and impressive.

However, if they can provide information of what is the cause, outage time, on web site and through e-mails, it will definitely improve customer satisfaction and reduce complaints.

[FONGO_steve]

Thanks for all the great feedback guys. I've made note of all the suggestions in this thread and will try my hardest to follow through on them internally by passing the suggestions to the right people!

[Funkytown]

Thanks for all the great feedback guys. I've made note of all the suggestions in this thread and will try my hardest to follow through on them internally by passing the suggestions to the right people!

Steve can I also ask you or freephoneline a easy question can you make us a small banner so that we can place it on our own websites...

Thanks!

[FONGO_kris]

What sort of banner were you looking for Funkytown?

I have about 16 different ones!

[Funkytown]

What sort of banner were you looking for Funkytown?

I have about 16 different ones!

if you got a link --> give it to me in pm or i can take a quick look

[laurent]

I'd still prefer a twitter account dedicated to posting "We're down, sorry" and "We're back, yay!" messages.

[OverDrive]

I'd still prefer a twitter account dedicated to posting "We're down, sorry" and "We're back, yay!" messages.

Yes, but not everyone uses twitter - like me. Whereas a status page on the FPL main website anyone can access.

[laurent]

Twitter has a web page for each account that is just as accessible as any web page.

Example: http://twitter.com/iwebstatus

Just add a link somewhere at the top of FPL's webpage that says "Services status page" and link it to the twitter page, where people can have a choice to either just read it as a webpage, or follow the account for instant notification of events.

[Funkytown]

Look guys—there needs to be an understanding for some of you that FreePhoneLine is not Twitter nor is it facebook that is my 'main' concern… The main method has been already mentioned of how we can use the LIVE STATUS of broadcasting a simple html code on the footer or header of this website!

Thanks!

[laurent]

Funkytown, sorry if I've been a bit unclear. My suggestion had nothing to do with your banner that you want to place on websites. My comment goes back to the original poster's idea of a status webpage *on* freephoneline's website. My suggestions is that this idea can be improved with a near-zero effort while providing substantial value to the people who want to be kept up to date with said information.

All in all, I'm just stating that a twitter account for status reporting is a well accepted method of publishing such information, for free, to a wide audience by presenting both a webpage for it and an internal messaging system.

[Funkytown]

Funkytown, sorry if I've been a bit unclear.

I agree with you BUT I personally don't think <facebook or twitter icons> is really that important and maybe this is where I wasnt clear enough ...
I personally don't use or see the use of any social networking sites BUT I do agree that the simplist thing to do is what the authour mentioned. I agree that FREEPHONLINE to somehow have a button with a "LIVE SERVER STATUS" if the voip phone service is DOWN or UP on the Index page in the header or footer when there is a outage like the authour suggested



Thanks!

[Funkytown]

Here are only examples of what it can look like:



Voip Service Down
Voip Service Minor Problems
Voip Service Up

[laurent]

I'm more interested into knowing what is wrong, and when it is planned to be back.

A big red light is no more helpful to me than picking up the phone and hearing "Device not registered!" from my ATA. I guess however it would help prevent the huge amount of new threads on the forum that people seem compelled to create one after the other, all asking the same thing hehehe

[Funkytown]

As a Voip member, I'm most interested in seeing something in the terms of "server Up" & or "Server Down" in the Index page <where its noticeable to the eye> .... but I'm also interested in reading on the forums and other things from people's direct issues of places/cities affected by the outage that went down and this would be less confusing with both, as a voip user I personally would prefer to have both and being able to switch back and forths to the forums and rereading the signal of it being down or up daily.

Thanks!