Webmail/E-Mail connection problems
Some of you are experiencing intermittent problems when connecting to your email. The majority of you are noticing it with webmail, but it is an intermittent problem affecting pop and imap connections as well. We believe these problems are only occuring on one cluster (spunky) which we are investigating. We are working on these problems now. If you are experiencing intermittent connection issues please send in a support message to dhstatus@dreamhost.com.
Update: We tracked the problem down to a mail database clone which was not properly updating, we have removed this until it has been fixed and the errors have gone away. We are also working to optimize the mail server connections to the mail database machines which should eliminate any remaining issues (specifically the intermittant SMTP errors when sending).
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October 3rd, 2006 at 1:21 pm
How can I tell what email server I’m on? I’ve been having these problems for hours (5 and a half or so), but this message seems to be for “intermittent”, which is not what I’ve seen. Although, I’m guessing my errors are related to this if not exactly this but again, how do I know for sure when I’m not sure what mail server I’m on?
October 3rd, 2006 at 1:26 pm
Problems started yesterday for me.
October 3rd, 2006 at 1:27 pm
nice to see this acknowledged… I first reported this 17 hours ago (haven’t gotten a reply to support ticket yet)
For me its affecting IMAP, POP, and webmail (which is really just an imap client anyway).
Hopefully this will be fixed soon. It is extraordinarily frustrating to not be able to check email. Glad to know its being worked on.
October 3rd, 2006 at 1:29 pm
Problem is pretty consistent for me… I would say that I am intermittently able to check an email or two but 99% of the time the IMAP server drops the connection before I’m able to do anything.
October 3rd, 2006 at 1:30 pm
Yes, I’m being asked for my password every two minutes. Using Apple Mail, getting the message “The server has rejected the password for ” I have a client whose site and email I am hosting who’s asking me about this as well. Hope it gets resolved quickly!
October 3rd, 2006 at 1:30 pm
I’ve had support requests in for over 24 hours on this. Glad to see it’s finally acknowledged as a problem, but seriously: wtf?
October 3rd, 2006 at 1:31 pm
It absolutely SHOULD NOT TAKE 24 HOURS for something like
this to get your attention. Problem reports were submitted
and closed YESTERDAY without the problem being addressed.
October 3rd, 2006 at 1:37 pm
help please. I can’t send you emails from my primary account bc well, it’s down. I try sending you an email from another email addy and it gets bounced. Hmmm… I’m sorry…. this is really getting out of hand. DH, I know you’re frustrated, but it just seems to be one problem after another…. I think you need to change your hamsters that are running your servers.
October 3rd, 2006 at 1:40 pm
btw, i’m experiencing every single problem as shared above. ergh.
October 3rd, 2006 at 1:42 pm
Yes, this has been a big problem for us since it started yesterday morning. Tickets were filed.
Also, is anyone noticing long delays in delivery of the messages (once you can log in to retrieve them)? I’m seeing messages where the headers show delays of over one hour once the messages come into the dreamhost network.
October 3rd, 2006 at 1:47 pm
Looking back over the email issues listed in this blog, it seems that the “spunky” cluster seems to always be the one in trouble . . . might be time to make a permanent fix here, DH.
October 3rd, 2006 at 1:50 pm
I too am having this issue but for some odd reason Thunderbird works better than Eudora, Outlook (hahaha) and webmail.
October 3rd, 2006 at 1:52 pm
DH, if you really read these how about getting your SH*T together. For those of us who host several domains our clients businesses depend on email. The fact that you guys are down more than Jenna Jameson does not amuse me. I have to field phone calls and irrate customers as to what the problem is. Furthermore, what the hell is up with your issues response team. Is it really a team or 1 person handling 500 issues. Get it together or get out of the business.
October 3rd, 2006 at 2:05 pm
@sting, let me point you to the top of the page:
(Please remember, posting in the comments here IS NOT an official way to contact DreamHost.)
October 3rd, 2006 at 2:08 pm
I thought it was amusing that email problems should be mentioned in an email (as opposed to the web panel). I’m assuming this is based on someone’s sense of humor and give them a big thumbs up. (Seriously, I found it quite amusing).
October 3rd, 2006 at 2:09 pm
None in our office have received any emails since morning 9.00 AM PST. Both incoming and out going are affected. Not a single email since morning and have more than 10 mail boxes.
October 3rd, 2006 at 2:18 pm
Well, I have the same problems almost everyone who posted here has… and actually I can’t access my web panel… so for me there is no official way to contact Dreamhost.
October 3rd, 2006 at 2:20 pm
same problem here and this seems to be the norm. how are people supposed to run successful businesses in this day and age whithout reliable e-mail and no clue what is going on or when it will be fixed. thoroughly looking forward to finding a new hosting solution!
October 3rd, 2006 at 2:36 pm
How about the email I just got from a secondary account that says the problem has been resolved. HMMM I wonder why I can’t log into my DH mail account if the problem has been resolved? Time to look into Gatorhost.com
October 3rd, 2006 at 2:39 pm
my problem has been going on since Friday the 29th of September — that’s pretty interminnent don t you think –
it would be nice to be able to talk to someone about my e-amil and tech support beside just sending this messages and not knowing if they get to anyone or not
October 3rd, 2006 at 2:39 pm
I’ve been having this problem on and off for quite some time now. Unfortunately I have to agree on it seeming to be the norm and its certainly an issue that effects the daily administration of any business.
October 3rd, 2006 at 2:46 pm
Amazing.
Your message was NOT received by dhstatus@dreamhost.com!
We’re sorry.. your email was unable to be processed by our automatic
support system, and so is being returned to you.
We could not find your email address in our customer database and so
couldn’t accept your email. Due to the HUGE volume of spam we receive
at this address, we’ve been forced to implement this new policy.
Therefore, please just re-submit your message at:
http://www.dreamhost.com/contact.cgi
All messages submitted through that form are guaranteed to be received,
even if you aren’t currently a customer!
Our apologies for the inconvenience,
–
The Happy DreamHost Support Team!
October 3rd, 2006 at 3:06 pm
Perhaps Im more fortunate then others but my problems seem to have gone away for the time being… hopefully it stays that way.
October 3rd, 2006 at 4:32 pm
Again I (unfortunately) have to agree with all the gripes. These issues happen WAY TO OFTEN, and effect any business, big or small. I have reverted to using a g-mail account in the meantime…HINT-HINT DH!
There has got to be a solution to the CONSTANT IMPA issues, whether they be via a mail browser or web mail.
My (angry) 2 cents.
October 3rd, 2006 at 4:41 pm
I would complain about the crappy email, except it’s heaven compared to the shit that my supposedly “high-tech” university deals out every day. (It’s a largish research university in Ohio.)
But I guess I’d rather have paid monkeys working on the problems instead of lazy undergrads who don’t understand why grad students need email during the week.
October 3rd, 2006 at 10:05 pm
If you want 100% bulletproof e-mail and Web hosting, go buy three dedicated servers: One on MCI, another on UUNet, and one overseas / EU, and hire a NOC to monitor all three 24 / 7 with failover DNS ready to rock. Estimated cost: $1,500 / month.
Or, pay your $8, and tell your “clients”, “You get what you pay for. Unless you have $1,500 to ensure you don’t go down, expect the occasional service outage.”
Once again, people have already complained about the exact same things you are complaining about, using the exact same language. Once again, NOBODY CARES THAT YOU ARE ANGRY ABOUT AN OUTAGE. Once again, if you don’t like it, take your business elsewhere, please. But SHUT UP. Most DH customers are like me: We appreciate the fine service we get for the price we’re paying, and we’d find your complaints amusing, if they weren’t so banal and solipsistic (look them up on dictionary.com).
October 3rd, 2006 at 10:25 pm
Agreed, those who complain about what they are getting for $8 a month (or even $10) should try setting up their own server, running a mail, ftp and web server and seeing how quickly they burn through that $8 a month of time maintaining it, not to mention the power running it and the cost of the bandwidth serving it. And when they are on vacation and the server goes down they’ll be able to look in the mirror and rant and rave at themselves, call their own cellphone and rip themselves a new a-hole… Good luck.
Its a free market - time to exercise your right to shop elsewhere if you’re not happy.
October 3rd, 2006 at 10:25 pm
I have taken my business elsewhere, as of today. If you want more reliable e-mail, use Yahoo.com or Mail.com. Sadly their free service is much more reliable than Dreamhost’s paid service. No one is asking for 100% uptime, but we ARE (well, I was until I left) asking for something higher than the 60% or so it has been of late when it comes to e-mail for those of us consistently affected by every single “glitch” that Dreamhost experiences.
It’s not a matter of “getting what you pay for,” it’s a matter of paying for a service that is worse than free services and wondering why you bother.
October 4th, 2006 at 7:11 am
=== QUOTE ===
Doug Said on October 3rd, 2006 at 10:05 pm
If you want 100% bulletproof e-mail and Web hosting, go buy three dedicated servers: One on MCI, another on UUNet, and one overseas / EU, and hire a NOC to monitor all three 24 / 7 with failover DNS ready to rock. Estimated cost: $1,500 / month.
Or, pay your $8, and tell your “clients”, “You get what you pay for. Unless you have $1,500 to ensure you don’t go down, expect the occasional service outage.”
Once again, people have already complained about the exact same things you are complaining about, using the exact same language. Once again, NOBODY CARES THAT YOU ARE ANGRY ABOUT AN OUTAGE. Once again, if you don’t like it, take your business elsewhere, please. But SHUT UP. Most DH customers are like me: We appreciate the fine service we get for the price we’re paying, and we’d find your complaints amusing, if they weren’t so banal and solipsistic (look them up on dictionary.com).
=== END QUOTE ===
I, having never *ever* experienced the exagerated problems described above, am annoyed by the complaints and I’m sure if DH did read these, they would probably laugh at them and make sure that you always get the service you expect (notice that I did not say “want”). :p
October 4th, 2006 at 8:58 am
yep. prompts for password, errors out. no go. no clue which server it’s on but must be the cluster in question. unlike people above, i have the luxury of patience.
October 4th, 2006 at 9:07 am
I’ve been having DH issues a lot. Maybe you haven’t. That’s why I’m now investigating midPhase as a hosting solution. Sure, they don’t give more and more storage/throughput every week, but then again, I never end up using any of that at DH. They have better control panels and the same fantastico 3rd party installs. $6.95 a month. The price isn’t the issue, though… reliability is more important. DH used to be reliable.
I don’t see how you close an issue when folks are still having the problems. I will never recommend DH again to clients. It’s embarassing to have to defend your call later.
And BTW, Eric… what brings you to the status page? Just looking for some light reading? I only come here out of a need to have SOME SORT of communication with DH… and I have clients with accounts that include the phone support (which has ALWAYS taken 18hrs or more to get a call back this year).
October 4th, 2006 at 9:45 am
This is rediculous and it happens far too often. Today I started to get the password login error message again. Since I started using Dreamhost this seems to happen once a month. I have also been using Bellsouth for 7 years and I have never had this problem. Please fix it once and for all!
October 4th, 2006 at 10:42 am
still suffering from the issue…my problems started a few days ago…now it seems to have completely collapsed some SMTP domains are working, but the others arent…i guess they are on different clusters or something…sucks because the ones i really really need are on spunky…oh well…hang in there i guess..
October 4th, 2006 at 1:26 pm
Just wanted to drop in to state that the problem seemed to be resolved yesterday evening but has since returned.
October 4th, 2006 at 3:37 pm
We have weekly e-mail issues most of them go away after awhile but,
it would be nice to have consistent uptime with our e-mail, the price is cheap though
so I guess you get what you pay for.
October 5th, 2006 at 8:10 am
=== QUOTE ===
syncbox Said on October 4th, 2006 at 9:07 am
And BTW, Eric… what brings you to the status page? Just looking for some light reading? I only come here out of a need to have SOME SORT of communication with DH… and I have clients with accounts that include the phone support (which has ALWAYS taken 18hrs or more to get a call back this year).
=== END QUOTE ===
I ventured here because I *was* having email problems. This was not here at that time, so I emailed support and recieved a response in a prompt and timely manner explaining what had happened. Shortly after recieving their reply, I came here, out of curiosity, to see if they had posted anything about it.
I don’t ever use phone support because, having worked in phone support for a year, I know that it takes forever. Email support is and always has been much much faster.
October 5th, 2006 at 12:27 pm
Still having issues on spunky. IMAP and POP3.. any ETR or fix yet?
October 6th, 2006 at 4:44 pm
I am now on my 4th day like this with email password problems on Spunky. This seems to happen at least once a month and it always lasts for days rather than hours. Dreamhost needs to get this sorted out because its ridiculous that free email from Yahoo or Google is so much more reliable. I am also fed up with seeing mail from Dreamhost blacklisted by spamcop. The price is great and there is more space than I could ever possibly use but I would far rather see my bandwidth and storage space cut in half if it meant we could have reliable email.
October 7th, 2006 at 1:28 am
Dreamhost’s crappy service has indeed inspired me to go elsehwere. Ironically, though, DH’s crappy service has in fact prevented me from switching domains over to the nameservers at my new host. The control panel interface for nameserver changes is nonfunctional, and I’ve had a support request in for a week.
It’s hard to imagine how incompetent these people must be.
October 26th, 2006 at 12:55 am
we have big speed problems on webmail… please help
October 27th, 2006 at 9:34 am
This is exactly what I was looking for, thanks for the great information.
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December 23rd, 2007 at 4:08 am
webmail and http servive very slow :s