Conference rocks::uk_digital

        Thanks for posting .0  
        
        Interestingly I have not had that information from any other
        source.
        
        Are the problems fixed now?
        
        Ian.

It would be *very* useful for consultants like me delivering Exchange on 
customer sites to know (at a technical level) what went wrong and how it 
was fixed.

Are there any plans to write this up and make it available?



Ian.

    Mail to David Knight may provide the answer.

                  I N T E R O F F I C E   M E M O R A N D U M

                                        Date:     04-Feb-1997 01:26pm GMT
                                        From:     CCS Services Information
                                                  CCS_SERVICES@A1CHEFS@RDGMTS@R
                                        Dept:
                                        Tel No:

TO:  CCS Services Information             ( CCS_SERVICES@A1CHEFS@RDGMTS@REO )

Subject: CCS Update: Exchange Service Status


Ladies & Gentlemen,

UPDATE ON UK EXCHANGE SERVICE

I would like to update you on progress made since my mail on Friday towards
resolution of the Exchange service problems.

CCS system managers have now been working 24 hours a day since Thursday morning
with Microsoft's Critical Support group in their combined efforts to identify
the cause of our problems.

Microsoft have been given access to our systems, and worked with us to set up
debugging facilities which would enable them to capture and analyse the "event"
which was causing the systems failure.

Because this event was load-dependent, we had to wait until 08:15 yesterday
morning before it next occurred and we were able to trap it.  Both UK Exchange
servers failed at this time, and Microsoft were able to start debugging the
problem, which itself had a severe impact on service availability for the whole
of yesterday.

However, I'm pleased to say that Microsoft believe they have isolated the
section of code (in the NT Server software) which was causing the problem, and
wrote a patch for it which we received and applied to the UK Exchange Servers
last night.

The availability of the servers so far today suggests that the patch may have
been successful.  However, we will only be truly sure of this once we have had
several days continuous service.

Once we are satisfied that the problem really has been fixed, this patch will of
course be rolled out to the other servers in our NT infrastructure.

Digital's Exchange implementation is generally recognised to be the largest and
most complex in the world at this point in time and it's worth remembering that
we're therefore on the "leading edge" of experience in using these technologies,
with all the inherent benefits and occasional problems that this implies.

Thank you for your understanding and support during the last week and once again
I would like to apologise on behalf of CCS for the effect of this downtime.


Regards,

David Knight
CCS UK Desktop Services Manager

    It still seems to be up and down, today.
    
    I am waiting for a call back from MCS to inform me whats wrong. In the
    meantime, I assume its not fixed.
    
    
    Frank

From: 	CCS Information Services @REO
Sent: 	Wednesday, February 05, 1997 05:10
To: 	REOEXC3 Users; REOEXC4 users
Subject: 	CCS Update: Mail Delays


Ladies and Gentlemen

Mail Delays

We are currently experiencing delays of up to 24 hours with mail being received from outside of 
Digital Europe and also outside of the company.

Mail sent to and from ALL-IN-1 and Exchange within the UK is not effected.

If you have any questions regarding this, please contact your local Helpdesk.


Regards,

Simon Brickwood
CCS UK Helpdesk Services Manager

    It's not just mail outside Digital.  Mail sent from systems in
    Basingstoke to Reading take a day to get through (VAXmail to Exchange
    and Unix to Exchange).  Apparently it has to go via America and back,
    across all the transatlantic links and has got stuck in the mail
    routers (according to CCS, though to their credit they've given me a
    Reading gateway now). 
    
    Seems a bit silly to route all mails over the transatlantic links.  No
    wonder the mail gateways are flooded if Exchange has been set up this
    way.
    
    /tmp
                       

    Where "set up" is a relative term.

    So what is the reading gateway. I have the same problem sending
    internet mail to customers. 3 days is what I used to get.
    
    Steven F

    This maybe a rathole...
    
    I had a mail bounce back from a customer today with this in the return
    header.  Is this generated at our end or his end (he doesn't know about
    such things and all he knows is my mail didn't reach him!  I sent this
    from All-IN-1 but I don't know how this routes out any more.  I put
    this note here because I didn't have this problem before the exchange
    stuff started to roll out.
    
    Cheers,
    
    Jc
    
    Worldtalk 400 Gateway IPM.Microsoft Mail.Note
    From: CORNEJ/mime/smtp/ospmail/gb4
    To:   
    Subject: {deleted in this note}
    Date: 1997-02-16 15:33
    Priority: 3
     
    

    So what did the mail say when it came back ?  It usually gives a reason
    for not being delivered, i.e. dns lookup failure, or timeouts or
    something
    
    /tmp

    Did you send it via our X.400 gateway off ALL-IN-1 Message Router
    or via the ALL-IN-1/MR SMTP (Internet) gateway ?
    
    Can't tell very much from what you have posted but at first glance it
    looks like it went X.400 and ran into problems at the customer's own
    gateway.  (This determined just from knowledge of product naming)  You
    need more info from the non-delivery notification to say anything more.

    Sorry - I only posted the pieces I don't recognise.  The mail went to
    [email protected]@internet from All-in-1
    
    All I wanted to know was if that we used the product identifien in the
    text I posted.
    
    Jc
     

    It looks like I'll be moving to Exchange in the very near future.
    
    Anyone who's done this got any tips on things to watch out for etc?
    
    Greg

    
    >Anyone who's done this got any tips on things to watch out for etc?
    
    	The CHEFS::MS-EXCHANGE notesfile may be able to help you.
    

    > It looks like I'll be moving to Exchange in the very near future.
    >
    > Anyone who's done this got any tips on things to watch out for etc?
        
        If you work from home at all make sure you've checked the RAS 
        box on the Exchange request form, and have  a method of using
        it.  I found a VT320 and a modem was not enough for using
        Exchange!
        
        Ian. 

    Surprised that you haven't had the MS indoctrination yet Greg.  My
    advice is to leapfrog the "Exchange" client and go directly to the
    Outlook '97 client for Exchange.   Also, as you use a portable
    frequently, swot up on Personal Folders - particularly Offline Folders
    and methods of synchronization.

    RE: .18 "Outlook '97 client for Exchange"? Wassat then? I'm am heartily
    fed up of the Exchange client crashing my laptop, and dragging it to
    its knees when it isn't crashing it (hard to do on a 40meg Pentium
    150).
    
    Loz$pissed_off_exchange_client_user.

    re .19 
    Outlook comes with MS Office 97
    
    Rich.

I heard that Office '97 was not being implemented by UK MCS until 
incompatibilities with prior releases were resolved. Is that not the case 
then?

Mike _expecting to move to Exchange shortly_

    Mike,
    
    	We are not advising the move yet. We are testing the product to
    determine if/when we migrate and then we want to do it in a controlled
    fashion. This is in line with other parts of the organisation. If there
    is a random migration then it will be chaos. There is also the extra
    resource (memory, disk and processor) to be considered along with all
    the support issues of dealing with different versions of products. The
    implementation of Windows 95 and Ofiice 95 is not complete yet.
    
    Cheers
    -Dave-
    

I have office97 at home and use it all the time. It is slightly heavier on 
resources than office95 apart from Outlook. This wants oodles and oodles of 
memory - its a shame that its the one app that makes it worth updating.

Alan

Re file compatibility:

Access97 has a superb gotcha, if you are a developer.

- Access 97 will automatically convert an Access95 application to its own 
format BUT this is one-way only.

- Access97 can use Access95 files, but you can't amend the schema.

- Access95 can't open Access97 applications or files.

So you need to continue to develop in Access95 until all users have migrated 
to '97. But you need to test your application with both Access95 and '97.

There have been several reports of Word files losing formatting or being 
unreadable when saved in compatibility format (i.e RTF).

I'm usually an early taker of new software releases (I love new toys!). 
Having installed it I found insufficient new functionality in Office 97 to 
outweigh the current hassles factors. So I've reverted to '95 and I'll wait 
a while before moving over to it.

Rgds, Brian

	You can get the Outlook client separately from Office97
	if you just want Outlook and retain you Office95 implemenatation.

Nige.

    Does anyone other than me have difficulty with the OLO RAS service ?
    
    I suspect its down to the quality of the phone lines; I live in
    Manchester and can never get a reliable connection to the OLO
    service unless I drop my modem down to 19.2.
    
    HHL is much better (but presumably we get cross-charged for a
    long-distance call rather than a local call).
    
    Strangely, if I dial my local ISP in Warrington, I get 28.8 no problems
    at all. Don't know if this is because they are on Nynex rather than BT!
                                                

I dial in to Warrington all the tome (as now) and get 28.8

Maybe its the modem settings for that config ?

I get much better speed out of OLO and HHL than REO.

Log a fault call with BT/your cable operator, they can do a quality 
check on your line

I always seem to get 26.4 max on RAS wherever I dial.
With Demon I get 28.8 every time.

    RAS to REO is very hit and miss from my Xircom 28.8 card.
    RAS to HHL is not much better.
    RAS to OLO is usually brilliant.
    All this from Basingstoke ??
    
    When visiting the US recently, RAS to Nashua from Nashua was clean and
    fast.
    
    So I perceive a difference in services all from the same PC and setup
    which travels around with me.  Very strange.
    
    Ciao-Ken

    I can confirm Ken's empirical experience.
    
    In Valbonne, I get brilliant RAS performance with my US Robotics Modem. 
    On the occasions when I visited the UK, I found the OLO dial-in to be
    equivalent to my Valbonne server on answering speed and on connect 
    speed.  I tried Warrington after being disappointed with Reading (from
    several points in the country).  I didn't try London 'cos I was happy
    with Warrington.
    
    I suspect that either ;
    
    i)	Reading has a different type of modem pool than OLO - although it
    might nominally be the same speed, some makes work much better than
    others (my unhesitating recommendation is for US Robotics)
    
    OR
    
    ii) Reading area phone line quality is poorer than the North
    
    OR 
    
    iii) A mixture of both of the above.
    
    /Chris/

    I'm on customer site in the City and in Dublin, and I dial into REO,
    HHL, Warrington and Dublin. The first two are terrible; unreliable,
    constantly crashing, and often slow. The second two are very good
    indeed, rarely crashing, and always 28800. I also use Brussels RAS, and
    that too, is mostly good. Now, I never bother with London or Reading.
    
    In my Hi-Note, I'm currently using a US-Robotics Megahertz which
    was recently upgraded from a GreyCell. The same behaviour was exhibited
    by both modems, both from site, and home
    
    Cheers, Laurie.

Do you guys report this to CCS? If you dont they wont have any stats on connection problems with these sites!

and for those who only read up to col. 80


Do you guys report this to CCS? If you dont they wont have any stats
on connection problems with these sites!