123-reg vs BT

deanomix · ‎07-06-2011

Hi,

We've been having some problems since around Wednesday afternoon (1st June) last week. Started to panic slightly when emails seemed to be getting stuck coming through our 123-reg pop3 server and our own website was taking forever to load (which are both run by 123-reg and relays have all been setup).

Spoke to BT straight away to let them know, only to be told there was nothing wrong from BT's end and to check our SMTP authentication settings which I knew were correct, and to restart the BT fibre modem.

Restarted the modem which seemed to let the emails come through and our website was appearing much quicker, but only for around 30 minutes then the same problems started to come back. Did a quick check on the mirapoint IP checker (mirapoint being the guys that protect BT from any spammers and I'm sure protecting from other nasty things too) and our IP address was apparently at high risk of being a spammer! Told all of this to BT who then replied that our server must have virus somewhere either on our server or our workstations..... We have no viruses and are not spamming!! Final option was to restart the BT modem to get a new IP. After restarting the router many times (around 10!!) until an IP address was finally given with a 'no risk' reputation, everything seems to be running ok.

Finally saw 123-reg's message on their service status page (http://www.123-support.co.uk/system-status/) on 2nd June about BT's network not playing with 123-reg's server nicely:

"Customers with BT as their ISP are currently facing intermittent issues with connection to their services with 123-reg/Webfusion. This is causing slowness in the loading of customer`s website and sometimes downloading emails from the server. Our network engineers have identified this issue is related to BT network. They are experiencing packet loss from their end in the data sent to our networks. Customers experiencing this are advised to report this issue to BT as soon as possible."

"UPDATE on 6th June:: Our system engineers are continuing to look into this issue for a full resolution and are awaiting further information from BT. Initial investigations have indicated that this is affecting BT ADSL customers. Further updates will be posted on this page when advised."

I must admit it was quite a relief after reading this to think there possibly wasnt anything actually wrong from my setup in our offices at all. Phoned up BT and told them, they got 123-reg's status message up on their screens, spoke to one of their technical guys and they said thanks for letting them know and will look into it immediately and will let me know the outcome.

This was last Thursday 2nd June and I have yet to hear back from them. I'm not even touching the BT modem for now as this current IP address seems to be ok.... for now. I wonder if BT are dishing out IP addresses that possibly have bad reputations as listed by mirapoint, maybe mirapoint are protecting BT a little too much?? Is it all to do with BT not connecting correctly to 123-reg? Whatever it is anyway, I hope it is sorted out quickly as we can't afford not to have this problem again.

Regards,

deanomix

weeelk · ‎08-06-2011

I have been trying to nail down the problem since couple of days of constantly receiving time-outs and 503s on number of pages. Managed to trace it down to pages hosted by Webfusion, 123-Reg, Donhost and probably more. In general it seems to be affecting all services hosted by Leeds Data Centre. This affects many or all BT ADSL customers.

And yes it is loss of packets on BT end. I have called them but their support have no idea about resolving issues of this level. They only can resolve client side problems and run some simple line/service test.

Support suppose find out what to do with this and call me back in 20 minutes. After couple of hours it did not happened.

I also have many reports from my clients who are with BT and cannot access their websites or web services hosted by any of mentioned providers. So this issue is definitely here even thought BT is still publicly quiet on this issue.

markp · ‎08-06-2011

Hi all,

Currently BT and 123-reg Network teams are working together trying to identify any issues and are trying to resolve them as soon as possible.

Regards

markp

ATMUK · ‎08-06-2011

Hi Mark,

It's great this is being looked at but I think whatever is going on at the moment maybe wider than just 123-Reg.

Have you seen my thread here? There are a few other companies who don't host through 123-Reg who are seeing similar problems.

Cheers,

Andy

deanomix · ‎09-06-2011

UPDATE from 123-reg support on 9th June 2011 at 10:19: BT have indentified that this issue was caused by a fault with a router card on their network and works are planned to replace the faulty router card.

Taken from http://www.123-support.co.uk/system-status/

Fingers crossed!

chrismcl · ‎09-06-2011

I am currently trying to confirm this from our side. I will post when I know more information. But from the 123-reg update it appears promising.

I will update in due course when I have the information.

Chris

deanomix · ‎11-06-2011

Update from 123-reg support website http://www.123-support.co.uk/system-status/ on 10th June at 17:34 :

"BT have now fixed this issue"

Well as much as I am so pleased to see this message, it is a shame that only 123-reg seemed to really know what was going on. It was great that 123-reg's system status page was continuously updated with news of the problem which actually turned out to be a fault at BT's end. Not much help or any updates from BT, only to be told from BT support, the usual "restart the modem", or "check your outlook settings" and "your computer possibly has viruses"....

Lets hope we have no more of the same problems.