According to IT Pro, Gmail has crashed at 11 AM today, making it the third time this year Google has had problems with their service.A Google spokesperson said, "A number of our users had difficulty accessing Gmail this morning. The problem was immediately investigated, and service was restored within twenty minutes.".
This isn't the first time Google has had problems this year. Back in February, Gmail was down for over 4 hours. In January, a human error caused every Google search to feature a "this site may harm your computer".
In the past year, Gmail has been down 5 other times.
Exactly.
Unless you are using Google Apps Premium (like me).
it's been in beta for ages... i think they keep it like that for a excuse. so if it goes down they can just say 'it's in beta'.
I however didn't experience any problems, though I'm using my own domain on their services so I don't know if that makes a difference.
Why in god's name are you relying on Gmail as a business?
That's the most stupid IT decision I've heard all day. Relying on servers and terms of use agreements outside of your control... by choice.
It's simple for any reasonably experienced IT guy to set up and run a personal mail server with regular backups. As a bonus, the business mails stay on your server, with all the benefits that comes from that.
That's the most stupid IT decision I've heard all day. Relying on servers and terms of use agreements outside of your control... by choice.
It's simple for any reasonably experienced IT guy to set up and run a personal mail server with regular backups. As a bonus, the business mails stay on your server, with all the benefits that comes from that.
So you've never heard of outsourcing?
We don't have the infrastructure to be anywhere near as reliable as google mail can be, not to mention that mail servers can be a massive pain in the ass to manage, especially when they go wrong.
Not to mention that this was only an issue with the web interface, the backend was fine, as was SMTP and POP access. Anyone working in a business will be using SMTP/POP in place of the webmail 99.9% of the time anyway, so to them, they wouldn't have noticed anything (and indeed, I didn't)
This failure was MUCH longer (at least 5 hours in some regions) and MUCH more widespread than is being reported here. Good job by Google PR, but a much bigger infrastructure issue.
Get a dedicated email service, or host your own.
Get a dedicated email service, or host your own.
+1
That's the most stupid IT decision I've heard all day. Relying on servers and terms of use agreements outside of your control... by choice.
It's simple for any reasonably experienced IT guy to set up and run a personal mail server with regular backups. As a bonus, the business mails stay on your server, with all the benefits that comes from that.
So you've never heard of outsourcing?
We don't have the infrastructure to be anywhere near as reliable as google mail can be, not to mention that mail servers can be a massive pain in the ass to manage, especially when they go wrong.
Not to mention that this was only an issue with the web interface, the backend was fine, as was SMTP and POP access. Anyone working in a business will be using SMTP/POP in place of the webmail 99.9% of the time anyway, so to them, they wouldn't have noticed anything (and indeed, I didn't)
Yes, I've heard of outsourcing, but if you're going to do that to save money, accept the risks and get over it. That simple.
Exactly.
Um. It being free means that it's not in your control and it's a privilege to use their free apps, not a right.
Exactly.
No, it is not.
I had no access to my google apps accounts for about 5 hours - which is fine for me, but if I was a business who relied on gmail for their email, I'd be pretty peed.
but if I was a business who relied on gmail for their email, I'd be pretty peed.
If I had a business that relied on email I sure wouldn't choose a free provider like Gmail. I'd choose a paid solution with a SLA.
but if I was a business who relied on gmail for their email, I'd be pretty peed.
If I had a business that relied on email I sure wouldn't choose a free provider like Gmail. I'd choose a paid solution with a SLA.
Their premium option has a SLA.... I personally don't use it partially because I can't afford the $50 per mailbox per year pricetag.
I had no access to my google apps accounts for about 5 hours - which is fine for me, but if I was a business who relied on gmail for their email, I'd be pretty peed.
seems google calendar is still down - wtf is wrong with google these days???
I had no access to my google apps accounts for about 5 hours - which is fine for me, but if I was a business who relied on gmail for their email, I'd be pretty peed.
Not only peed, but very stupid too.
I had no access to my google apps accounts for about 5 hours - which is fine for me, but if I was a business who relied on gmail for their email, I'd be pretty peed.
seems google calendar is still down - wtf is wrong with google these days???
The mere fact you use Chrome as well seems to show you're yet another Google fanboy who feels entitled to what Google offers you for free.
Stop complaining.
Last edited by dead.cell on 11 May 2009 - 20:09
Um. POP3 is locally saved, so that really isn't even part of this discussion.
And no, it wasn't web service? Google was working just fine.
Overall, their service is much better than the rest, in my opinion. I don't really mind so long as the problems don't exist for a long period of time. The advantages far outweigh the small problems that have sprung up in the past.
Last edited by rm20010 on 09 May 2009 - 00:39
I grow tired of these people who take stuff given to them for free as something that they are entitled to.
Gmail rocks because it's the only webmail program that filters out spam pretty good.
and it's free and i've been trying to fill my mailbox up to qouta and they keep raising my quota.
Gmail rocks because it's the only webmail program that filters out spam pretty good.
and it's free and i've been trying to fill my mailbox up to qouta and they keep raising my quota.
Yeah, no spam, for a change!!
Gmails spam filter absolutely stinks to high heaven. One of the worst there is!!
That I will have to disagree with. Gmails spam filter is the best. As John C Devork says "I get no spam" I really don't . None, Zip, Zero. It all goes to my spam folder on gmail. I Emptied my spam folder on may 4th. Since then I have seen ZERO Spam. I mainly use the Pop3 access and I see No spam.Though currently my Gmail spam folder has 147 messages in it.
I've never had a single message of Spam, unless you count the HP Offers emails I've been getting, and that was by choice.
just be smart about who you give your email to, and you'll be fine.
One account for all of my billing and order tracking.
One account for my daily communications, main site registrations, and important notifications.
One account for sites that I feel may just start sending me spam and/or newsletters, or site notifications for something I don't particularly care about.
And finally, one account in which I have a very good feeling I'll be spammed, but curiosity pushes me to check it out anyways.
Funny thing is, my spam account is cleaner than anything since it no longer gets anything thrown to it these days.
The product has been in perpetual beta (like almost all other Google products) - so no more excuses. I'm tired of them.
The product has been in perpetual beta (like almost all other Google products) - so no more excuses. I'm tired of them.
Then be tired of them.
It was your (or your company's) call to pay for a service that was in beta, you deserve this if you feel "betrayed" and totally "let down" by this.
Most email servers will retry several times over a period of a few days to resend the email if it doesn't deliver properly the first time.
If you using a email client then it would have queued any outgoing email and sent it when the service is restored.
Email is a non real-time communication method if it's that critical that you contact someone instantly there are other methods of doing so.
At the end of the day no system is perfect and you can put lots of safeguards and redundancy in and still encounter something that takes the whole system down.
Probably due to all the archiving they do. They have to make sure they record your email and browsing/search history for life.
And its not exactly "free" like some claim. They still have the sponsor ads in the email viewing, which they make money off of.
Having said that, their service is impeccable most of the time, and a little downtime doesn't bother me that much.
On a side note on the business side, was Google's business email hosting affected as well?
Google have become what Microsoft was 10 years ago... Way too powerful. Fortunately the end user of the Internet has an almost endless choice of what they can use!
Google offers much more free to the public than Microsoft ever will.
A free service provided to us for free on the internetz is down.
Let's all gang up and start ripping on them because Google is supposed to be God.
Don't give me that "we depend on it for business" garbage.
Depend on ANY technology period, and you're automatically accepting the risk that it may fail. That is true with ANY technology.
Get over it, sheesh. I get tired of seeing these "omg omg omg Gmail is down" posts on multiple sites. Get a grip.
A free service provided to us for free on the internetz is down.
No, it is not for free. Direct payment (credit card, check and such) are not the only way to pay for a service, also to popularize a service, to bring ads and so on.
Don't give me that "we depend on it for business" garbage.
Depend on ANY technology period, and you're automatically accepting the risk that it may fail. That is true with ANY technology.
Get over it, sheesh. I get tired of seeing these "omg omg omg Gmail is down" posts on multiple sites. Get a grip.
The problem is if is a big vendor fail and the reliability is lower that 99.x%, then, can you trust in the rest of vendor?. Cloud is really so nice?.
A free service provided to us for free on the internetz is down.
No, it is not for free. Direct payment (credit card, check and such) are not the only way to pay for a service, also to popularize a service, to bring ads and so on.
Don't give me that "we depend on it for business" garbage.
Depend on ANY technology period, and you're automatically accepting the risk that it may fail. That is true with ANY technology.
Get over it, sheesh. I get tired of seeing these "omg omg omg Gmail is down" posts on multiple sites. Get a grip.
The problem is if is a big vendor fail and the reliability is lower that 99.x%, then, can you trust in the rest of vendor?. Cloud is really so nice?.
Yes, it is for free, I do not recall paying for my Gmail account. It is still considered a service, because it's a ways and means of communicating with others, facilitated by a third party.
Ah. I see. 5 hours out of what, 6 years, is now unreliable. I suppose people with high standards like that will never appreciate anything given to them for free.
I'll say it again. Gmail, just as the rest of Google, RUNS ON COMPUTERS, and just like the rest of us here at Neowin, we know that computers are BOUND to fail sooner or later, due to user error or machine-based error.
We pay for power. We pay for gas. And it goes out sometimes. Even though those services aren't labeled "beta" we don't give them crap for going down.
Rofl
All companies i worked for actually block gmail and hotmail access even pop access. They all used their own mail server or the one provided by their isp.
So gmail is really like hotmail for the average users.
I use hotmail and gmail as my "spam filled inbox". When i need to provide an email adress to a public web wite i always give my gmail or hotmail adress so my main email adress is not filled with too much spam.
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