We are aware one of our broadband gateways has reloaded and dropped a number of broadband sessions. Traffic was rerouted to other gateways however, the network will need to be rebalanced in the early hours of the morning.
We are sorry for the impact this will have had on you.
Our network monitoring has alerted us to a number of BTW based circuits going offline and prefix withdrawals from suppliers. We are currently investigating.
UPDATE 01 – 14:49
We are seeing reports from other providers that they have experienced other issues. Initial investigations appear to show this as a problem within the “Williams House” Equinix data center in Manchester.
UPDATE 02 – 15:51
Connections are starting to restore. Services affected appear to have been routed via Manchester.
We will be making some changes to our broadband network tonight in order to isolate 2 upstream gateways we suspect of causing additional latency to circuits routed via them.
This will cause existing connection via these gateways to drop and reconnect. Due to the nature of the change this can take up-to 20 minutes.
This work is about to start.
Tunnels have been terminated and traffic is starting to move across to other gateways.
We have seen an issue with the L2TP control messages not being accepted by the upstream gateways and releasing circuits to other gateways. We have therefore had to revert part of the configuration. Further works will be required at a later date.
We are aware of an issue affecting inbound calls with one of our upstream voice carriers. We have re-routed outbound calls around the affected network and calls should be connecting as expected.
We have raised a priority case with the carrier who have confirmed there is an issue and is being dealt with urgently.
We apologize for the disruption and will update this NOC post once further details become available.
UPDATE 01 – 17:10
We have started to see inbound calls on the affected carrier restore and traffic flowing. We have not had official closure yet, so services should be considered at risk still
UPDATE 02 – 17:33
The affected upstream carrier has confirmed services have been restored and this was the result of a data center issue. We have asked for a RFO and this will be provided as requested.
re-routing has been removed and all service are normal.
Once again we apologize for the disruption
FINAL – 04/03/2020 – 14:45
We have been advised the ROOT cause of this incident was the result of a failed network interface on a primary database server within the carrier network. We have been advised the database is redundant but this has highlighted the need for additional redundancy and is already being deployed.
At 08:15 GMT this morning, we were alerted to a number of DSL broadband sessions disconnecting. Initial diagnostics showed there was no fault within our network and this was escalated to our wholesale supplier.
Our wholesale supplier responded to advise a DSL gateway “cr2.th-lon” at 08:15 GMT had dropped a number of sessions however had started to recover at 08:23 GMT. At this time the root cause of the outage is unknown but investigations are continuing. Services should be considered at risk until we ascertain the cause.
UPDATE 01 – 10:50
We have seen a further drop in sessions where sessions have had to re-authenticate. We have requested an update from our supplier to enquire of this is related to the issues seen this morning.
We are aware of issues with customers routed via sip03.easyipt.co.uk for VoIP calls. We are currently looking at this as a matter of urgency.
We have discovered an issue with the Database running on the media gateway and will be performing a reboot. Any active calls will drop.
The reboot has completed. However we have lost a number of critical services and are working to restore them.
We have been able to recover the services, however concerned about stability and why these services did not automatically start as expected. We are undertaking further reviews and the platform should still be considered as “at risk” until further notice.
We have been able to automatically recover a number of services, however we are still seeing some services fail to load on boot. This is something we need to look in too and believe it to be part of a race condition on the server. The media gateway has remained stable and processing calls as expected.
A full review of the media gateway will take place next week to ensure all startup services recover as expected.
At the end of 2019, Windows 2008 server will become EOL (End Of Life) and cease to be supported by Microsoft. In response to this, we will be retiring the platform which we have had in operation since 2011 and migrating accounts to a Debian based operating system well before this. Unfortunately due to the … Continue reading “03/07/2019 – Web hosting / email retirement and upgrade”
At the end of 2019, Windows 2008 server will become EOL (End Of Life) and cease to be supported by Microsoft. In response to this, we will be retiring the platform which we have had in operation since 2011 and migrating accounts to a Debian based operating system well before this.
Unfortunately due to the age of the operating system and the cross vendor platforms there is no direct migration path between systems and will requires changes on both our side and customer applications. (such as emails programs)
The change does bring around a vast number of new features and security options such as SSL (Secure) email which is now becoming industry standard.
All user accounts will need to be migrated by the 30th Aug 2019 when the platform will be turned off. We are currently migrating accounts on a domain by domain basis due to the manual requirement to transfer account data.
Users that have existing accounts setup as IMAP will simply need to delete there accounts when told to and re-create there them with the new server details provided. While we will make every effort to help and backup data, we are limited in what remote assistance we can provide due to unmanaged nature of the product and would strongly suggest users backup there email to local storage prior to making any changes.
Changes our side to DNS will require time to populate around the internet and some disruption is expected on your migration day. Sadly this cant be avoided but we will do all we can to minimize this.
Affected customers will be contacted directly and you are welcome to contact us to expedite your move.
UPDATE 01 – 04/07/2019
In order to ensure data consistency, we have moved to suspend logins to the old platform and would advise anyone who still has access to no make changes until after you have migrated your account as data may be lost.
UPDATE 02 – 10/07/2019
End users will start to see messages about new accounts being created. This is expected as they are being cloned on to the new platform. It also ensures we have up to date contact information for the migration email to follow
UPDATE 03 – 15/07/2019
It has come to our attention that the formatting on the mass email sent out last night has broken. We have uploaded the original email below.
Dear sirs,
Further to our recent advisory on the retirement and renewal of the existing webhosting & email platform. (Details can be found at https://noc.structuredcommunications.co.uk/?p=1387)
Please find below further details and plans on the account migrations that will affect you.
Due to the more modern file structure and use of secure connections on the new platform. Users are advised against simply updating existing email accounts by changing the server details. For ease, users are advised to create a new separate account on there respective email clients and devices using the new server details at the bottom of this email.
Initially, once you create the duplicate account, the contents of the inbox will be out of date. Upon creation of the new account and once you are ready to migrate please visit http://noc.structuredcommunications.co.uk/EasyHTTP/ and complete the form.
Within 24-48 hours the contents of your mailbox will be synchronised to your new account and will begin downloading on your devices. (This may take time if you have a large inbox) Your old account will then stop working and can be deleted from your email client and devices.
Structured Communications will take steps to preserve your email data however is in no way responsible should data loss occur and advise clients to always keep their own data backups.
If you have your email client configured for POP3 based email, then we would advise you to consult your IT personal as the above will result in data loss. You are welcome to contact us if you have questions.
Due to the unmanaged nature of this product and data protection, Structured Communications will be limited in the assistants it can offer end users in setting up and deleting accounts. We can however refer users to one of our IT partners who can offer remote assistance at a charge.
NEW SERVER DETAILS:
USERNAME: Your full email address
PASSWORD: Your existing password
INCOMING SERVER: plesk.easyhttp.co.uk
PORT: 993
ENCRYPTION METHOD: SSL or TLS
OUTGOING SERVER: plesk.easyhttp.co.uk
PORT: 465
ENCRYPTION METHOD: SSL or TLS
OUTBOUND AUTHENTICATION: YES (use same username and password)
Users with a website and custom DNS entries have been mirrored where possible
We understand these changes can be quite confusing and will do all we can do assist and answer any questions however they are necessary.
We will send out reminders for accounts that’s have not migrated before the August 2019 deadline. Should you take no action then your email accounts will stop working and we may lose the ability to sync your inbox data from the date it was initially cloned.
You can contact us on support@structuredcommunications.co.uk or call 0203 301 4000 (even if you want to confirm this email has been sent by ourselves)
UPDATE 04 – 19/07/2019 – User Guides
UPDATE 05 – 01/08/2019 -Helping Users Migrate
We have been working internally to looks at options of migrating current DNS records. This is possible however without the use of SSL due to the IP miss-match between old and new.
In order to assist users in the short term we are moving records requiring little changes if any to email clients. This will allow users to move over before the cut over date automatically, however changes will be required long term as non-SSL connections are turned off.
Domains where no contact has been made will commence from the 05/08/2019. Users should see no interruption.
UPDATE 06 – 30/08/2019 -Extended Deadline
We have, at our own discretion extended the “switch off” date until the 03/09/2019.
We have observed a small number of broadband services suffering from intermittent connection problems between 19:46 and 20:46 this evening. This issue has been tracked down to one of our wholesale suppliers who suffered a network outage that has since recovered. This has resulted in the affected connections not being able to reach our RADIUS … Continue reading “09/05/2019 20:50 – Broadband Disruption”
We have observed a small number of broadband services suffering from intermittent connection problems between 19:46 and 20:46 this evening.
This issue has been tracked down to one of our wholesale suppliers who suffered a network outage that has since recovered. This has resulted in the affected connections not being able to reach our RADIUS servers for authentication and where simply being terminated on the local BTW RAS with a non route able IP address.
Users who do not have a connection are advised to reboot or power off there router for 20 minutes to recover any stuck sessions.
We apologies for the inconvenience and are awaiting an RFO.
We are aware a small percentage of outbound calls being made on our VoIP network are taking longer than normal to connect. We are aware of this issue and investigating . UPDATE01 – 09:40 Calls have been re-routed over another carrier while we work to understand what is going on with calls on BTIPX UPDATE02 … Continue reading “05/04/2019 – SIP VoIP – Outbound Calls”
We are aware a small percentage of outbound calls being made on our VoIP network are taking longer than normal to connect. We are aware of this issue and investigating .
Calls have been re-routed over another carrier while we work to understand what is going on with calls on BTIPX
Calls are being rejected due to changes made at BT in respect to number formatting. We are in the process of making changes to how we present numbers.
New number scrips have been designed and put in to operation. Outbound calls are now routing correctly once again and this has been marked as closed.
No changes are required on existing customer systems however we will be changing how we configure new systems
On the 23rd February 2019 starting from 08:00 our UPS vendor Vertiv will be undertaking a planned upgrade to the system adding additional battery capacity to our Horsham facility. Normally with this type of work the UPS would be placed on “bypass” however the nature of the works require a complete decommission of the system … Continue reading “23/02/2019 – 08:00 till 18:00 – Horsham Power – Planned Maintenance”
On the 23rd February 2019 starting from 08:00 our UPS vendor Vertiv will be undertaking a planned upgrade to the system adding additional battery capacity to our Horsham facility.
Normally with this type of work the UPS would be placed on “bypass” however the nature of the works require a complete decommission of the system which will require a complete isolation and removal of power to feed “B”
Each cabinet is supplied with a redundant “A” supply. All of our critical services and client facing platforms are dual feed so no outages are expected however should be considered at risk until the completion of the works.
We will be contact clients with co-location who have devices that are not dual redundant.
UPDATE 01 – 08:00
Engineer’s are now on site. Work will start shortly.
UPDATE 02 – 08:30
Work has started and power isolated.
UPDATE 03 – 13.00
Work is now complete and redundancy restored.