Shane Posted October 10, 2011 Share Posted October 10, 2011 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-15243892 Spent a while re-booting the bes and thinking the fault was our end before one of my colleaues found this! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Branners Posted October 10, 2011 Share Posted October 10, 2011 yep, me too. Came out of a management meeting to try and work out what it was. Left my team to resolve it and they txted me to say it was a Blackberry fault and not ours. WHich is nice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shane Posted October 10, 2011 Author Share Posted October 10, 2011 yep, me too. Came out of a management meeting to try and work out what it was. Left my team to resolve it and they txted me to say it was a Blackberry fault and not ours. WHich is nice. Yes it's nice isn't it, but doesn't stop the silly calls flooding in expecting a rabbit to be pulled from a hat eh. Strange thing is we lost our srp for a while too and also the internal directory lookup stopped working until we re-booted. Actually, things have just started moving again as I sent a few peer to peer messages trying to eliminate things and one to my boss was sent around 1145 got through at 2100ish. Be fine tomorrow I would think. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Abz Posted October 10, 2011 Share Posted October 10, 2011 We had an exchange failover & the messaging team thought they fubared the BES! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sideexitsupra Posted October 10, 2011 Share Posted October 10, 2011 Just received my emails for the whole day at 22:00! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graham S Posted October 10, 2011 Share Posted October 10, 2011 You wouldn't have that problem with Windows Phone 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shane Posted October 12, 2011 Author Share Posted October 12, 2011 Well day 3 of operational problems and little explanation from RIM other than a switch fail. Obviously these things happen but you would have thought whatever hardware or software issues there were, and at whatever cost, they could have got things sorted by now and would have had some resilience against such a prolonged outage. They are not doing themselves any favours in terms of retaining or winning business. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Branners Posted October 12, 2011 Share Posted October 12, 2011 I doubt its a switch fail, either somebody did a software upgrade to their infrastructure and royally knackered it or theres a problem with somebody hacking their servers or finding an exploit in their protocols. No business would let their servers stay down this long, they would simply route round the problem and use US servers and give a slower service. Their online updates on their status page are comical too. They keep saying its the utmost importance and they have everybody doing everything they can...and there was me thinking they were drinking tea and eating jaffa cakes while their world burnt around them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
imi Posted October 12, 2011 Share Posted October 12, 2011 Well day 3 of operational problems and little explanation from RIM other than a switch fail. Obviously these things happen but you would have thought whatever hardware or software issues there were, and at whatever cost, they could have got things sorted by now and would have had some resilience against such a prolonged outage. They are not doing themselves any favours in terms of retaining or winning business. wouldnt count on that, look at Sony and their recent PS3 saga.....how many weeks did it take them to sort out their global network? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shane Posted October 13, 2011 Author Share Posted October 13, 2011 I doubt its a switch fail, either somebody did a software upgrade to their infrastructure and royally knackered it or theres a problem with somebody hacking their servers or finding an exploit in their protocols. No business would let their servers stay down this long, they would simply route round the problem and use US servers and give a slower service. Their online updates on their status page are comical too. They keep saying its the utmost importance and they have everybody doing everything they can...and there was me thinking they were drinking tea and eating jaffa cakes while their world burnt around them. Its a farce it really is, to make it worse I have to deal with technoidiots who seem to think I can just wave some magic wand and get it fixed, and some of these people should know better! Still I guess thats what I am paid for. On a positve note, at around 2230 last night things looked up and this morning everything is back up. I guess you are reffering to this: http://uk.blackberry.com/serviceupdate/ or is there something else I missed? Hmm Jaffa cakes, not had them for a while, just off to Waitrose, back later. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Branners Posted October 13, 2011 Share Posted October 13, 2011 its still not 'quite' right. Some of my users still cannot send, they are getting emails but not sending. Still not really found anything more than a 'core switch failure' being reported. I call wifflewaffle on it all, something very odd happened. Data backlog due to failed switch tells me that switch was seriously borderline. And why did the problem move to the US servers? all too fishy to me Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
imi Posted October 13, 2011 Share Posted October 13, 2011 Perhaps Steve Jobs sends his regards from the other side..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Abz Posted October 13, 2011 Share Posted October 13, 2011 I think Blackberry (Or more RIM) are paying respects to Steve Jobs with 3 days of silence. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shane Posted October 14, 2011 Author Share Posted October 14, 2011 its still not 'quite' right. Some of my users still cannot send, they are getting emails but not sending. Still not really found anything more than a 'core switch failure' being reported. I call wifflewaffle on it all, something very odd happened. Data backlog due to failed switch tells me that switch was seriously borderline. And why did the problem move to the US servers? all too fishy to me http://www.lesjones.com/www/images/posts/fishy.jpg Very good...we seem to be ok now, but saying that a lot of our users dont really use their devices to any great extent other than collecting mail. BBM seems ok now and all the other functions such as global dir lookup which I still cant get my head around why it would stop, is now working. I believe the guys had to do a re-boot yesterday though, but that was a due to a problem our end. Oh and we are still plodding along with v4.1 I think so I guess you are on 5, could there still be issues with v5 users? With all the Blackberry problems and now Apple problems, could we have a Blackberry and Apple crumble on our plates? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Abz Posted October 14, 2011 Share Posted October 14, 2011 With all the Blackberry problems and now Apple problems, could we have a Blackberry and Apple crumble on our plates? Very good Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Branners Posted October 14, 2011 Share Posted October 14, 2011 RIM are still saying they dont actually know why it went down as badly as it did, which is comforting as that means it could go again! Yes, we are on BES Express 5. If you have the choice to use BES Express, just dont. Interface is shockingly poor. And if you get the choice of going to the cheap 'data only Blackberry' tarrif from your supplier dont do that either. You have to connect each Blackberry to your machine to activate it. Its like being back in 2006. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shane Posted October 14, 2011 Author Share Posted October 14, 2011 RIM are still saying they dont actually know why it went down as badly as it did, which is comforting as that means it could go again! Yes, we are on BES Express 5. If you have the choice to use BES Express, just dont. Interface is shockingly poor. And if you get the choice of going to the cheap 'data only Blackberry' tarrif from your supplier dont do that either. You have to connect each Blackberry to your machine to activate it. Its like being back in 2006. OK thanks. We looked at BES express at the last review but I decided against it, but that was over a year ago and for the life of me I cant remember why...think maybe the network guys advised against it. We should have gone to v5 when we signed then, but our provider will only give us it if their guy comes and installs it. So based on past experience we have held off for a while. Everytime someone from outside comes in we seem to have problems so while its working and we get support of sorts we have stayed on 4.x We are on O2 and with Arrowcommunications by the way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Branners Posted October 14, 2011 Share Posted October 14, 2011 We used to be on O2 with spiritel, but they got bought by Daisy Communications. We have now moved to Vodafone and are direct with them. Reduced our Blackberry costs from £32 a handset when using BES data, to around £15 a handset using BES Express data. Quite a saving, but makes activation a royal pain in the bump. Express interface is full web client as well, and you can only fit about 5 columns on the screen so cannot easily see all the key info like waiting packets and last connection time. You also cannot migrate users from BES4 to BESx5, and thats a killer for most. So go to BES5 but dont use Express unless you fancy reactiving every single unit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shane Posted October 15, 2011 Author Share Posted October 15, 2011 We used to be on O2 with spiritel, but they got bought by Daisy Communications. We have now moved to Vodafone and are direct with them. Reduced our Blackberry costs from £32 a handset when using BES data, to around £15 a handset using BES Express data. Quite a saving, but makes activation a royal pain in the bump. Express interface is full web client as well, and you can only fit about 5 columns on the screen so cannot easily see all the key info like waiting packets and last connection time. You also cannot migrate users from BES4 to BESx5, and thats a killer for most. So go to BES5 but dont use Express unless you fancy reactiving every single unit. ok thanks for that. we currently only have 30 bb users so am guessing compared with you (based on the price you are paying) you must manage more. We sadly are stuck with Arrow for a further 12 months and another issue we have is that on one of the estates close to Tonbrige in Kent there is only O2 reception. last year I met with Vodafone down there and they now have plans and permission to stick a mast in the area to improve their coverage. Hopefully by the time we are up for renewal with Arrow, this will be up and running and we will be moving to VF. For sme users no one seems to come close to Arrow's prices on O2 which is why we have been with them for around 8 years, but it really is time for a move but although there are endless providers out there, as you will be aware there are few who have direct gateways into the networks to do the day to day stuff themselves. Looking after the mobiles and Blackberrys is a task I reluctantly inherited a few years back and it isnt something I really want to do, its bit of a poison chalice imo. to make t worse, another division who currently look after their own stuff have made such a hash of it recently has meant I may well have to take their stuff on as well. I have sort of made up my mind already who we will be going with next time already, once vf get the Kent side of things sorted and I am hoping if we do migrate to these guys that a lot of the admin hassle I currently get lumbered with will be sorted by them making my job a little easier, leaving me to do what I am primarily there for. Thanks for the advice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Branners Posted October 15, 2011 Share Posted October 15, 2011 We are only on 38 BBs so not a huge number either. Prices have tumbled in recent years on line rental and BB data so if you can face the BES Express problems you can halve the costs of mobiles. We also got 20 new handsets and a £7k credit for moving. So its well worth moving. The one problem you will face is that O2 will not go direct if you are already with a reseller. You have to actually ask O2 for your PAC codes to disconnect before they will talk to you about pricing, which is a bit late in the process. Certainly worth the money to shift every 2 years though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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