NinerNet Communications™
System Status

Server and System Status

NC027: SSL case closed

24 March 2014 09:10:02 +0000

We are closing this issue, although we have not found a cause. As far as we can tell, everything related to authentication on the server is working. Research on similar occurrences also shows the problem apparently resolving itself after a short time, and also points to a number of possible causes, including faulty operating system and software updates on client machines. However, in this case we saw the problem on different operating systems (Windows, Mac and Android) and different email programs. We also suspected anti-virus software, but again we heard of problems on computers running different anti-virus software.

Oddly, we could not reproduce the problem on any machines in our office, and so we had no primary references on which we could do research.

About the only commonality we could find — other than the server itself, of course — is that we believe all of the reporting clients are on VSATs. However, even that doesn’t fully explain the problem as if, for some reason, VSATs were the issue we should theoretically have seen the same problem on other servers. That said, the problem reported to us was only with downloading email, and the other mail server on which the bulk of our clients are hosted uses slightly different SSL technology; additionally our default instructions for that server do not mention using SSL. We saw a similar issue with VSAT connections several years ago, so if this is related it’s not unprecedented.

Another possibility that can’t be ruled out is network issues that may have interfered with encryption on the connection. Given the number of reports, such an issue (if it existed) would likely have been closer to the server than the client. If this issue reoccurs we will contact our upstream providers to see what they have to say.

While it is unsatisfactory to close an issue without having a smoking gun to identify it, we are going to do so at this time. If you do see this issue again, please contact support and we will again look at the issue.

Thank-you for your patience while we looked at this issue.

NC027: SSL issue update

24 March 2014 06:29:06 +0000

We’re now getting emails from clients telling us that the issue has apparently resolved itself. We’re continuing to investigate, but we have not done anything to the server, either before this issue started or since it was reported to us.

Updates will continue to be posted here.

NC027: SSL issue

24 March 2014 06:06:57 +0000

We are getting reports from clients that they are getting SSL-related error messages when connecting to this mail server. We have not yet been able to reproduce these errors ourselves, but we are investigating to find out what’s happening.

We will post further updates here.

NC027: Maintenance complete

15 March 2014 19:53:18 +0000

Server NC027 was brought back online at 19:43 UTC. This maintenance has been completed successfully.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact NinerNet support. Thanks very much for your patience while we upgraded the resources on this server.

NC027: Maintenance update

15 March 2014 19:33:23 +0000

The server was taken down for maintenance at 19:23 UTC. The maintenance is underway at this time.

We will post an update here as soon as the server is back online.

NC027: System maintenance

13 March 2014 10:38:17 +0000

We will be upgrading server NC027 over the weekend to increase its capacity. This maintenance will take about 40 minutes, during which the server will be completely inaccessible. However, incoming mail will be spooled on sending systems, and will be delivered when the server comes back up. No email will be lost or bounced.

Here are the details:

  • Start of maintenance window: 19:00 15 March 2014 UTC
  • Length of maintenance window: 1 hour

While the length of the maintenance window is an hour, the actual length of the maintenance should only be about 40 minutes sometime during that hour. If either the maintenance window or the length of the maintenance should change, we will post updates here.

To convert the above time and date to your time zone, please visit the World Time Server website.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact NinerNet support. Thank-you for your patience while we work to improve the service that we offer to you.

NC018: Investigation findings

8 March 2014 00:57:23 +0000

The web server on server NC018 sustained a denial-of-service attack between approximately 14:00 and 18:00 UTC on 7 March. This is why websites on this server were unavailable during this period. No other services (email or nameservers) were affected.

We have implemented improved monitoring of this activity on this server. Additionally, we are in discussions with the data centre to move this server to an improved network infrastructure, a move we hope to implement before the end of March.

We apologise for this disruption.

NC018: Web server outage

7 March 2014 18:22:18 +0000

We have had reports that the web server on server NC018 was down in the late afternoon UTC. We restarted the web server at 18:07 UTC and it is up right now.

We’re looking into this and will report back here shortly.

NinerNet home page

Systems at a Glance:


Loc.SystemStatusPing
Server NC023, London, United Kingdom (Relay server), INTERNAL.NC023InternalUp?
Server NC028, Vancouver, Canada (Monitoring server), INTERNAL.NC028InternalUp?
Server NC031, New York, United States of America (Web server), INTERNAL.NC031InternalUp?
Server NC033, Toronto, Canada (Primary nameserver), OPERATIONAL.NC033OperationalUp?
Server NC034, Lusaka, Zambia (Phone server), INTERNAL.NC034InternalUp?
Server NC035, Sydney, Australia (Secondary nameserver), OPERATIONAL.NC035OperationalUp?
Server NC036, Amsterdam, Netherlands (Mail server), OPERATIONAL.NC036OperationalUp?
Server NC040, Toronto, Canada (Web server), INTERNAL.NC040InternalUp?
Server NC041, New York, United States of America (Web server), OPERATIONAL.NC041OperationalUp?
Server NC042, Seattle, United States of America (Status website), OPERATIONAL.NC042OperationalUp?

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