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Blackberry Network is Down

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the hate-when-that-happens dept.

Brian writes "According to CNET and others, "A system failure at Research In Motion has affected BlackBerry users in the Western Hemisphere, a news channel reported on its Web site late on Tuesday. The infrastructure failed on Tuesday night, and e-mails were not being delivered to the handheld devices.""

27 of 243 comments (clear)

  1. Better headline needed by neoform · · Score: 4, Funny

    Common, this was an easy one!

    "Blackberry Blackout"

    --
    MABASPLOOM!
    1. Re:Better headline needed by AugustZephyr · · Score: 5, Funny

      Does anyone have a mobile link for the website. I can't seem to connect to it on my blackberry.

    2. Re:Better headline needed by Oktober+Sunset · · Score: 5, Funny

      Blackberry Jam.

      --
      What if Tetris was invented by Nazis?
  2. OH NO! by Jhon · · Score: 4, Funny

    My thumbs are twitching!

    1. Re:OH NO! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      First Post!

      ------
      Sent from my BlackBerry Wireless Handheld

  3. Crap! by Gen.+Malaise · · Score: 5, Funny

    Now I have to go in to work and explain that I dont control the Blackberry network........Cmon RIM!!

  4. I feel a disturbance in the net... by cnelzie · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...as though a million voices just cried out and were suddenly silenced.

    --
    If you ignore the other uses of a tool, does that make the tool less useful, or you less useful?
    1. Re:I feel a disturbance in the net... by Compact+Dick · · Score: 5, Funny

      Voices? Silenced?

      Much you have to learn, young PDAwan.

      --
      Use ISO 8601 dates [YYYY-MM-DD]
    2. Re:I feel a disturbance in the net... by God'sDuck · · Score: 5, Funny

      Much you have to learn, young PDAwan.
      Dear Sir, please send payment for:
      • 1: New Coffee
      • 1: New Monitor
      to: 123 Fake street, Fakeville, NY, 12345. Thank you.
  5. There's some other coverage on this.... by 8127972 · · Score: 5, Informative

    .... In the following locations:

    http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM .20070418.wblackberry18/BNStory/Business/home
    http://www.wnbc.com/news/12339359/detail.html

    But I can verify that their network is up (sort of) and Engaget.com confirms this:

    http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/cellphones/blackberry-o utage-update-its-kinda-up-253214.php

    So YMMV.

    --
    This is my opinion. To make sure you don't steal it, it's covered by the DMCA.
  6. must resist Great Disturbance In The Force joke... by ScentCone · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Because millions of voices really ARE crying out in pain. Man, the cooler we make things, and the more that entire business cultures get built around this stuff, the more fragile it is. Just think of the war stories we're going to hear about people who've come to utterly depends on their Crackberries having lost a deal, not heard that a critical server was down, not realized that a surgery had been rescheduled, and so on. I wouldn't make a living if people didn't depend on fancy networked technologies, but it sure does feel like a house of cards, some days.

    --
    Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
  7. BES users potentially not affected? by WolfTattoo · · Score: 4, Interesting

    For what its worth, my employer (in Washington D.C.) has their own Blackberry Enterprise Server (an on-site server that interfaces directly with corporate mail systems), and it appears to be unaffected by this outage.

    1. Re:BES users potentially not affected? by Philosinfinity · · Score: 4, Informative

      RIM lost their primary NOC last night. Your BES transmits data to their NOC including mailflow routing and SRP information. This issue affects the Americas entirely and is currently fixed for Sprint and Nextel. GPRS/EEDGE providers are still unable to contact back to RIM at the present time. So, if you are a Sprint or Nextel shop, this would explain why you are not experiencing the issue at this time. However, everyone was experiencing it from 6:30PM CDT to about 3:00AM CDT.

    2. Re:BES users potentially not affected? by dr_dank · · Score: 4, Funny

      RIM lost their primary NOC last night. Your BES transmits data to their NOC including mailflow routing and SRP information. This issue affects the Americas entirely and is currently fixed for Sprint and Nextel. GPRS/EEDGE providers are still unable to contact back to RIM at the present time.

      I'll LOL if RIM is FOOBAR and can't GBTW but my PHB won't ROFL that the BOFH at RIM is AFK. LBC, 213.

      --
      Where does the school board find them and why do they keep sending them to ME?
    3. Re:BES users potentially not affected? by Philosinfinity · · Score: 4, Informative

      NOC = Network Operations Center
      RIM = Research In Motion
      BES = Blackberry Enterprise Server
      SRP = Server Routing Protocol
      GPRS = General Packet Radio Service
      EDGE = Enhanced Data GSM Environment
      IHBT, HAND

  8. Not very reassuring. by Dan+East · · Score: 4, Insightful

    A single point of failure can bring down the entire network? Not very reassuring, especially considering Blackberry is predominately a business tool.

    Dan East

    --
    Better known as 318230.
    1. Re:Not very reassuring. by lucabrasi999 · · Score: 4, Insightful
      especially considering Blackberry is predominately a CRITICAL business tool.

      Contrary to popular belief. E-mail is NOT a critical business tool. You don't believe me? Then compare e-mail with the following:


      Supply Chain Systems? Critical.

      Customer Order/Customer Relationship Systems? Critical.

      Manufacturing systems? Critical.

      Payroll? Absolutely the single MOST critical application at most enterprises (especially during pay runs).

      But, e-mail is not critical. When I've been involved in storage meetings, e-mail is always a Tier Three application. In other words, while it is a useful tool, there are other ways of contacting people in an emergency. You know, like by telephone.

    2. Re:Not very reassuring. by lucabrasi999 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Wow, you must be one of the users that is freaking out over Blackberry today.

      Supply chain is worthless if crm can't communicate with them, ditto for manufacturing, payroll is worthless if they can't communicate with accounting or HR.

      Most of the systems I describe have a DR and/or failover capability because they are considered critical to the operations of the business. Personally, I have NEVER seen an e-mail system that has had DR or Failover. Beyond DR, ask an even more important question: In the event of disaster, how quickly does e-mail come back up on-line? Is it the first system recovered? Or are there 35 other systems that are recovered before e-mail? That should tell you how important e-mail is in comparison to your company's other systems.

      Now, let's talk about using e-mail as an interface: Does the communication you describe have to occur via e-mail? I have been working in IT for 15 years and I have never seen a place that depends upon an e-mail to interface between any of the systems I described. For example, if I am running a Supply Chain system, I can keep the supply chain moving for hours without worrying about ANY e-mail communication with external systems. Well-designed Supply Chain systems use EDI (not e-mail) for communication. And, EDI is usually built with redundancy and DR capability If they don't use EDI, they depend upon someone manually entering the information into a screen, or even a flat file. If I absolutely MUST contact someone, I just call their phone. As for Payroll, payroll runs at even small companies are not dependent upon e-mail. The timekeeping systems interact with the Payroll systems via EDI or some sort of file transfer that is NOT dependent upon Exchange/Domino.

      Hell, even if I am in hardware support and my e-mail server crashes, I should be smart enough to log directly into my messaging console to keep an eye on the status of my other servers. Most monitoring tools use e-mail to send messages to Operations. My operations department had better be able to log into their consoles to check the systems real-time and not be waiting for the e-mail system to recover.

      Also note, for those things the phone is not an option, it must be in writing.

      There are a few options here: If you are running a normal PO approval process, then there is always an expected time-lag in approvals. My manager cannot be expected to drop everything to approve my new business-card order system. And, if there is an emergency, well-designed systems have an override that allows for exceptions.

      Try to keep in mind that many, many businesses do not reside in one office, or one building, or one postcode, or one country, before you make a silly comment like "e-mail is not critical".

      Firstly, I work for a Fortune 500 company. We are spread all over the world.

      Secondly, There is nothing silly about my statement. E-mail is NOT critical. People THINK it's critical because it is the system they have the most 'face-time' with. But, face-time is not equal to criticality. If your organization has built interfaces or business processes that depend upon someone approving something via e-mail, then you have a very poorly designed system. You can easily have interfaces move directly between systems without ANY human interaction. You can build custom web-pages to allow approvers the ability to make their approval directly in the purchasing system.

  9. Can't be true.. by JohnHegarty · · Score: 4, Funny

    Can't be true... I would have got an email telling me if it was......

    --
    Cruise TT
  10. Two Reactions by necro81 · · Score: 4, Funny

    I can predict at least two possible reactions from end-users.

    First: jumping out of a building due to the terror and pain of sudden withdrawal. It happens to heroin addicts, it can happen here too, folks.

    Second: people wandering the streets of major cities bright-eyed and staring in open wonder, as though they were waking up from a long dream. Joining hand in hand, they frolic in the parks or whatever greenspace they can find chanting "Free at Last, Free at Last..." The clouds part, and an auspicious rainbow graces the sky. Oh, and I suppose there are other reactions: incoherent rage at no one in particular (ever chat with a cold-turkey smoking quitter?), unjustified rage at corporate IT for letting this happen, curling up in a fetal position in the corner, uncontrollable thumb twitching (almost like phantom limb pain).

    Then there's another reaction: simply shrugging and going back to computer-based email and cellphones.

  11. It IS a house of cards by Opportunist · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Reason? It's cheaper than bricks.

    Seriously, that's what's gonna break our neck sooner or later. We strip systems of their redundancies to make them cost less, we use cheaper components and the lowest bidder, we downgrade specs to the bare minimum because price makes right.

    Technology already starts learning from nature, copying structures and models from millenia proven concepts. I think business could learn a thing from them too. Because nature has down what business wants to achive: Maximum output for minimum input. There is no such thing as waste and surplus in nature's makeup, if there was, it would be used for more output instead. So why do we have 2 kidneys, why is our brain able to adapt to damage, if it wasn't for the simple fact that this proved to be the more successful way in the long run.

    But as long as companies are run by managers who care more about their next quarter report than the company itself, this won't fly.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    1. Re:It IS a house of cards by ColdWetDog · · Score: 4, Funny

      Technology already starts learning from nature, copying structures and models from millenia proven concepts. I think business could learn a thing from them too. Because nature has down what business wants to achive: Maximum output for minimum input. There is no such thing as waste and surplus in nature's makeup, if there was, it would be used for more output instead. So why do we have 2 kidneys, why is our brain able to adapt to damage, if it wasn't for the simple fact that this proved to be the more successful way in the long run.

      You must be new here. (To life that is...)

      You will realize the fallacy of your statement soon after your 50th birthday. Nature isn't all that it's cracked up to be. Those bouncy little disks in your back will start taking on the appearance and flexibility of cardboard. Your prostate (assuming you are male) will enlarge and back your bladder up into your nostrils. Your uterus (assuming your female) will simultaneously enlarge, flop over and quit working. Your eyes will go bad. Various other bits will quit working while parts of your body that you didn't know existed will start creating problems.

      While modern medicine can approach some of the problems, any repairs will be more like soldering a few new capacitors on to a Pentium II motherboard (and charging for an eight way Opteron system) than anything really useful. Oh, and you want a warranty?

      Death and taxes to you sir!

      --
      Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
    2. Re:It IS a house of cards by Opportunist · · Score: 5, Funny

      You mean... just ... maybe ... a few million managers could die? May I get my hopes up?

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  12. Black Berry Down by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    Blackberry down, we got a blackberry down.

    Leave No Email Behind

  13. More Info On Outage and Status by Philosinfinity · · Score: 4, Informative

    I was on RIM's rolling conference call last night and received some additional information. It seems that somehow they lost connectivity in their NOC. When they failed over to a co-lo they couldn't get the SRP communication up and running, causing all BES to fail in their connection to RIM. Fast forward a few hours and SRP is back up, but they cannot get critical components for email delivery to connect to their DB. Fast forward a few more hours and they get this up and running also. Currently, Sprint and Nextel are up and running, but the GPRS/EDGE service providers are still not receiving consistent mail flow.

  14. For a communications company by philo_enyce · · Score: 4, Insightful
    RIM is pretty bad at communicating with their end users. They do not have a network status page. When you call in to TSupport, there is no message indicating a general interruption in service. This is totally unacceptable. I spent two hours on hold last night after checking over a client's BES and not finding any issues locally. That hold time could have easily been reduced to a couple of minutes if RIM had a system in place to notify users of problems. Even Time Warner, which has terrible customer service, has service outage notices as part of the call tree when you call in for support. I would guess that this is a conscious choice on RIM's part, to try and appear as if they never have problems. Bad idea. Customer frustration sets in big time when you don't talk to them during outages.

    RIM: Get better at communicating with your client base or they will go elsewhere.

    philo

  15. Oh, no by Skidge · · Score: 4, Funny

    Now what's a busy executive supposed to do when you're giving them a presentation? Actually pay attention to you?