ADSL bug has Telstra by the short and curlies - News - Communications

To print: Select File and then Print from your browser's menu

--------------------------------------------------------------
This story was printed from ZDNet Australia.
--------------------------------------------------------------

ADSL bug has Telstra by the short and curlies

By Rachel Lebihan, ZDNet Australia
January 24, 2002
URL: http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/communications/soa/ADSL-bug-has-Telstra-by-the-short-and-curlies/0,130061791,120263134,00.htm

An ADSL router bug that has aggravated Telstra for seven months and fudged three previous fixes is still marauding the telco's network following postponement of last night's latest patch, leaving peer-to-peer connections still inoperable for some users.

Nearly two weeks ago Telstra headlined today as the day the bug would be exterminated, following three previous and unsuccessful attempts. But the fix date is here, as is the unrelenting bug and another week will go by before a software switch, now scheduled for January 30, is attempted and the bug hopefully eradicated once and for all.

Telstra has put the overnight hold-off down to -unrelated problems with the ADSL network last night" and not a problem with the software fix itself.

-The fix didn't go ahead as planned," Telstra spokesperson John Court told ZDNet Australia. -The decision was made that rather than install new software and risk adding to those [other] network issues it would be best to wait until they were resolved."

Indeed the telco's ADSL network has been bestowed with another bout of problems of late, with services in Victoria shaky for much of the week and out of operation entirely for up to seven hours last night.

Telstra's Stuart Gray said that 70 percent of its Victorian users were impacted from about 3pm onwards yesterday. Half of those customers were back on air by 7pm and the remainder by 10pm.

The problem has still not been identified and is being investigated by technicians.

Gray said the problem was different to that which impacted Victorian users earlier on in the week but a similar restorative approach was taken to each glitch.

Regardless, peer-to-peer customers, smaller in minority to those affected by the wider ADSL network shenanigans, will have to wait another week to see if Telstra can finally outwit the router bug which first reared its head in July 2001.