<blockquote><font size=1>In reply to:</font><hr><p>Apple installed a turbo-gyration-inhibitor-stack on the server.<p><hr></blockquote><p>So it was the dancing girls slowing things down? <br><br><br><br>

Looks like they posted an explanation after all. Whether that makes you feel better about the down time or not, I don't know, but nothing makes me more mad than being in the dark.<br><br>

From Apple:<br><br><br><br>Dear .Mac Member,<br><br>We hope you haven't been greatly inconvenienced by the two .Mac network outages we've experienced in the past two weeks (including this morning) and we sincerely apologize for any problems you've experienced. The outages were the result of equipment failures, and since the equipment vendor has not been able to persuade us that the problem will not occur again, we've already begun installing new equipment from a different vendor.<br><br>We're completely back up and running now, and no data or mail was lost. We expect the equipment change over to be complete within the next several weeks, and we'll be working hard to ensure that there are no further issues during that time. In the meantime, we appreciate your patience while we make this transition, and if you do experience any difficulties, please go to www.apple.com/support for up-to-the-minute information and status. <br><br><br>[color:red]What? I don't understand. What?</font color=red>

I didn't get an email like that.<br><br>What's this about replacing hardware? Don't they use XServe? Hmmm..you would think that they would...<br><br>

I just got my email from Apple (at least, I just read it) and my first reaction was the same as yours, OSXaddict--why don't they use Xserve? I'm sure there must be a good reason, but I don't know what it might be.<br><br>Great wits are sure to madness near allied.--John Dryden, "Absalom and Achitophel"

They probably are using Xserves, but there's a lot of stuff between the Xserves and our computers too, routers and such. Considering that they haven't lost any data, the servers themselves are probably fine.<br><br>I just got the e-mail tonight, after reading about it on their support page this afternoon. I imagine that the rest of us will get it in a short time.<br><br>Well, regardless, this is obviously something they have to improve upon. I get the feeling from this and other little SNAFUs that they're still coming to grips with the whole thing.<br><br>

exactly... I'm guessing switches, routers, PowerBackups... whatever else. It would have been nice to get some notice from them if they knew they would be doing this.<br><br><br>[color:red]What? I don't understand. What?</font color=red>

You want notice when their equipment fails unexpectedly forcing them to upgrade? Okaaayyy... ;)<br><br>Something broke, they fixed it. No big deal. .Mac is more reliable than most ISPs, but you don't see their outages in the headlines.<br><br>Besides, don't forget that the free iTools users are still there for another week. Once they're gone, you'll see things get a whole lot better.<br><br>

Well, lets see... first of all, .Mac is NOT an ISP. Second, .Mac is NOT more reliable than ANY ISP I have ever seen, nor is it more reliable than any web host I have ever seen. My web server hasn't gone down in over 5 years. Third, I find it hard to believe that they have every account on one server, behind one firewall and on one switch/router with only one connection to the internet. Most web hosts have redundant backups spread out across the country so that if one does go down, the URL gets forwarded to the backup servers immediately without the end-user even noticing.<br><br>I suspect they were switching the equipment around and they had to take the system offline and it just took longer than they thought.<br><br><br>[color:red]What? I don't understand. What?</font color=red>

I'm not sure if he was saying it was an ISP or if he was just comparing it to ISP's.<br><br>