The Great Disappearing Orpheus

[Paul Vigay]

Everything should hopefully be back to normal now.

I'd like to apologise for the unexpected failure of the pop login this
afternoon, and to reassure people that no emails will have been lost
because incoming and outgoing mail servers were functioning correctly -
being on a different server.

It was the actual POP login which failed, following a routine update. This
was the last server to be updated, in our recent major upgrade of servers -
so normal service should now be resumed.

If anyone is still encountering any problems, please feel free to contact
me.

[Robin Edwards]

Post by Paul Vigay
Everything should hopefully be back to normal now.
I'd like to apologise for the unexpected failure of the pop login this
afternoon, and to reassure people that no emails will have been lost
because incoming and outgoing mail servers were functioning correctly
- being on a different server.

<Snip>

Post by Paul Vigay
If anyone is still encountering any problems, please feel free to
contact me.

Well, I've just tried again following another Authentication Problem,
and again the dreaded message appeared, after 1min30sec.

What should I do now? Wait until Sunday morning I suppose :-((

A slightly less cheerful

Robin

[Paul Vigay]

Well, I've just tried again following another Authentication Problem, and
again the dreaded message appeared, after 1min30sec.

Is this mail authentication, or getting connected in the first place?

If it's getting connected in the first place it sounds like a
modem/cable/exchange problem.

Our recent problem in London was specifically to do with POP login and the
web server on one server so was a very specific problem which, whilst
seriously irritating, would not cause the authentication failure problem so
I think in this case your problem is a different one.

Did you try power-cycling the modem? A shutdown and restart of the computer
and Voyager?

[Robin Edwards]

Post by Paul Vigay

Post by Robin Edwards
Well, I've just tried again following another Authentication
Problem, and again the dreaded message appeared, after 1min30sec.

Is this mail authentication, or getting connected in the first place?

The telephone connection this end was fine, as far as I can tell. Email
arrived as usual but News failed to connect.

Post by Paul Vigay
If it's getting connected in the first place it sounds like a
modem/cable/exchange problem.

No doubt, but not this End I'd guess.

Post by Paul Vigay
Our recent problem in London was specifically to do with POP login and
the web server on one server so was a very specific problem which,
whilst seriously irritating, would not cause the authentication
failure problem so I think in this case your problem is a different
one.

Today, Monday 19.30, Authentication went normally, as did Mail and News
connections, so things may be back in kilter again. My phone line
connection was however reported by Voyage to be 26300 whereas it is
normally about 45000 these days.

Post by Paul Vigay
Did you try power-cycling the modem? A shutdown and restart of the
computer and Voyager?

No! Is this a standard treatment for what I was suffering from?

Cheers,

Robin

[Robin Edwards]

Post by Paul Vigay

Post by Robin Edwards
Well, I've just tried again following another Authentication
Problem, and again the dreaded message appeared, after 1min30sec.

Is this mail authentication, or getting connected in the first place?
If it's getting connected in the first place it sounds like a
modem/cable/exchange problem.
Our recent problem in London was specifically to do with POP login and
the web server on one server so was a very specific problem which,
whilst seriously irritating, would not cause the authentication
failure problem so I think in this case your problem is a different
one.
Did you try power-cycling the modem? A shutdown and restart of the
computer and Voyager?

It is now 10.45 pm. Unfortunately, News is not working /again/ :-((

This time it looked as if Connection had been established, but the
system gave up having told me that 3 News items were waiting download.
After over 5 minutes waiting I decided that it wasn't worth the
telephone costs, so gave up. The single News item for sending was
accepted, so something mysterious is again upsetting things.

I hope for a solution soon.

Robin

[Paul Vigay]

Post by Robin Edwards
It is now 10.45 pm. Unfortunately, News is not working /again/ :-((

I'm assuming your message was written last night and you've only just
logged on to send it??

News is definitely working fine at the moment, and has been all day, as
I've been monitoring it closely here. My machine is logging on every 5
minutes and logging any failures. I've seen no failures all day today and
it's still working fine.

Paul

[Robin Edwards]

Post by Paul Vigay

Post by Robin Edwards
It is now 10.45 pm. Unfortunately, News is not working /again/ :-((

I'm assuming your message was written last night and you've only just
logged on to send it??

It was indeed written then, but due to lack of News connection it would
not post :-(( The next day the blockage cleared, so something must have
changed overnight.

Post by Paul Vigay
News is definitely working fine at the moment, and has been all day,
as I've been monitoring it closely here. My machine is logging on
every 5 minutes and logging any failures. I've seen no failures all
day today and it's still working fine.

Well, that's good, and all seems to be well now (19.25 on Wednesday)

I'll keep you posted if there are further difficulties.

Cheers,

Robin

[Paul Vigay]

Post by Robin Edwards
Well, that's good, and all seems to be well now (19.25 on Wednesday)

Still working fine at 12.04am :-)

Might go to bed in a mo, so I won't be monitoring again until about 6am.

[Colin Matthews]

Post by Paul Vigay
Might go to bed in a mo, so I won't be monitoring again until about 6am.

Standards slipping again!

Colin

[Robin Edwards]

Post by Paul Vigay
Everything should hopefully be back to normal now.
I'd like to apologise for the unexpected failure of the pop login this
afternoon, and to reassure people that no emails will have been lost
because incoming and outgoing mail servers were functioning correctly
- being on a different server.
It was the actual POP login which failed, following a routine update.
This was the last server to be updated, in our recent major upgrade of
servers - so normal service should now be resumed.
If anyone is still encountering any problems, please feel free to
contact me.

Sorry about this, Paul, but I still have a problem (Sunday evening,
approx 19.15). News will not fetch :-(( Mail seemed to arrive OK, and
I had 19 items I think, but the News would not connect, and after 5
minutes I gave up waiting.

I'll try again in about a couple of hours.

Just realised, if News isn't working you won't read this :-(

Robin

[Paul Vigay]

Post by Robin Edwards
Sorry about this, Paul, but I still have a problem (Sunday evening,
approx 19.15). News will not fetch :-(( Mail seemed to arrive OK, and
I had 19 items I think, but the News would not connect, and after 5
minutes I gave up waiting.

Yes. Unfortunately there was a problem with news last night. Unfortunately,
I was away from the computer for a few hours in the evening (personal
emergency involving the local coastguard, air/sea rescue and a friend and
her husband and 4 yr old offspring - but to cut a long story short,
everything ended up ok) but it did mean that I didn't return home until
about 9.30pm, when I fixed the problem with the news server, so it should
have been up and running around then - and has been working ever since, as
I've been keeping an eye on it today.

[Robin Edwards]

Post by Paul Vigay

Post by Robin Edwards
Sorry about this, Paul, but I still have a problem (Sunday evening,
approx 19.15). News will not fetch :-(( Mail seemed to arrive OK,
and I had 19 items I think, but the News would not connect, and
after 5 minutes I gave up waiting.

Yes. Unfortunately there was a problem with news last night.
Unfortunately, I was away from the computer for a few hours in the
evening (personal emergency involving the local coastguard, air/sea
rescue and a friend and her husband and 4 yr old offspring - but to
cut a long story short, everything ended up ok) but it did mean that I
didn't return home until about 9.30pm, when I fixed the problem with
the news server, so it should have been up and running around then -
and has been working ever since, as I've been keeping an eye on it
today.

Thanks again, Paul. Sorry to hear about the emergency.

Robin