Service Interruption - March 18, 2012

[FONGO_steve]

Our teams are currently investigating service interruptions in specific parts of the freephoneline network. These interruptions may cause downtime and/or occasional registration loss for some Fongo users.

I will continue to update as I hear word from our engineers.

[TheHardy]

Thanks Steve! I am sure you can understand the frustration as this happened on a SUNDAY and it was very difficult to try to reach anyone from FPL/Fongo to report this problem (ie: customer support closed!).

May I be so bold as to suggest an "after hours option" on the CS phone line --- something along the lines of "if you are reporting a network outtage, press '9' to leave a message for NetworkOperations..." ???

[FONGO_steve]

We will most certainly be doing a post-op on this to ensure that everything is evaluated with a fine tooth comb and that is one point that I will certainly bring for discussion - thanks hardy!

[callopsitte_himself]

TheHardy wrote:

May I be so bold as to suggest an "after hours option" on the CS phone line --- something along the lines of "if you are reporting a network outtage, press '9' to leave a message for NetworkOperations..." ???

This is what we were all missing about TheHardy when he took a "break". Valid, intelligent suggestions.

[TheHardy]

We will most certainly be doing a post-op on this to ensure that everything is evaluated with a fine tooth comb and that is one point that I will certainly bring for discussion - thanks hardy!

No problem .. I suppose as the "venture" grows, what with the EXPLOSIVE-launch of DV (as witnessed by lack of phone numbers, all the pending assignments etc), the "little operation" needs to grow a bit too. And having a "cut-thru" or messaging to the NOC techs at Fibernetics (which should be staffed 24/7 by my guess!) would be a helpful thing for FPL/Fongo/DV customers for NETWORK issues. Then again, it is not like our massive BILLS are PAYING those techs, but ....

[pete_fpl]

I was going nuts. Restarting router, restarting ata, power cycling - flipping out basically At least I know it's not my issue anymore, now I can take a breath lol

[juliochu]

I hope the tech guys solve this problem soon

[Bob]

I hope the tech guys solve this problem soon

The only scary sign was 503 on webpage. If this is DDOS it could be long (as stupid as it sounds we still don't have proper regulations in the internet, and those **** who execute DDOS attacks are not facing long term jail as they should be
In any case I'm happy that despite of weekend the service is start being restored, and I'll stay with FPL / fongo as long as they are able to fix it in timely manner.

[TheHardy]

I think the 503's came up as they started to cycle thru the main to the backup servers, when someone finally started to notice something was wrong. Most likely someone in the SERVER FARM ... and if the cascade settings were not correct, the 503s pop up.

Unless they are dealing with something catastrophic like a fire at the server farm, I think they should be able to get things up and running fairly quickly ... worst case, some new registrations and some recent call logs may be lost ... Other than, of course, the disruption in service.

[CSCO]

What to do now in the meantime. Register with another provider until this comes back so I have at least outging service? Since the control panel is sluggish or down(503) I can't change call fowarding setting to my backup provider.

[mitwtim]

Any updates in terms of when this will be fixed? I'm really regretting porting our home phone number over, at this point.

[OttawaGuy]

Service is back up in Ottawa.

[regdur]

Now working here in Montreal

[TheHardy]

Any updates in terms of when this will be fixed? I'm really regretting porting our home phone number over, at this point.

That is the only main disadvantage of VOIP vs POTS. So far the outtage has only been a few hours -- and that is probably ONLY because this did manage to fall on a SUNDAY -- were it a weekday or even Saturday, there would be more staff on. I think that this has already been identified.

Steve: if you are actively reading -- may be time to post an update, even if it is something along the lines of:

We are aware of the problem and have our people working on it.

At xxx:am this morning, the following occurred which has resulted in a loss of service for both the website, registration, SIP and other services.

So far we have done zzzz to fix this and efforts are ongoing. We estimate restoration of service at approximately uuuu hrs. Service may be intermittant as we strive to fully restore all aspects of service ...



Just a thought ... it would placate the masses, IMHO.

[mitwtim]

Ours just started working again a couple minutes ago (we're located near Toronto).
Is the feeling that it could be up and down, or is this really fixed at this point?

EDIT 4:22pm > I had spoken too soon. It worked for a few minutes, but has been down again since then.

[kslay]

Ours just started working again (located near Toronto).
Is the feeling that it could be up and down, or is this really fixed at this point?

it's totally a up and down right now. Mine was working about 20 minutes ago and now I can't make any calls or receive any.

[orleepogee]

mine started to work here in Brampton, Ont., made some test calls but was down again few minutes ago.....

[ppmt]

In montreal earlier it showed my registration as FAILED

Now it is REGED but I still can't make/receive calls.

Have to patient!

The worst is that I only suspected the phone was down because it didn't ring.....the unusual peace disturbed me

[yys2000]

Mine is still down - Newmarket

[faz68]

I was back up at 2:10 PM (Toronto) March 18th. I had no idea what was going on. Surprised no tech support on the weekend or at least a voice mail message stating "service interruptions today, March 18th....."

Dang, now down again at 2:27 PM. Luckily I haven't sent Vonage back their sip device yet! In the back of my mind I get the feeling that Fongo/FreePhoneLine/Dell Voice just got hacked in a very big way!

[abelitin]

People, people... Really?????

The phones go down for a morning and some start thinking it's the end of the world! Remember, this is a *FREE* service (even if you paid the $50 SIP settings, that's *nothing* compared to what you'd be paying monthly to any other provider), and it's reliable 99% of the time. Can we really ask for more?

Some might think having a phone 24/7 is critical: what if an emergency happens; what if I'm lost in the middle of the woods; what if I need to talk to my boy/girlfriend; what if... what if?

Has anyone wondered how people in the 19th century and before led their lives? Do you think they were plainly miserable just because they didn't have a small gadget to talk to someone at a distance?

Please, a little common sense... Use this time without a phone to go out (cherish the unusually nice weather we are having!). And if you really, really need to make a phone call, then knock on your neighbour's door, introduce yourself (since you probably don't even know your neighbours exist, unless, of course, you have their phone number, in which case you'd talk to them via the wireline, instead of face-to-face), and politely ask them if they could let you use their phones for a minute or two. Then, who knows, you might even notice that in life there are lots of things way more important than losing your phone for a few hours.

And I, for my part, do not think they should be posting every step of their troubleshooting process. I'd rather have them *working* on the issue, than telling me about it...

Just my 2 cents, and haters, rejoice!

ARG

[ppmt]

abelitin

I agree with you on the overall except....I really don't want to go back to leave like they use to in the 19th.

21th is not perfect (far fram it) but still better for most of us than the 19th was

and shouldn't you be enjoying the weather rather than lurking on forum?

PS: I am kidding so don't take it the wrong way.

[kslay]

Has anyone wondered how people in the 19th century and before led their lives? Do you think they were plainly miserable just because they didn't have a small gadget to talk to someone at a distance?

Disagree with you here. You can't compare 19th century to today. First I'll assume you meant the start of the 19th century or at least before 1870 (because the phone was invented in that year). So if you meant before 1870 then you just can't compare today and then because you can't miss something that doesn't exist.

[MikeC]

I totally disagree with people defending the service based on the fact that it's free. Hotmail is free. Most of Google's services are free. There's a lot of free services out there but there's also an expectation of service. You can't just say, "what do you expect, it's free." That's not acceptable and I'm sure the people at Fongo would never defend themselves as such.

After all, outages happen and it happens to the best of them. That's doesn't bother me. What does concern me is low long it takes to recover from an outage. Thus far, the Fongo outage has been going on at least 4 hours and counting. That does concern me.

[gi1]

The system choose the date, I just bought a new router to replace the older one and I thought it had messed up with the spa2012.