Ongoing issues + a new problem

**ReuvenNY** · 31 Aug 2006, 09:44 PM

For the past several weeks Fastmail's IMAP has been slow. I did report it here and it turned out that there were some minor issues that were being straightened out.

This morning, I noticed a significant delay in email movement - outgoing and incoming. For example, an email I sent almost an hour ago still didn't come in. That is unusual, to say the least.
I am normally understanding and realize that nothing is perfect. But my patience is growing thin: it's slow (IMAP), messages are not going through, the overall reliability is becoming less and less - and that with the "replica" servers in place.
What is going on?! Is any ONE PERSON in charge?? Why are those issues dragging out for so long?
After every server down times we hear about the corrections and improvements that will prevent this or that from happening again, yes it goes on and on and on...

I think we need some answers from the owners - we need them to level with us and explain why those problems are not corrected once for all.
Whatever their explanation is, I wonder how come Tuffmail.com, Everyone.net and others have hardly ever any problems.

lieckfeldt · 31 Aug 2006, 09:49 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by brong
Yes, just Server3 is down.

"UPDATE: it was a filesystem bug, most frustrating. I needed to reboot the server, which takes about 8 minutes - so probably another 20 minutes down all together while I check and start everything"

from the status page

**ReuvenNY** · 31 Aug 2006, 09:49 PM

I just posted this thread, which I believe is relevant to this discussion as well:

http://www.emaildiscussions.com/...threadid=45008

marc_otten · 31 Aug 2006, 09:56 PM

I agree with you here. Because of the recent troubles Runbox has been experiencing, I switched to my Fastmail-account (and kept Runbox as a backup-address)...only to find out that Fastmail is having serious troubles as well

I wonder what's going on and hope that a Fastmail representative will give us some information...

--Marc

funso · 31 Aug 2006, 10:03 PM

I really like Fastmail and have been a paying user for about three years, but the the recent problems are beginning to irritate.

nbarr · 31 Aug 2006, 10:08 PM

I have been a loyal Fastmail user for several years. Loyalty is tricky business, you convince yourself continue regardless of evidence that perhaps it is unwarranted.

I have always been one with the "don't keep all your eggs in one basket" approach. But given Fastmail's performance during this June, July and August (November of last year, also being a contributing factor) I have broken my own rule and moved what Domain's I had hosted at Fastmail to Tuffmail. My Fastmail account is now simply a backup account. It was difficult, given the loyalty factor to do this. Compared to Fastmail, Tuffmail has been rock solid.

In performance terms I cannot regret my decision.

I hope things change at Fastmail. But thus far there isn't any evidence that it has.

brong · 31 Aug 2006, 10:11 PM

We bought a bunch of servers which were going to solve all our problems, and they have been unreliable pieces of junk and actually made our lives much worse (and yours as well) as we haven't been game to migrate more than a few users on to them. That was the "replication servers".

We've freed up one of our very reliable IBM servers to be half the current replicated pair for the one set of replica servers we are running, so we're fairly confident about that now.

Meanwhile, we've ordered a bunch of new IBM servers, and gone back to the RAID unit vendor that we've had good experiences with in the past. These machines will be arriving next week according to the shipping notices we've been sent.

But yeah, it's happening far too often. We're aware of that too - we spent too long trying to make the Polywell+Areca machines work because nobody wants to admit they've blown tens of thousands of dollars on high-spec machines they can't trust. We'll still use them, but it will be for things like spam bayes databases where it's not such a big deal if they go offline occasionally.

lieckfeldt · 31 Aug 2006, 10:13 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by lieckfeldt
"UPDATE: it was a filesystem bug, most frustrating. I needed to reboot the server, which takes about 8 minutes - so probably another 20 minutes down all together while I check and start everything"

from the status page

UPDATE 2: seems that the filesystem will need a full check, which will take a couple of hours.

from the status page. Yet again, there seems to be no redundancy. Server is down, you won't get your email. As simple as that....

**ReuvenNY** · 31 Aug 2006, 10:16 PM

What's happening with the IMAP/SMTP servers? My email, sent well over an hour ago still didn't show up!

Jhemp · 31 Aug 2006, 10:16 PM

Thanks or your (honest) answer! I'm waiting patiently

marc_otten · 31 Aug 2006, 10:22 PM

Honesty is fine, but the bottom line is that we will be unable to acces our email for another couple of hours. See below for the quote from http://status.fastmail.fm. Speaking about making my life worse

Quote:

UPDATE 2: seems that the filesystem will need a full check, which will take a couple of hours

Edward Velo · 31 Aug 2006, 10:24 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by ReuvenNY
After every server down times we hear about the corrections and improvements that will prevent this or that from happening again, yes it goes on and on and on...

I couldn't agree more. The replicated setup hasn't been of any use so far. And now I read on the status page that "it will take a couple of hours". Not that long ago they were down for several days. This is really not acceptable for a "professional email service". People running a small business really shouldn't be using this service.

dieresis · 31 Aug 2006, 10:24 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by brong
Yes, just Server3 is down.

I don't know anything about the Fastmail server configurations, so this statement doesn't mean anything to me. Is my account tied to a particular server? Is there a URL I can use to specify another server and read my mail?

memac · 31 Aug 2006, 10:27 PM

I don't know about anyone else but I do understand the problems with hardware malfunctioning. I work in an environment with many Linux and Unix boxes and daily there are outages. Frequently it's several times a day. It simply can not be avoided. And there are times when both the main boxes and the backups go down. Then if a router between the source and destination goes down, things become even worse.

Hardware problems happen to every company. I don't care how reliable people think services need to be. There will always be outages regardless of what email/web hosting service you use. Yahoo has them, as does every other service provider out there. They just usually don't open admit them. They like to keep them under wraps because they have the mistaken perception that it improves people's perceptions of their services.

I always appreciate the honesty we get from the FM staff.

Edward Velo · 31 Aug 2006, 10:28 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by dieresis
Is there a URL I can use to specify another server and read my mail?

The replicated setup should take care of that automatically... had it been working.

31 Aug 2006, 09:44 PM	#1
ReuvenNY Moderator Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: New York Posts: 4,259	Ongoing issues + a new problem For the past several weeks Fastmail's IMAP has been slow. I did report it here and it turned out that there were some minor issues that were being straightened out. This morning, I noticed a significant delay in email movement - outgoing and incoming. For example, an email I sent almost an hour ago still didn't come in. That is unusual, to say the least. I am normally understanding and realize that nothing is perfect. But my patience is growing thin: it's slow (IMAP), messages are not going through, the overall reliability is becoming less and less - and that with the "replica" servers in place. What is going on?! Is any ONE PERSON in charge?? Why are those issues dragging out for so long? After every server down times we hear about the corrections and improvements that will prevent this or that from happening again, yes it goes on and on and on... I think we need some answers from the owners - we need them to level with us and explain why those problems are not corrected once for all. Whatever their explanation is, I wonder how come Tuffmail.com, Everyone.net and others have hardly ever any problems.

31 Aug 2006, 09:56 PM	#4
marc_otten Master of the @ Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: Breda, NL Posts: 1,070	I agree with you here. Because of the recent troubles Runbox has been experiencing, I switched to my Fastmail-account (and kept Runbox as a backup-address)...only to find out that Fastmail is having serious troubles as well I wonder what's going on and hope that a Fastmail representative will give us some information... --Marc Last edited by marc_otten : 31 Aug 2006 at 10:09 PM.

31 Aug 2006, 09:49 PM	#3
ReuvenNY Moderator Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: New York Posts: 4,259	I just posted this thread, which I believe is relevant to this discussion as well: http://www.emaildiscussions.com/...threadid=45008

31 Aug 2006, 10:03 PM	#5
funso Member Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Manchester, UK Posts: 97	I really like Fastmail and have been a paying user for about three years, but the the recent problems are beginning to irritate.

31 Aug 2006, 10:08 PM	#6
nbarr Cornerstone of the Community Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Calgary Posts: 606	I have been a loyal Fastmail user for several years. Loyalty is tricky business, you convince yourself continue regardless of evidence that perhaps it is unwarranted. I have always been one with the "don't keep all your eggs in one basket" approach. But given Fastmail's performance during this June, July and August (November of last year, also being a contributing factor) I have broken my own rule and moved what Domain's I had hosted at Fastmail to Tuffmail. My Fastmail account is now simply a backup account. It was difficult, given the loyalty factor to do this. Compared to Fastmail, Tuffmail has been rock solid. In performance terms I cannot regret my decision. I hope things change at Fastmail. But thus far there isn't any evidence that it has.

31 Aug 2006, 10:11 PM	#7
brong The "e" in e-mail Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Melbourne, Australia Posts: 2,696 Representative of: Fastmail.fm	We bought a bunch of servers which were going to solve all our problems, and they have been unreliable pieces of junk and actually made our lives much worse (and yours as well) as we haven't been game to migrate more than a few users on to them. That was the "replication servers". We've freed up one of our very reliable IBM servers to be half the current replicated pair for the one set of replica servers we are running, so we're fairly confident about that now. Meanwhile, we've ordered a bunch of new IBM servers, and gone back to the RAID unit vendor that we've had good experiences with in the past. These machines will be arriving next week according to the shipping notices we've been sent. But yeah, it's happening far too often. We're aware of that too - we spent too long trying to make the Polywell+Areca machines work because nobody wants to admit they've blown tens of thousands of dollars on high-spec machines they can't trust. We'll still use them, but it will be for things like spam bayes databases where it's not such a big deal if they go offline occasionally.

31 Aug 2006, 10:16 PM	#9
ReuvenNY Moderator Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: New York Posts: 4,259	What's happening with the IMAP/SMTP servers? My email, sent well over an hour ago still didn't show up!

31 Aug 2006, 10:16 PM	#10
Jhemp Junior Member Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Luxembourg, EU Posts: 8	Thanks or your (honest) answer! I'm waiting patiently

31 Aug 2006, 10:27 PM	#14
memac Senior Member Join Date: May 2002 Posts: 196	I don't know about anyone else but I do understand the problems with hardware malfunctioning. I work in an environment with many Linux and Unix boxes and daily there are outages. Frequently it's several times a day. It simply can not be avoided. And there are times when both the main boxes and the backups go down. Then if a router between the source and destination goes down, things become even worse. Hardware problems happen to every company. I don't care how reliable people think services need to be. There will always be outages regardless of what email/web hosting service you use. Yahoo has them, as does every other service provider out there. They just usually don't open admit them. They like to keep them under wraps because they have the mistaken perception that it improves people's perceptions of their services. I always appreciate the honesty we get from the FM staff.