You know your ISP has problems when you see this on their Service Status page - Pipex related

'Could not connect: Too many connections'

Hmmm doesn't sound good if Pipex don't even have the system resources to tell their customers what the problem is... Pipex have been on a downhill slope for years, a once great ISP is now one of the worst that I use. I wonder how long this outage will last?

I will not be able to update my blog much today so if this post is still up it does not mean that Pipex is still down, just that Pipex was down when I wrote this post and for an hour afterwards.

Just how crap an ISP are Pipex (update 3)

I note that Pipex's webmail service (Netmail) seems to be having a fit this afternoon. This added to their ongoing issues with mailbox management leads me to wonder if there is a worse ISP in the UK.


Update:
Try to access their Netmail service and you now just see this:

"A fatal error has occurred:

DB Error: connect failed

[line 102 of /usr/local/apache/htdocs/dsl2/horde/lib/Prefs/sql.php]

Details have been logged for the administrator."

Good aren't they!


Update 17:30:
Now Webmail teases you by appearing to work but whilst you can receive email, any sent email never arrives... Another riproaring success for Pipex.

Just how crap an ISP are Pipex (update 2)

Further to this and this it seems as though Pipex's POP3 service is now back to near normal levels, for how long is anyone's guess however.

But the story does not end there, Pipex have been doing some maintenance on their mailboxes service which has meant that users have been unable to access their mailbox configurations for 5 or so days. This afternoon Pipex proudly announce that:

"My Service Status - Time of Report:
24/10/2008 at 17:30:18 Last Update: 24/10/2008 at 17:30:18

Report

Pipex Manage Mailboxes is now live with newly added functionality to allow for the addition of anti-virus and anti-spam on your mailboxes."

Pipex users will not be surprised to learn that the mailboxes function does not currently have "added functionality" unless being unable to view or change existing mailboxes or add new mailboxes is considered to be "added functionality". The saga continues...

Just how crap an ISP are Pipex (update)

Further to my earlier post it appears that Pipex have moved POP3 servers and the login details have changed from the odd Pipex format to the more standard one:

"Due to a recent change on the mail server platform, customers may be unable to access their mail, it is now required to make an amendment to the format of your username, please replace the % sign with an @ sign when logging on to mail. e.g. If you are currently using - username%dsl.pipex.com or username%dial.pipex.com Please replace it with - username@dsl.pipex.com or username@dial.pipex.com."

Nice of Pipex to tell its x thousand users in advance!

You can follow a thread on this matter here, thanks to my correspondent anonymous at 09:06 this morning.

Just how crap an ISP are Pipex?

Parts of Pipex's POP3 email system went down yesterday and as of this morning does not appear to be fixed yet. This morning I logged onto to their website and found a link I hadn't seen before "To see if there are any problems with the Pipex Service, please click on this link.", sounds useful... Unfortunately clicking on the link only brings up a 404 - "Not Found - The requested URL /service-status/ was not found on this server."

Pipex as on the ball as ever it would appear.

Pipex

The major ISP Pipex seems to be experiencing major system problems this morning. I have heard reports from several people that their POP3 email has ceased to work and that the Pipex technical support telephone lines are jammed.

Of course Pipex have nothing about their current problems on their website, in fact the last problem they report runs like this:

"My Service Status
Time of Report:
22/07/2008 at 15:43:38
Last Update:
22/07/2008 at 15:43:38


Report

We are currently experiencing issues with Mailbox and Webspace management functions through www.mypipex.net. This issue is under investigation and we hope to resolve shortly. Our apologies for any inconvenience caused and thankyou for your patience. Pipex


Symptoms

Mypipex mailbox and webspace management functions are experiencing technical issues


Actions

Mypipex mailbox and webspace management functions are experiencing technical issues


We apologise for the inconvenience caused"

So that's two and a half months not to fix their mailbox and webspace management problems, it doesn't look good for Pipex's customers wanting to retrieve POP3 email in the near future.

So if adding a note to their website is beyond the Pipex technical team, have they considered an answerphone message or do they want to have x thousand people trying to call them and getting frustrated all day long?


I also hear that their bank payment taking system had a glitch this week whereby it took only a very small proportion of the correct monthly payment from a number of customers, I presume that the first many of these customers will know about this is when their account is suspended in a week or so's time. This is because Pipex will try and inform their customers via email, you remember email that doesn't work at the moment.

Pipex - "Better Business Broadband"?