National Broadband Outage

[HowardCanning]

Originally Posted by Nodster

Anyways last night I was just about to order Microsoft Vista Ultimate, I had the mouse pointer hovering over the "Purchase" button and BAMB no more BB, so thanks VM you saved me some cash

Just as well tbh

Well it wasn't a week-long outage, it could have been worse let's face it

[lostandconfused]

Originally Posted by Nodster

"They fixed it quickly"

You must experience time at a faster rate than the rest of us.

Anyways last night I was just about to order Microsoft Vista Ultimate, I had the mouse pointer hovering over the "Purchase" button and BAMB no more BB, so thanks VM you saved me some cash

To be fair, it was fixed quite quickly, most people were up again within an hour, and some people took about 10 hours. None of these are long times to wait IMO.

Also i agree with the comment, that its not really the end of the world.

If you lost a lot of money as you were working, then i would suggest a business account, where you would have had a different number to contact.

If your just a residential user, you could always download whatever you were downloading today, or may i suggest read a book or go to bed.
Im sure some people think that when theres a national fault, theres a big red button, and all that needs to be done is press that button and it's back online.

This is the first CSO that i can remember for at least 2 years, it could be longer, so out of 17520 hours, it was out nationally for a maximum of 6 hours, I think thats a pretty relible network.

[Paul M]

Well that was fun.

Internet failed at 9:20pm last night, came back at 6:50am this morning.

150 - nothing.
151 - nothing
0845 454 1111 - nothing
0906 212 1111 - nothing

Did the whole of VM die ?

[timo_w2s]

Mine came back sometime between 3-6am. I wasn't up all night worrying, it's just I noticed the Skype phone had logged itself back in.

[brundles]

Originally Posted by mcmanic

thats my PS3 knackered, was firmware upgrading via internet. Who do i see about compensation.


J/K - but makes you think

If something like that could happen then you'd be going to Sony. Any company stupid enough to rely on the internet for a reliable data stream for firmware upgrades deserves everything they get.

Somehow I'm pretty sure Sony have protected the PS3 against this scenario though.

[indie1982]

Originally Posted by HowardCanning

I can't believe you lot were panicking all last night, in the middle of the night because the internet was temporarily broken... I spent 20 minutes waiting/trying to fix it, then I went to bed. Have you got nothing better to do?

Sorry but I probably wasn't the only one who had work to do last night, the evening is the only time our servers are quiet enough for me to get in and get the work done.

Even with a 3G backup working on a load of servers via a terminal isn't ideal due to the latency, really could have done with Virgin BB last night!

[Horace]

Originally Posted by Jonessie

Virgin Media customers across the board were plummeted into complete loss of broadband and digital broadcasts for the forth time this year. Virgin Media has experience four or five major outages in 2007. Customers tried to contact VM customer service but found the number to either be inoperable and/or out of service.

Remind me, when were the first four (or five since you can't make your mind up)?

Originally Posted by Jonessie

What does this mean for the millions of customers who where in the middle of some important work when they lost their connection...? Well actually none, being in the position where I've worked for more than one major (Blue Chip) ISP I agree you cannot foresee and/or predict any major outages which bound by the terms and conditions the ISP is not liable for loss of data due to an outage beyond their control.

'Well actually none' isn't a valid response to the question you asked. This is a (mostly) consumer based ISP and outages are expected occasionally. I certainly don't feel any entitlement to compensation. Just glad it doesn't happen often.

Originally Posted by Jonessie

Although, you can try customer service for compensation, I've done it in the past and have never been turned away. I mean were not talking much it could be a months free broadband service or half price packages on your digital. It's worth a try.

Encouraging forum users to contact VM for compensation isn't a good idea right now considering how busy the lines will already be, most, unless business customers, will probably end up with a flat NO. The only time I've heard of compensation, or discounts being given is when problems have persisted for a much longer time frame.

Originally Posted by Jonessie

Oh and estimated time of fix...? was 7hrs

More like two hours for the majority of users.

Originally Posted by Jonessie

Merry Christmas to you all

Well at least you got the time of year correct.

[sniper007]

Well all I can say is I hope this ends my problems I have been having over the last few days with my internet keep dropping out and requiring a modem reboot to get back online. Will have a look tonight and see if its back working. Mine went down around the same time 9:30 ish and stayed down past midnight. Not sure if it was back up this morning.

[HowardCanning]

I just want them to hurry up and fix the OnDemand fault in my area that means I get a blank screen when I try and watch anything

[sniper007]

All this talk of compensation is way OTT. Get a business line if it is critical to be online for you. It's frustrating yes, but does not happen often. Much more frustrating for people, is the constant lack of service they are getting where the internet is up and working, but they get poor speeds etc. Those customers need to be compensated, not people phoning comaplining of a national outage for a few hours.

[brundles]

Originally Posted by indie1982

Sorry but I probably wasn't the only one who had work to do last night, the evening is the only time our servers are quiet enough for me to get in and get the work done.

Even with a 3G backup working on a load of servers via a terminal isn't ideal due to the latency, really could have done with Virgin BB last night!

And that's exactly what some people forget - people pay for the service for it to be available when they need it.

Although we weren't affected beyond 5 minutes by the outage last night, from recent experience those expecting a refund or compensation will be in for a shock. We've been suffering regular intermittent connection outages for 6 weeks now ranging from anything from 10 minutes to 3 hours. When asking for a refund to cover the loss of the time we wanted to use it, the VM CS response can be summed up in two sentences:
- "I understand you wanted to use the service then but there were the other x hours of the day"
- "Sorry, but because no outage was longer than 24 hours your not entitled to any refund".

[Keloran]

if its true about the 3 time strike, then i recon this is 1 of 3 times its going to go down across the country

it would take months for everyone to restart their modems, if you do a blanket reset then there is no choice about it, and no-one would know it was coming, so they couldnt do stuff to prevent it

this could be the biggest steps VM are doing to get rid of the cloners, at least thats my best guess,

and the whole "DHCP servers had issues" thats due to them getting overlaoded most likelly

[ntl.wotcha]

Strange that they lose signal all over the network.

Time Not Established Time Not Established 603 Critical(3) 84000100 SYNC Timing Synchronization failure - Failed to acquire QAM/Q... Time Not Established Time Not Established 765 Critical(3) 84000200 SYNC Timing Synchronization failure - Failed to acquire FEC f...





Mine came back at about 5.30.

[dragon]

Originally Posted by brundles

If something like that could happen then you'd be going to Sony. Any company stupid enough to rely on the internet for a reliable data stream for firmware upgrades deserves everything they get.

Somehow I'm pretty sure Sony have protected the PS3 against this scenario though.

I'd be very suprised if it trys to update on the fly from the download.

I'd expect it to download the new firmware HASH check (MD5 or simular) it to make sure its the same as whats on the server and then Apply the update.

[sniper007]

Originally Posted by Cerberus

Still out in G73 area.

Now this is getting rather silly. I will be calling retentions at 8am

What is retentions direct number?