UPDATE: BigPond service recovery may take 'several weeks'

Iain Ferguson
14 October 2003 11:50 AM
Tags: e-mail, telstra, service, iain, ferguson, bigpond, surge, delay
Telstra has conceded it may be several weeks before BigPond e-mail service levels return to normal as the telecommunications carrier wrestles with delays caused by a steep ongoing surge in traffic.

A Telstra spokeswoman told ZDNet Australia that the Internet service provider -- Australia's largest with around 1.5 million customers -- would see "a steady increase in service levels over the next few weeks".

However, she declined to provide BigPond users with an exact date as to when their e-mail services would return to normal. E-mails received by ZDNet Australia early this morning from BigPond users indicated many were still experiencing delays ranging up to several days in sending and receiving e-mail.

The spokeswoman said the surge in traffic over the past few days -- which the carrier believed was due to a combination of spam e-mails and the residual impact of worms and viruses -- had driven e-mail traffic volumes from a regular daily average of around 8.5 million to peaks of around 13 million. BigPond's information technology infrastructure -- which had undergone a significant upgrade between April and August this year to boost mail store capacity as takeup of the service increased -- had a contingency to support daily volumes of up to 10.5 million.

The spike comes at a disastrous time for the telecommunications company's customers, who had previously suffered e-mail delays for around a 10-day period earlier this month as the result of bugs associated with the implementation of upgraded Sun Microsystems software on Hewlett-Packard hardware.

Both OzEmail and Optus customers have also experienced e-mail delays in recent days, with OzEmail claiming it had been on the receiving end of a denial of service attack and Optus attributing the problem to a surge in spam e-mails.

In the case of the BigPond difficulties, it is understood that Telstra is providing rebates to some affected customers as they put their cases to the carrier in a one-on-one basis.

Advertisement

Print feature brought to you by Hewlett Packard

Talkback 22 comments

    I'd hope that this is just the situation where the operators realise that they are responsible for control of spam and not the end users. Maybe they will do what has been required for so long and invest, as its too late for users to control spamRowly Emmett -- 14/10/03

    I'd hope that this is just the situation where the operators realise that they are responsible for control of spam and not the end users.

    Maybe they will do what has been required for so long and invest, as its too late for users to control spam, once it has loaded all the networks along the way.

    I now receive about 15-20 spam e-mails per day on my bigpond account. Telstra charge an extra $2.50 per month for a spam control option, which I am unwilling to pay, as I am already paying quite a bit more than some other ISP monthly rates. The only reasoAnonymous -- 14/10/03

    I now receive about 15-20 spam e-mails per day on my bigpond account. Telstra charge an extra $2.50 per month for a spam control option, which I am unwilling to pay, as I am already paying quite a bit more than some other ISP monthly rates. The only reason I am still with Telstra is my allegiance to my e-mail address, but with the spam problem, will consider terminating my account anyway.

    I am a worker for bigpond and we are really sick and tired of people abusing us, we only can tell you what we are told and that is the emails are out, if we could tell you more we honeslty would so hopefully you people will soon realise we sit in a officeAnonymous -- 14/10/03

    I am a worker for bigpond and we are really sick and tired of people abusing us, we only can tell you what we are told and that is the emails are out, if we could tell you more we honeslty would so hopefully you people will soon realise we sit in a office answering your calls not working in pits or on big servers getting this issue fixed so basically THINK BEFORE U ABUSE OK, dont think 90% of you would have the guts to say it to 90% of the phone operators so have a bit of class and dignity

    I can't help wondering if some of the problem is caused by us attempting to "do the right thing" and save paper. e.g. we are heavily into company reporting season, and many of us have taken the opportunity to save trees by getting a-m advAnonymous -- 14/10/03

    I can't help wondering if some of the problem is caused by us attempting to "do the right thing" and save paper.
    e.g. we are heavily into company reporting season, and many of us have taken the opportunity to save trees by getting a-m advice of annual reports, notices of meeting etc. now I'm not sure if I am getting the notices I should be!

    I can't help wondering if some of the problem is caused by us attempting to "do the right thing" and save paper by switching to e-mail from snail (sic) mail. e.g. we are heavily into company reporting season, and many of us have taken theAnonymous -- 14/10/03

    I can't help wondering if some of the problem is caused by us attempting to "do the right thing" and save paper by switching to e-mail from snail (sic) mail.
    e.g. we are heavily into company reporting season, and many of us have taken the opportunity to save trees by getting e-m advice of annual reports, notices of meeting etc. Now I'm not sure if I am getting the notices I should be!

    Hmmmm...Rowley et al should get out of the kitchen if its too hot! Arguments like that are tantamount to saying as a POTS user you don't want to be responsible for hanging up the handset after a call...and you want to blame the provider for all the callsAnonymous -- 14/10/03

    Hmmmm...Rowley et al should get out of the kitchen if its too hot! Arguments like that are tantamount to saying as a POTS user you don't want to be responsible for hanging up the handset after a call...and you want to blame the provider for all the calls missed while it was off hook...Is it too much to ask why can't they contact me and tell me to put it back on hook!

    Basically if you connect a piece of equipment to the Net, leave it unpatched, and remain oblivious to it having been subverted to being a spam zombie...you are responsible so stop blaming it on the ISP. It doesn't matter which ISP you connect with - its just that Telstra is an easy target.

    I reckon BP should actually take a much harder line on those users whose systems it sees generating spam or probing for vulnerabilities - then the rest of us would be able to make use of the Net as we expect to.

    We pay an arm and a leg to use BigPond where there are several 'cheaper' options avaliable and what do we get - Problems after Problems. When my 18 months contract is up, you know what I am going to do, don't you Telstra........ ...yeAnonymous -- 14/10/03

    We pay an arm and a leg to use BigPond where there are several 'cheaper' options avaliable and what do we get - Problems after Problems.

    When my 18 months contract is up, you know what I am going to do, don't you Telstra........

    ...yep. Correct

    TELSTRA has lot the plot years ago. THERE IS NO REDUNDANCY in their system. Error N01 form the log on server. Do you remember this? This is not the only thing. OPTONLINE is a New York based company with MILLIONS of suscribers in Cable modemAnonymous -- 14/10/03

    TELSTRA has lot the plot years ago.

    THERE IS NO REDUNDANCY in their system. Error N01 form the log on server. Do you remember this?
    This is not the only thing. OPTONLINE is a New York based company with MILLIONS of suscribers in Cable modem utilizing same MOTOROLA modems we have here(Motorola is the KING of R.F. in semiconductors since the 40's).
    They have been off the air 2 hours in THREE YEARS becuase of electrical storm.

    I cannot get POP3 and download my mail from bigpond, I gave up and I am sick and tired of them.
    PLEASE DO NOT ABUSE the help line. One guy told me that I WAS MORE QUALIFIED than him.
    The problem is somewhere else and IT HAS BEEN FOR LONG TIME.

    The monthly bill, however, arrives TIMELY and it is a robbery but.............

    I am an electronic engineer with specialization in R.F. and MCSE more than once.

    It is TOTALLY STUPID what they are doing.
    How long would they last in Germany operating like this????

    Cheers

    If the guy who writes: "I am a worker for bigpond and ...Anonymous", doesn't like the criticism he should get out. If you can't put a name to your post...don't bother commenting!! T(H)elstra has screwed us from day one of it's Broadband reKeith Styles (An irate user) -- 14/10/03

    If the guy who writes: "I am a worker for bigpond and ...Anonymous", doesn't like the criticism he should get out. If you can't put a name to your post...don't bother commenting!!
    T(H)elstra has screwed us from day one of it's Broadband release. They continue to bumble along taking the net down for 8 hour periods without a single thought for their customers. The e-mail software problems is a classic case of Lewis Carrol's Alice in Wonderland & The Mad Hatters Tea Party behavior. They are like children playing with play-doe. "Lets mold it this way & see how it works" !!!! or "Oh that contract option is hurting our profit, so well change it mid stream. To hell with the customer's rights" or Tech Support response to your call for help.."We don't have any problems, so we'll rebuild the users software". How many users have to complain before it sinks into their collective thick heads....YOU! ARE THE PROBLEM T(H)ELSTRA. Oh and please don't trot out your call reponse figures. Most people just give up because we can't get thru in a reasonable time frame.....

    Most of my clients use Big Pond (POTS and Broadband). I can only assume that the reason they do use BP is superiour brand recognition. It seems that the only thing superiour about BP is the ammount of problems they have. However, even with alMike Caddick -- 14/10/03

    Most of my clients use Big Pond (POTS and Broadband). I can only assume that the reason they do use BP is superiour brand recognition.
    It seems that the only thing superiour about BP is the ammount of problems they have.
    However, even with all the problems people seem unwilling to move to a different ISP.
    Better the devil you know possibly!

    I've personally been an iPrimus customer, dialup and now broadband, for quite a long while and the only hickups I've experienced occurred because of telstra stuffing about with their equipment which primus relies on somewhat (so I was told by a primus tech).

    To give telstra their due, their support people are usually very curteous and can at explain if not fix the problem quite quickly once you actually get through to them.

    I just wish they'd spend a bit more effort in making sure that they have fewer problems rather than in teaching their staff to be nice.

    The problem seems to be getting worse - the server was responding with 'server storage full' response to an attempt to send an email containing 3 lines of text, from 9pm until 1am. I'm now officially a former bigpond dialup customer. For $30 a Anonymous -- 15/10/03

    The problem seems to be getting worse - the server was responding with 'server storage full' response to an attempt to send an email containing 3 lines of text, from 9pm until 1am.

    I'm now officially a former bigpond dialup customer. For $30 a month (+ phone call costs) I was linking to one of the biggest (if not THE biggest) ISP in the country, and they can't even SEND my email?

    Stuff that! For $50 a month, I'm now onto ADSL... thanks to whatever they want to blame, I'm now over the 56k trash and enjoying 256k smoothness.

    Dear Editor I find it abhorant that Telstra has been so dismissive of the email problems. I have had some emails I sent that never arrived which has cost me dollars and more importanly business credibilty. One company just couldn't accReg Barlow -- 15/10/03

    Dear Editor

    I find it abhorant that Telstra has been so dismissive of the email problems. I have had some emails I sent that never arrived which has cost me dollars and more importanly business credibilty.

    One company just couldn't accept that an amil wasn't sent when it was. I have approached Telstra for fiscal compenesation but I wonder what hoops they will want me to jump through before I get any satisfaction.

    I am not a Telstra Big Pond user and never ever will be. We all know Telstra provides shxx service in every single product they offer from basic telephone service upwards. It will never change while all you aggrieved customers sit there writing pointlesJohn Heath -- 15/10/03

    I am not a Telstra Big Pond user and never ever will be. We all know Telstra provides shxx service in every single product they offer from basic telephone service upwards. It will never change while all you aggrieved customers sit there writing pointless messages of complaint. There is and only ever was, one way of fixing the problems - take your business elsewhere. As soon as enough of you leave Telstra and hit their bottom line, services will improved dramatically, prices will come down, etc etc. Complaining achieves nothing with these people because they are so arrogant and insular with no concept whatsoever of customer service. Yes it will be difficult to change ISP's with email addresses etc but it is not impossible. Take the opportunity now to set up email addresses on your own domain so that in future you can use any ISP and change anytime you like when you don't get the service you pay for or expect.

    I agree with the last few commentators - if you feel sufficiently aggrieved take your business elsewhere - and, even though I am a (now reluctant) shareholder, you try to get recompense from Telstra if there was material loss... although you have to expecAnonymous -- 15/10/03

    I agree with the last few commentators - if you feel sufficiently aggrieved take your business elsewhere - and, even though I am a (now reluctant) shareholder, you try to get recompense from Telstra if there was material loss... although you have to expect them to be coy about paying up easily.

    What always seems to be forgotten by the whingers is that Telstra is a huge govt instrumentality that has obligations to provide equitable service to all and sundry in a sustainable form - but they want a personalised outcome that meets their specific needs and when it doesn't happen get gets them hot and bothered!

    Tough! The world is the way you find it - so either adapt or go elsewhere. Certainly I can see things BP could do better and I have wasted (sic) some time making the suggestions but I don't get hung up about it if it doesn't happen.

    Simply blasting the call centre staff is not much different to the prattish behaviour demonstrated by road ragers!

    Taking your business elsewhere.... It's not as simple as that if you happen to be on cable and there isn't any cable alternative in your area (which there isn't for many people like me). Sure I could change to an ADSL provider but I'm Anonymous -- 15/10/03

    Taking your business elsewhere....

    It's not as simple as that if you happen to be on cable and there isn't any cable alternative in your area (which there isn't for many people like me).

    Sure I could change to an ADSL provider but I'm not prepared to downgrade to "dial-up". I'm paying premium rates and I think I am entitled to demand a premium service. Unfortunately telstra seems to have problems delivering even a BASIC service...

    I can appreciate that big ISP's don't want the nightmare of false positives if they install server based filtering but a they should use a bayesian filter with a fairly light setting to exclude the very obvious spam to at least reduce the inflow to their Anonymous -- 15/10/03

    I can appreciate that big ISP's don't want the nightmare of false positives if they install server based filtering but a they should use a bayesian filter with a fairly light setting to exclude the very obvious spam to at least reduce the inflow to their customers.

    I would never pay an ISP extra money to filter when there are very good client end filters available for free download.

    Just in response to the anonymous Bigpond employee who wrote to complain about how Bigpond customers have been speaking to support staff lately due the email problems they have been having. I would like to state that perhaps you and your staff could also Anonymous -- 15/10/03

    Just in response to the anonymous Bigpond employee who wrote to complain about how Bigpond customers have been speaking to support staff lately due the email problems they have been having. I would like to state that perhaps you and your staff could also pick up your phone manner somewhat. When ever I rang your support line all I got was incompetant help and nothing but arrogance and rudeness, a'la Telstra. Ok, you might get a blasting every now and then, but hey, welcome to the club. So, get over it, and yes I would have the guts to tell it to your face if the opportunity arose, nothing would give me more pleasure...

    The call centre person who wrote this: ...THINK BEFORE U ABUSE... I think you have been given the stick by all of us. I think the real abuse should go the the head of Bigpond and the CEO of Telstra. These people really need the stick Anonymous -- 15/10/03

    The call centre person who wrote this: ...THINK BEFORE U ABUSE...

    I think you have been given the stick by all of us.

    I think the real abuse should go the the head of Bigpond and the CEO of Telstra. These people really need the stick and need it hard.

    Sorry guys. Using another ISP IS NOT AN OPTION. For many, including those in areas where there is NO cable service, NO ADSL due to pair gain (another wonderful T(H)elstra trick) or poor service quality standards caused by slack T(H)elstra maintenance stanKeith Styles (An irate user) -- 15/10/03

    Sorry guys. Using another ISP IS NOT AN OPTION. For many, including those in areas where there is NO cable service, NO ADSL due to pair gain (another wonderful T(H)elstra trick) or poor service quality standards caused by slack T(H)elstra maintenance standards, or those in country areas who only have the very expensive satellite or ISDN services or worse yet dial-up at less than 20Kbps and last but not least of all, Pensioners who for any number of reasons DO NOT have a credit card & are unable to get Broadband from any ISP except T(H)elstra & I could go on & on about it, but what's the point...we are all stuck with a greedy monopoly. Those who think T(H)elstra is such a crash hot service provider, must be in the 3 wise monkey category. T(H)elstra is JUDGE, JURY & EXECUTIONER & our only recourse is to cut ourselves OFF from the rest of the world. Thanks guys! Your dumb obedience to a dictatorial monopoly deserves a commendation !
    The service provided by ZDNet is our only recourse. Trying to get justice from T(H)elstra is the equivalent of asking a Dictator to have mercy. They don't know the meaning of the word.

    How Come Other ISP service levels dont drop like this to "a combination of spam e-mails and the residual impact of worms and viruses" Anyway you look at it, it has to be a Telstra problem. "Oh I accidentally deleted EVERY web site we host!Anonymous -- 15/10/03

    How Come Other ISP service levels dont drop like this to "a combination of spam e-mails and the residual impact of worms and viruses" Anyway you look at it, it has to be a Telstra problem. "Oh I accidentally deleted EVERY web site we host!!" If these guys really are this incompetent, how are we ever going to be able to sell them off?.
    ps My ISP / email is going fine.

    How Come?.... Because they don't _have_ to supply to Dutch in Darwin or any TDH in Katherine for that matter unless they want to - and there is a sound commercial basis for doing so. All of which is fine with me living in Sydney but is not provAnonymous -- 16/10/03

    How Come?....

    Because they don't _have_ to supply to Dutch in Darwin or any TDH in Katherine for that matter unless they want to - and there is a sound commercial basis for doing so. All of which is fine with me living in Sydney but is not providing much equity to all and sundry. So the govt mandates that Telstra has to do it!

    I would have thought the IT types commenting on this thread would appreciate the issues specific to scaling - whilst the smaller ISP's might pine for customer lists as long as Telstra's - its another thing to manage that situation to every ones satisfaction regardless of how bright the staff on hand might be.

    Basically I advocate "get as much as you can from your ISP and learn to get over their shortcomings". If you can't do that try another supplier if one is available otherwise see Rule 1.

    Dear Jim, Patching your system will of course provide you with the latest security updates, but spammers dont necessarily exploit security loopholes, but rather enabled functionality and lax network configurations to spread spam. WhileRowly -- 11/12/03

    Dear Jim,

    Patching your system will of course provide you with the latest security updates, but spammers dont necessarily exploit security loopholes, but rather enabled functionality and lax network configurations to spread spam.

    While everyone should do their part for keeping the integrity of the internet in terms of regular security patches, forwarding of obvious spam email by ISP's costs businesses a fortune in wasted time and cost of bandwidth used.

    Investment in spam filtering utilities increases the capability of the network and enhances customer satisfaction.

    Paying the water company for delivery water into your home, but then saying its your problem if the water is dirty is not a responsible attitude. Other countries recognise the importance of ISP responsibilities in delivering both responsible, reliable and correct content to consumers. Isnt it time Australian ISP's did the same?

Add your opinion


Latest Videos

Blogs

  • Chris Duckett PayPal launches Aussie developer program
    PayPal announced the opening of its certification program for Australian developers today, making Australia the first country outside of the US to offer certification.
  • Array Cash cow in a BigTinCan?
    Around one third of Australia's telcos have shut their doors over time, but that isn't stopping new ventures hoping to chip away at carriers' mobile call bonanza. By fighting carriers at the smartphone rather than the home phone, could the latest two contenders be onto something big?
  • Array A third of the way to a zettabyte
    This week on Twisted Wire we look at how internet usage is changing in Australia and around the world. How are we meeting this demand and how is the cost structure changing for the service provider?
  • More blogs »

Tags

  1. 5 articles are tagged with 3g s
  2. 7 articles are tagged with 3gs
  3. 430 articles are tagged with accc
  4. 73 articles are tagged with act
  5. 1253 articles are tagged with apple
  6. 130 articles are tagged with ato
  7. 35 articles are tagged with audit
  8. 7 articles are tagged with bartlett
  9. 19 articles are tagged with basslink
  10. 1260 articles are tagged with broadband
  11. 194 articles are tagged with budget
  12. 8 articles are tagged with cenitex
  13. 203 articles are tagged with ceo
  14. 53 articles are tagged with cepu
  15. 640 articles are tagged with cio
  16. 191 articles are tagged with conroy
  17. 119 articles are tagged with contract
  18. 51 articles are tagged with e-health
  19. 1021 articles are tagged with google
  20. 969 articles are tagged with government
  21. 765 articles are tagged with hp
  22. 1274 articles are tagged with ibm
  23. 124 articles are tagged with internode
  24. 337 articles are tagged with iphone
  25. 268 articles are tagged with isp
  26. 1423 articles are tagged with microsoft
  27. 33 articles are tagged with minchin
  28. 1101 articles are tagged with mobile
  29. 325 articles are tagged with mobile phone
  30. 146 articles are tagged with national broadband network
  31. 257 articles are tagged with nbn
  32. 167 articles are tagged with new zealand
  33. 837 articles are tagged with optus
  34. 705 articles are tagged with oracle
  35. 143 articles are tagged with police
  36. 152 articles are tagged with queensland
  37. 292 articles are tagged with sap
  38. 139 articles are tagged with smartphone
  39. 1271 articles are tagged with software
  40. 134 articles are tagged with stephen conroy
  41. 159 articles are tagged with sydney
  42. 93 articles are tagged with tasmania
  43. 216 articles are tagged with telco
  44. 2278 articles are tagged with telstra
  45. 125 articles are tagged with tender
  46. 98 articles are tagged with union
  47. 151 articles are tagged with victoria
  48. 315 articles are tagged with vodafone
  49. 443 articles are tagged with voip
  50. 72 articles are tagged with windows 7

Back to top

Featured