Facebook Login Issues Affecting Many

[mdcdesign]

As a regular and consistent user of Facebook, I've found it has wormed its way into every facet of my daily life; from communicating with friends and family, to logging into 3rd party websites and web services such as Soundcloud and Flickr. It even powers the contact list on my Windows 8 desktop and Windows Phone.

For the past 3 days, however, I've been unable to access Facebook due to what can only be described as a showstopping bug in their authentication system. I'm also not the only affected user; for the past week or so, various people across the world have come up against what is alternately reported as either a blank page or an HTTP 500 (Internal Server Error), depending on which browser you're using. Your account remains visible to those on your friends list; they can comment on your statuses/photos, post on your wall etc, and you even continue to receive SMS notifications when they do so. However, when you attempt to log in, you get dropped at a blank page/HTTP error, with no apparent solution available to you.

Due to the fact Facebook essentially don't provide any form of support to their users, many are left completely clueless with how to proceed. Some have attempted to report the issue using friends' and family members' accounts, but none have received word back from Facebook. They seem to either be completely ignoring the issue, or simply keeping their members in the dark. Their Known Issues page hasn't been updated since the 19th of September, with hundreds of comments on the last post reporting the current issue, along with many others.

If Facebook continue to push for such heavy integration into the lives' of others, they'll need to come up with a way to support people when their service fails them. For any business, such extended periods of downtime are almost unheard of these days, as the loss of customer business would be at risk. Unfortunately for Facebook users, it's widespread ubiquity seems to be providing the company with a level of confidence that is seemingly allowing them to ignore the plight - if their Known Issues page is anything to go by - thousands of their users; and these are only the ones who've found alternative ways of accessing the site, and thought to report the issue.

Perhaps a keen Neowinian living in the United States might be willing to give Facebook a call to get their feedback on this, and the myriad of other issues people seem to be facing. As a resident of the UK myself, sadly that's not an option that's available to me; at least not economically.

If you too have been struck by this bug, the only words of reassurance I can offer you are that you are, at least, not alone. Perhaps it's time for us all to switch to Google+? /s

[neufuse Veteran]

past few weeks I keep getting password wrong errors. even though I typed it right... after a few times it does the is this you? screen enter the same darn thing again and it works fine... it fails for me every time until I get that screen then works... I duno whats up with their system...

[ecotrojan]

facebook is down for me, Virgin Media, UK

[Azusa]

Yeah just went down for me

http://downrightnow.com/ seems to be down for everyone!

[Redz0ne]

Its deffo down UK on Virgin I can 2nd that.

[Growled Member]

No problems here for me.

[ashpowell]

yup, down

[badb0y]

down

[mdcdesign]

Just gone completely down here too, I'm on Be LLU.

I'm guessing they've taken the entire site cluster for a reboot, possibly to fix this issue. Fingers crossed!

It's quite funny over at http://www.downforeveryoneorjustme.com/facebook.com;

Huh? http://facebook.com doesn't look like a site on the interwho.

Try again?

[freak180]

Its going down down down...

[n_K]

A little fish said adding this to /etc/hosts fixes it;

173.252.100.16 www.facebook.com

[nyolc8]

down

[jingarelho]

down for me too (Portugal ISP = Zon ).

:huh: finally anonymous made it with the promise to bring down facebook! LOL

[mdcdesign]

Apparently the source of the attack wasn't Anonymous; all of the IP addresses involved in the attack, which wasn't even against Facebook, but against several of the core internet routers, originated from China.

In other news, the original issue posted about is STILL ongoing. facebook.com/checkpoint still throws a 500 error :(

[SoCalRox]

It was down for me for a while about 30 minutes ago. I changed my DNS and it came right up. Not sure if that means anything, but offered for consideration.

[Guth]

the word on 4chan is that anon have taken facebook down by DDOS. (however, believe what you will. Don't know if id call 4chan a reputable news source xD)

No status report from me, I don't have a facebook :)

[Charisma Veteran]

Seems to be up now.

Damn. Was hoping we were finally free. :laugh:

[Growled Member]

Seems to be up now.

Damn. Was hoping we were finally free. :laugh:

You will never be free. :p

[scaramonga]

Good!

Try to imagine life without Facebook. Go make a coffee, read a book, make real friends?

[KomaWei]

Same problem here. I can login with my fake account and have no issues. But if I try to login with my real account I get the issue. My profile doesn't even come up at all and it's not private.

[Yorak]

What will we do without browsing Facebook for a few hours? The world is surely ending in a few weeks. Come on people, do something else to keep you occupied.

[KomaWei]

I can do fine without it. Just can't get help with my car. Since my car mates only use facebook. That's all I use facebook for. xD

[SharpGreen]

Good!

Try to imagine life without Facebook. Go make a coffee, read a book, make real friends?

Guess I'm one of those rare folks who actually knows all of his FB friends outside of FB. Well all but 3.

[LUTZIFER]

No probs for me, and I go there many times a day. Plus I have Skype running with all my Facebook contacts.

Haven't noticed any probs whatsoever.

[John S. Veteran]

moved here