[LINK] more on Telstra email outage

[Chirgwin, Richard]

Re Bigpond service guarantees: 
1) TCP/IP is flaky and
2) Any highly-interconnected IP network is so incredibly dependent on
externals that only a damn fool would even consider a service guarantee.

I know the Big Bad T is easy to kick, but: the overriding characteristic of
the Internet is that stuff breaks, and sometimes, the dependencies are too
great to survive. An oversimplification to serve as a metaphor: when you
have a mesh of 1,000 entities, the 1,001st adds a million new
dependencies...

Richard Chirgwin

-----Original Message-----
From: Jan Whitaker [mailto:jwhit@PrimeNet.Com]
Sent: Friday, 2 March 2001 7:06
To: link@www.anu.edu.au
Subject: [LINK] more on Telstra email outage 


Since I posted the first story, here's the explanation from Telstra.  Note 
the mention that Bigpond mail is not covered by the service 
agreement!  hmmmm...I wonder if Senator Dick and friends figure that to be 
the case?

http://www.theage.com.au/breaking/0103/01/A26043-2001Mar1.shtml
Software to blame for email problems claims Telstra

    Source: AAP|Published: Thursday March 1, 1:15 PM

    Telstra Corp Ltd said today it was investigating a computer software 
fault which impacted 68,000 of its
    customers' e-mail accounts early this week.

    Telstra said the glitch for all account names starting with I,L or M 
had been repaired and customers
    should contact the company if they felt compensation was due.

    However, Telstra's Big Pond mail service is not covered by a customer 
guarantee service and claims are
    likely to be limited.

    "We believe the impact was quite small in a relative sense," Telstra 
spokesman Stuart Gray said.

    "If people feel they should be compensated they should contact Telstra."

    Mr Gray said two email outages impacted about ten per cent of Big 
Pond's 680,000 customer base for
    four hours on Friday and again on Monday.

    The glitch meant delays of up to four-hours to receive incoming 
e-mails. Outgoing mail was not
    impacted.

    "There was not a virus involved, it was a computer software fault," Mr 
Gray said.

    "Since Monday evening the system has been working normally."

    He said Telstra was investigating the problem to ensure it did not 
happen again.

    At 11.14am AEDT, Telstra shares were 9.2 cents higher to $6.37.