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1and1: readers stick the boot in

Email host apologises (again)

Letters A quick recap: This week unfortunate souls in the UK have suffered at the hands of an email snafu at hosting provider 1and1.

It's not just poor service though; everyone knows technical faults can happen. The way the firm variously failed to communicate and told porkies about the issue (like when it said on Tuesday it was sorted) had Reg readers chewing their arms off with rage.

Not before they took time to pen the following excellent screed selection though, a mere taster of the bitter bounty which was waiting for us in our gripebox this morning. Michael sums up the mood nicely and gives us a Friday morning update:

Precisely the same problem - I'll not repeat the symptoms. Out 18/1/07 twice, between 09.30 and 14.00 and after 18.00. And again this morning from 08.00

LACK OF INFORMATION compounds the frustration. There appears no Service Status report on 1and1's website that I can find, in a confusing site. And no response to an email enquiry raising both these issues, but perhaps this is held up too. Telephone enquiry is either engaged or fielded by a charming but long suffering Philippino who explains that servers are having problems but is not permitted to give any forecast as to when service might be restored. Please add above to I am sure the many similar notes.

- Michael

Very many indeed. With 1and1 not going into anymore detail than a "technical fault" recorded message, perhaps Reg readers can sleuth the source of the mess:

Hi Chris,

Firstly I'll ask to remain anonymous for now as this may involve one of my clients. I have been approached by them to take over hosting of their websites which are currently with our beloved 1&1. So I have been scratching around their 1&1 control panel prior to taking them on as clients - checking webtraffic stats etc.

I was somewhat suprised to see that beginning on the 7th Jan their traffic rocketed from an average page views/day of 50 to around 600 000. To make matters worse the "most accessed page" also happens to be a rather large PDF file!

The peak traffic was on the 8th and 17th Jan - with badwidth totalling 974,196 mb. Now I wonder is this is a DOS attack on them and a possible hit on 1&1 too? I might just add that this particular client has a long history ex-hosters and a bunch of not so savory competitors so I am almost certain that they are being targeted.

I'm just glad I spotted this before signing them up!

Warren ups the anger ante by including baroque composers in his sphere of annoyance:

Hi,

Re. your 1and1 email story - I've been suffering this incredible problem for the past 3 days and it was never fixed. When I did receive emails they were at least 2 hours delayed and this morning I find I, once again, can't connect to the mail server. And, as with most things of this nature, the most annoying thing is that you just get the canned "it will be fixed in 24 hours" at best and the some Vivaldi bollocks at worst! Sorry, Vivaldi, you didn't deserve that, but I'm just so mad I feel like beating up on some old dead guy...

Just FYI. And it's probably not worth replying to this email...

Warren

Whatever is going on in the 1and1 server bunker – answers on a postcard, please – Camden was glad to see he won't be missing out on that once in a lifetime offer to invest in a Guatemalan bauxite mining start-up before it takes off:

I'm not sure what you mean by 'takes a dive again'. It's been buggered all week. Up for five minutes, now and then - if you are lucky. The webmail interface hasn't worked at all for me, and my normal (IMAP) access is thoroughly intermittent.

Frankly, it's rubbish. And not a word from 1and1 as to what the problem is, or when it will be fixed (properly, and not some bizarre PR interpretation of the word 'fixed').

Mind you, when I do manage to get access I'm pleased to note that my usual array of spam has arrived (unlike all the emails I'm actually expecting/wanting to receive).

Time to take my domains and email elsewhere, methinks. Cheers,

Camden

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