Fastmail seems to be down

[Webgenie]

Well, I've been with Fastmail since 2004. I think what is happening could happen to any provider, and I feel confident that everything is being done to fix and prevent this in the future. However, I did want to back up my mail online and accessible by IMAP, and tried gmail first. Did not work because it uses Labels not Folders. In the end, I got it done at gmx dot com. Also, I have yet to find a provider that offers what Fastmail does, including easily hosting simple web pages and domains. I definitely do not want to leave Fastmail, given my experience with it and believing that those there are more concerned and dedicated to us than the big providers.

Originally Posted by evfrson

I'm rapidly coming to the conclusion that if I want guaranteed reliability then I am going to have to use one of the big providers Google, Microsoft et al.
I use my own domain name so it would be very easy for me to do that.
I am going to see how this week pans out and then decide.

[TenFour]

Here's the thing about email reliability, which is #1 in my list of criteria when choosing a service. The other day I received a business email at work (Microsoft 365 Business) that announced an impending deadline of the next day for something that could be worth around $12K. Unfortunately, that was the first notice of this action I needed to take, and I took it. Similarly, I've received various travel cancellations at the last minute via email that if I had missed them would have cost money and hassle. My father received various tax warnings from the government that he ignored and they cost him thousands of dollars. Things arrive via email that are critical and time sensitive. It is easy to dismiss outages by saying "we're sorry, and no mail is lost" but that isn't good enough. On the other hand, the attackers are sophisticated and difficult to defeat. DDOS attacks may be one of those things that only the largest providers can deal with.

[NJSS]

I am reminded of this thread:-

http://emaildiscussions.com/showthread.php?t=14140

which I started in July 2003.

It would be interesting to see how people's views have changed since then.

Sadly part of my elegant redundancy plan was to use POBox in addition to FM, which was defeated by their merger in late 2015 & subsequently moving to a common platform.

NJSS

[xyzzy]

Just thought of something I'm curious about. When these DDOS attacks first started as I understand it it was on a number of email services. Then I thought there was a pause as the various services mitigated the attack. So when this problem reoccurred for FM are they currently the only ones now under attack? If so my thought is maybe FM shouldn't have posted that blog taunting the hacker(s) about what FM was doing about it.

[n5bb]

Originally Posted by xyzzy

Just thought of something I'm curious about. When these DDOS attacks first started as I understand it it was on a number of email services. Then I thought there was a pause as the various services mitigated the attack. So when this problem reoccurred for FM are they currently the only ones now under attack? If so my thought is maybe FM shouldn't have posted that blog taunting the hacker(s) about what FM was doing about it.

There are always DDOS attacks occurring. I doubt that it’s known whether these recent attacks against certain email providers are the work of one person, a gang, or are copycat attacks. I’m sure that Fastmail isn’t the only organization under a DDOS attack by someone this week!

Did you mean the blog post below? It was published six years ago, and hardly a taunt. It was simply the facts, including that they (and most other reputable organizations) would not pay ransom to these criminals. That might be an illegal payment aiding a cybercriminal in many jurisdictions.
https://fastmail.blog/advanced/how-t...a-ddos-attack/

The blog post by the Fastmail Chief of Staff was also not a taunt. She simply stated the facts. If Fastmail had ignored their customers and not commented on their blog (and social media accounts), many posters here at EMD would have complained loudly.

Bill

[xyzzy]

Originally Posted by n5bb

Did you mean the blog post below? It was published six years ago, and hardly a taunt. It was simply the facts, including that they (and most other reputable organizations) would not pay ransom to these criminals. That might be an illegal payment aiding a cybercriminal in many jurisdictions.
https://fastmail.blog/advanced/how-t...a-ddos-attack/

The blog post by the Fastmail Chief of Staff was also not a taunt. She simply stated the facts. If Fastmail had ignored their customers and not commented on their blog (and social media accounts), many posters here at EMD would have complained loudly.

Bill

Ok, all sounds reasonable. I was only wondering and also didn't notice that it said it was a re-post.

Thanks.

[evfrson]

Down yet again in the UK

[lauricat]

And down in AUS.
Status page has just been updated.

[astrodog73]

Yes, again.... Newcastle, Australia

[n5bb]

Try logging in at:
https://beta.fastmail.com

At this moment, the normal login system is very very slow for me here in Texas. But after logging into beta it seems to be about normal speed.
IMAP and SMTP using an email client both are working normally for me right now.

Bill

[Webgenie]

Thanks for that info, Bill. I noticed that certain domains hosted at Fastmail are loading and others not. IMAP is okay for me right now.

[evfrson]

It’s back.

[n5bb]

Originally Posted by Webgenie

Thanks for that info, Bill. I noticed that certain domains hosted at Fastmail are loading and others not...

Yes, the beta system seems very fast to me right now. Maybe it's because the normal non-beta system is being attacked by DDOS, so there is much less actual good server traffic.

My personal domain webpage (DNS and simple static website hosted at Fastmail) is not reachable from my location at this time. I get "PR_CONNECT_RESET_ERROR", which I believe means that the connection attempt is being reset by the DDOS protection service.

Bill

[n5bb]

Originally Posted by evfrson

It’s back.

Yes, here in Texas the regular webmail system and my personal domain are now back working normally.

[Bamb0]

We are seeing continued DDoS attacks against our infrastructure and are working with our network provider on mitigation strategies. Our team are working hard to provide stability.

I hope someone is trying to find out who it is doing it...... (The web shouldnt be a place where ppl can do things like this and not be found!!)

safe-mail.net was also have problems a couple days ago.... I wonder if they were getting hit also??