Mediacom Customers Still Having E-mail ProblemsWeeks after 'next generation' e-mail system went live ( old news - 11:01AM Tuesday Dec 22 2009) tags: business · cable · trouble · consumers · MediacomA week ago we noted that a Mediacom e-mail upgrade promising to deliver " next generation" e-mail service wound up leaving some customers without e-mail for a week. We're now two weeks since the upgrade, and both residential and business users are still writing in to complain that they're either without e-mail service, or they're suffering through oddities like lost e-mail. An ongoing thread in our Mediacom forum has hit 55 pages, most of them filled with customers complaining about the broken upgrade. "I have a friend who is missing around 1200 e-mails because of this," writes in one user. "This is her business account and the missing e-mails contained crucial information," he says. "She is about to lose a $30,000 account and may have to shut down her business permanently if she does lose the account and doesn't get the information back by next week." "I am still without-mail service as of Tuesday, December 22," says another user. "No one at Mediacom is helpful," he writes. "On the 18th all of our accounts seemed to be working, now they are not," writes yet another user. "The 18th is the last time we have been able to receive from these accounts." The upgrade appears to have given spammers an opportunity to hammer the system further, complicating the upgrade and repair process. Several customers complain that of the e-mail they do actually get, a chunk of it is new phishing attempts they hadn't seen previously. Meanwhile, Mediacom appears to be waffling on user service credits -- at least according to their official migration website and FAQ, which tells customers refunds may or may not happen after the company figures out what's going on: Will I receive credit for poor email performance? Once Mediacom has completed reinforcing security systems and improving email performance, we will evaluate the overall impact of the migration and take appropriate steps. Keep in mind that email service is only a portion of the High Speed Internet service that we offer. We will communicate the course of action in the near future. On the positive side, Mediacom has several helpful techs in our forums (like MediacomJasn  ) that are trying to assist out individual customers where possible. Unfortunately, that doesn't appear to be making Mediacom's back end problem resolution go any faster. Related:- And Here Come The Broadband Industry Job Cuts
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  woody7 Premium join:2000-10-13 Torrance, CA
·EarthLink
1 edit | hmmm....... Not to diminish the problem, but why didn't they back up their email to a hard drive of something? also as a small businessman, I have a back up email account, and as I said before, if they knew the email was going to change, I would have figured there would be problems, and have a back up plan of some kind, Peace -- BlooMe | |
|  |   BillRoland Premium join:2001-01-21 Ocala, FL clubs:
·Cox HSI
| Re: hmmm....... said by woody7 :Not to diminish the problem, but why didn't they back up their email to a hard drive of something? Didn't you know, because it "lives in the cloud" its safe and secure and universal.
I'm being sarcastic, you make a good point. -- "Don't steal. The government hates competition." Beyond AM. Beyond FM. XM | |
|  |  |   Hasselhoff Guarding Lives Premium join:2005-03-19 Evanston, IL clubs: | Re: hmmm....... email is not "the cloud" especially when it comes from your ISP. they put as little money as possible into maintaining it. -- sbcglobal.net speedtest result 11/11/09 - 5256kbps | |
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 |   RARPSL
join:1999-12-08 Suffern, NY
| said by woody7 :Not to diminish the problem, but why didn't they back up their email to a hard drive of something? Are you talking about the ISP or the customer? Also does the reference to "1200 lost emails" refers to mail that was on the server before the switch or mail that was downloaded before the switch and is no longer accessable? If the former, then using IMAP without keeping a local (ie: On your PC) copy is asking for problems. If the latter then how does the Server mess affect the POP downloaded copy on your PC? | |
|  |  |   woody7 Premium join:2000-10-13 Torrance, CA
·EarthLink
| Re: hmmm....... Talking about the customer. If I read the article correct, they lost 1200 emails, to me that implies that they left it on the server, and not downloaded to a drive or some other storage media. You always hear how so and so's email provider messed up ( I am sure they do and quite often)but if my livelihood depends on reliable email,which it does, I would take steps to mitigate the pain. I am sure they were told in advance that the mail was a changin, and that means a general "%uck up in service to me. Peace -- BlooMe | |
|  |  |  |  CMTS
join:2005-01-25 Canada | Re: hmmm....... So it means all the issue of spam they were having is because of U .Your livelihood depends upon email of mediacom .So you are THE SPAMMER .Hmmmmm got you now . | |
|  |  |  |  |   woody7 Premium join:2000-10-13 Torrance, CA | Re: hmmm....... huh?  -- BlooMe | |
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 |  rfnut Premium join:2002-04-27 Fisher, IL
·Mediacom
| I am sure they have a backup system. Unfortunately with the new software a backup of a different format would not do much good. They also had to leave a system running collecting mail during the changeover to prevent loss. I am afraid that their "plan" was not fully thought thru and complications multiplied into a disaster. I can not imagine being in the position of responsibility and performing the work during this change. | |
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 hoyleysox
join:2003-11-07 Long Beach, CA | More reason's not to use an ISP's email service May not be able to keep your email address if you move or switch providers, takeover/name changes (Cox vs @home) and upgrade issues like like this. | |
|  |   banditws6 Shrinking Time and Distance Premium join:2001-08-18 Naples, FL
| Re: More reason's not to use an ISP's email service Agreed. I always use email addresses at my own domains because I can take them somewhere else (or forward them) if the mail server I'm using gets spotty, goes under or experiences outages.
Not to mention, the thought of conducting business -- especially with high-value customer accounts -- over ISP email makes me shudder. -- "I'll follow the law until it's just stupid." -Ted Nugent | |
|  |  |   bent and Inga Premium join:2004-10-04 Loveland, CO clubs:
| Re: More reason's not to use an ISP's email service said by banditws6 :Agreed. I always use email addresses at my own domains because I can take them somewhere else (or forward them) if the mail server I'm using gets spotty, goes under or experiences outages. Not to mention, the thought of conducting business -- especially with high-value customer accounts -- over ISP email makes me shudder. Don't a lot of ISPs offer domain/email hosting as part of their packages? It sounds like it's time to point the MX records elsewhere. Rackspace offers some very nice very reliable email hosting plans that can fit into any SMB budget. If you're using email as a mission critical application you need to know 3 little letters: SLA. -- Greedy Old Pigs | |
|  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  ISurfTooMuch
join:2007-04-23 Tuscaloosa, AL
| Re: More reason's not to use an ISP's email service I was just about to mention Google Apps. Sure, you have to pay for a domain registration, but that's only a few bucks a year, and the standard version of Apps is free. And if you're a school or nonprofit org, you can get the education edition free as well.
As for those wearing tinfoil hats, if a government agency wants access to your e-mail, it isn't gonna matter if you use Google or something else. Not that you can't do things to protect your privacy, but hosting mail with Google isn't going to expose you to any more risk than hosting with anyone else. If you want privacy, forget about the provider you use and get some strong encryption on your computer and e-mail. | |
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  Nailbag
join:2001-10-16 London, ON | wow no back up ever heard of gmail or hotmail people never learn until after the fact | |
|  |   bent and Inga Premium join:2004-10-04 Loveland, CO clubs:
| Re: wow said by Nailbag :no back up ever heard of gmail or hotmail people never learn until after the fact You can't back up a message you never get... -- Greedy Old Pigs | |
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  ShadowMastr Master Of All Shadows
join:2001-09-01 Fort Pierce, FL
·AT&T Southeast
·Comcast
| Own Domains I haven't used an isp mail service since the first dialup account I ever opened. I registered a few domain names shortly after that, and have always used them for email.
Plus the majority of people should be using pop, which downloads the email to your own system. Trust in the 'cloud', or 'someone else storing your data', as it used to be known, is still too risky a proposition in my view. imap sounds convenient for synching email across several computers, but you are putting your trust into too many variables you have no control over. -- Follow Your Bliss -- Joseph Cambell I reject your Reality and substitute my own! -- Adam Savage, Mythbuster | |
|   t3ln3t
@vericenter.com
| maybe this has something to do with it? If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.
I'm not sure if the 'new' mediacom e-mail solution is, but the old one was managed/run by folks within at&t (mostly BellSouth folk).
The workers in the group aren't so bad ... but management (the Boss) is a freakin' joke!
I wouldn't be at all surprised if this is yet another failing of Darth Felo. Hopefully mediacom is building out this new e-mail solution to dump at&t management. | |
|  |   timburke Premium join:2005-06-07 Plainfield, IL
·DSL EXTREME
·Comcast
| Re: maybe this has something to do with it? said by t3ln3t :
If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.
I'm not sure if the 'new' mediacom e-mail solution is, but the old one was managed/run by folks within at&t (mostly BellSouth folk).
The workers in the group aren't so bad ... but management (the Boss) is a freakin' joke!
I wouldn't be at all surprised if this is yet another failing of Darth Felo. Hopefully mediacom is building out this new e-mail solution to dump at&t management. The new system is an in-house Zimbra setup as far as I can tell. | |
|  |  |   NonEmp
@mosaicinfo.org
| Re: maybe this has something to do with it?
Yes, Zimbra is the software in use for the new email system, and it is being done in-house.
I sincerely hope this does not tarnish the reputation of Zimbra.
As far as Linux based servers, for years it has already established itself as a very good platform for email service. | |
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  Hpower Roflmao
join:2000-06-08 Glendale, CA
·Charter Pipeline
| Epic fail How could you not backup your emails if your business depends on it? Why the heck would you depend on the ISP to do that for you? I always have any forwarded email be sent to my personal folders file in outlook which stores it in a .PST file, conveniently located on my network drive.
But yea 2 weeks without email definitely sucks. FAIL! You know it's been so many years actually that I used my own ISP's email system....in fact I don't think I ever used one expect back in the days when I had earthlag err earthlink dialup haha. -- The Internet is about to go down....it is actually. | |
|  |   bent and Inga Premium join:2004-10-04 Loveland, CO clubs:
| Re: Epic fail said by Hpower :How could you not backup your emails if your business depends on it? Why the heck would you depend on the ISP to do that for you? I always have any forwarded email be sent to my personal folders file in outlook which stores it in a .PST file, conveniently located on my network drive. But yea 2 weeks without email definitely sucks. FAIL! You know it's been so many years actually that I used my own ISP's email system....in fact I don't think I ever used one expect back in the days when I had earthlag err earthlink dialup haha. You can't backup something you never receive... -- Greedy Old Pigs | |
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  Hasselhoff Guarding Lives Premium join:2005-03-19 Evanston, IL clubs: | service without email i have to raise the question. who would be willing to pay less for internet service without email/webhosting/usenet/dns/etc from the ISP? I know I would. -- sbcglobal.net speedtest result 11/11/09 - 5256kbps | |
|  |   maartena Super Grover Premium join:2002-05-10 Orange, CA
·RoadRunner Cable
| Re: service without email said by Hasselhoff :i have to raise the question. who would be willing to pay less for internet service without email/webhosting/usenet/dns/etc from the ISP? I know I would. Yep. I would want nothing more then a TCP/IP address that is publicly addressable by anyone in the world. I can take care of the rest, thank you very much. Email/webhosting I already have my own domain for, I have a easynet usenet account (which I am cancelling because I never use it) and I use OpenDNS. -- "I reject your reality and substitute my own!" | |
|  |  thedragonmas
join:2007-12-28 Albany, GA | me, but we all know the only thing theyd do is get rid of all the extra's and keep the extra profit.. mediacom already got rid of several "free addons" and ive yet to see a price drop. | |
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  maartena Super Grover Premium join:2002-05-10 Orange, CA
·RoadRunner Cable
| Never trust ISP email. Those who rely on ISP mail for their business.... are in my humble opinion stupid. Do you really want to tie yourself to an ISP that has the sole right to your email name, can change the domain whenever it wants to, (when taken over by another company for intance), and you have only ONE option when it comes to support....
Get your own domain. Host it somewhere for $5 a month. Be free from your ISP, and not only that..... if your hosting provider should mess things up, you can simply move the domain to another hoster. On top of that, you can move or change ISP whenever you want to.
And the "losing $30.000" cry is big fat BS. First, a business that deals in $30k contracts makes backups. Second, if you are really dealing with business in the $30k, you would have registered a domain last tuesday when their email had been down for well over 24 hours, you would - after the DNS refresh worldwide - have configured it on wednesday, and send out your new email address to every contact you have on thursday to use as the new email address.
Sorry, but I just don't buy that someone that deals in $30k of business in a given week, is relying on ISP email only. And even IF you had your domain hosted with Mediacom, and it so happens that the domain email goes through the same bugged servers: YOU and ONLY YOU are the owner of the domain, and you can take your wallet to ANY other provider.
There is just no reason to wait A WEEK in hopes the information for a $30k account comes down the pipe..... Backups, backups, backups.... and ALWAYS have a backup plan. -- "I reject your reality and substitute my own!" | |
|  |  CMTS
join:2005-01-25 Canada
| Re: Never trust ISP email. This is the best comment I have read .It is so to the point & true.Thanks you my friend .
Wow dealing a 30K /week ,man U can own a isp company .I want to ask the guy R U sure it is US$ or money of Afgahnistan .Oh Pleease give me a break 30K/wk in your dreams in this reccession time. | |
|
 hescominsoon
join:2003-02-18 Brunswick, MD | THis is why i ahve my own mail server...literally I have my domains on my own server..literally. using your isp's e-mail is inviting disaster. If you have a business at least use google or a reputable company like 1and1 to host your site/e-mail. | |
|   NonEmp
@mosaicinfo.org
| Missed opportunity
I was contacted in early-mid October about a possible management position opening at Mediacom in Des Moines, IA. After a few more calls through November, I ended up not pursuing this opportunity. The position was to be the lead for the new email system team.
So, I sadly take it upon my shoulders that I did not help fix the current problem that was then as of yet unknown. Had I pursued this position, I might have been able to use my 17 years of Linux and UNIX systems admin experience for the common good and have had helped the team fix the problem by now.
To all: I am deeply sorry. If I would have known beforehand how this would have transpired, I would have joined the team at Mediacom. | |
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