Don Gould wrote:

Martin Kealey wrote:

...

<metoo/>

Given that (apparently) along with many other ISPs, Ihug also seem to have trouble with Xtra's inbound mailservers, perhaps I should say "could someone from Xtra please contact me ON list".

(Yes we're all on fire trying to deal with Image Spam, but refusing valid mail just makes it worse...)

I've people coming out my ears with mail problems from most of you.

I've assumed there's obviously a national mail issue, as I'm getting delays of up to 12 hours from most of you.

However, is there a forum where you all report that you are actually having problems so that us 'not quite so high level people' can get a heads up without having to bother you when you're busy?

Cheers Don

You mean something like a network operators mailing list? Dave Whiny End User

Dean Pemberton wrote:

One thing that used to REALLY piss admins off was.....

People posting on mailing lists BEFORE logging a helpdesk ticket. Now I know that sometimes there is a long wait on the phone (smaller the more money you pay). But you NEEED to log that ticket.

This is a really good point and it has wider implications. I've lost track of the number of times that I (or colleagues in central IT here at the University) have had people say "when are you going to fix X? it been broken for ages". And you respond "did you report this to the service desk?" and the answer is invariably "no". :( Some times they told Joe when they saw them in the cafe and he forgot about it but more often they have done nothing. All responsible shops do monitoring of services but these are far from full proof and one should never assume that a provider is actually aware of the problem. I once did a personal development course where we were asked (for one week) to complain to people only about things that they could personally do something about. It was quite a revealing exercise! Russell.

Jeremy Brake wrote:

...

...

I've assumed there's obviously a national mail issue, as I'm getting delays of up to 12 hours from most of you.

However, is there a forum where you all report that you are actually having problems so that us 'not quite so high level people' can get a heads up without having to bother you when you're busy?

Cheers Don

You mean something like a network operators mailing list?

Dave Whiny End User _______________________________________________

Don: (from a previous post)

...

One request I would make, when you get a contact would you like to post it back to list so that it exists in the archive for the next person who wants the answer.

Answers posted off list are usually meant to stay off-list. Posting anything onto the list you didnt write, or giving out contact details for people who dont want to become the target of "email assaults" when something breaks at 4am on a saturday night is probably going to get you stabbed in the eye with a brick next time you show up at a conference or curry, and is ultimately going to stop anyone truely helpful from "making a quiet, helpful, offlist reply" again - to anyone.

Dave: This list has never been a place for users to contact admins, admins to report problems to the "greater masses", or an official contact point for any company - ever. Several companies will beat staff upside the head if they communicate in public forums on their behalf (have you forgotten last weeks drama's already?).

And I've never taken it to be such. I'm merely a bystander interested in the background chatter of what may be going in in the greater scheme of things to do with operating the net in NZ. I had considered posting a query on here re the problem with xtra email but, having spoken to their support folks and given the nature of the problem, decided that people in the operational hierarchy would already be well aware of it. Dave