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Author Topic: Zen Widespread Emergency Maintenance  (Read 5617 times)

KingJ

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Zen Widespread Emergency Maintenance
« on: April 28, 2018, 09:22:35 PM »

Zen's status page is currently showing widespread emergency maintenance on a huge number of area codes;

PW111345304
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01131 01132 01133 01138 01151 01158 01159 01161 01162 01171 01172 01173 01179 01189 01202 01211 01212 01213 01214 01215 01216 01217 01223 01225 01226 01234 01242 01243 01244 01249 01252 01253 01254 01256 01257 01260 01264 01268 01270 01273 01274 01275 01276 01277 01279 01280 01282 01283 01284 01295 01296 01302 01303 01311 01312 01313 01314 01315 01316 01317 01322 01323 01325 01332 01342 01343 01344 01347 01359 01363 01364 01373 01380 01383 01386 01392 01400 01403 01411 01412 01413 01414 01415 01416 01417 01418 01419 01420 01422 01428 01429 01438 01442 01444 01446 01452 01454 01457 01460 01462 01474 01476 01477 01480 01487 01488 01491 01494 01508 01509 01511 01512 01513 01514 01515 01516 01517 01518 01519 01522 01525 01526 01530 01531 01565 01572 01580 01582 01594 01603 01606 01608 01611 01612 01613 01614 01616 01617 01618 01619 01622 01625 01626 01635 01636 01647 01664 01673 01689 01692 01694 01695 01702 01706 01707 01722 01723 01725 01730 01732 01737 01743 01744 01753 01759 01761 01772 01773 01780 01782 01784 01789 01794 01803 01823 01827 01829 01844 01851 01865 01883 01892 01903 01904 01908 01911 01912 01913 01914 01915 01916 01917 01923 01924 01925 01926 01928 01935 01939 01942 01943 01944 01949 01954 01959 01963 01980 01984 01985 02010 02011 02030 02031 02032 02033 02034 02035 02070 02071 02072 02073 02074 02075 02076 02077 02078 02079 02080 02081 02082 02083 02084 02085 02086 02087 02088 02089 02392 02476 02810 02890 02895 02911 02920 02921 02922

PW111346364
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01158 01159 01161 01162 01173 01179 01189 01202 01212 01213 01214 01215 01216 01223 01225 01226 01234 01235 01242 01243 01244 01249 01252 01253 01254 01256 01257 01260 01264 01268 01270 01273 01274 01275 01276 01277 01279 01280 01282 01283 01284 01295 01296 01302 01303 01311 01312 01313 01314 01315 01316 01317 01322 01323 01325 01332 01342 01343 01344 01347 01359 01363 01364 01373 01380 01383 01386 01392 01400 01403 01412 01413 01414 01415 01417 01418 01419 01420 01422 01428 01429 01438 01442 01444 01446 01452 01454 01457 01460 01462 01474 01476 01477 01480 01487 01488 01491 01494 01508 01509 01512 01513 01514 01515 01516 01517 01518 01519 01522 01525 01526 01530 01531 01565 01572 01580 01582 01594 01603 01606 01608 01611 01612 01613 01614 01616 01617 01618 01619 01622 01625 01626 01635 01636 01647 01664 01673 01689 01692 01694 01695 01702 01706 01722 01723 01725 01730 01732 01737 01743 01744 01753 01759 01761 01772 01773 01780 01782 01784 01789 01794 01803 01823 01827 01829 01844 01865 01883 01892 01903 01904 01908 01911 01912 01913 01914 01915 01917 01923 01924 01925 01926 01928 01935 01939 01942 01943 01944 01949 01954 01959 01963 01980 01984 01985 02010 02030 02031 02032 02070 02072 02073 02074 02075 02076 02077 02078 02080 02081 02082 02083 02084 02085 02086 02087 02088 02089 02392 02476 02810 02890 02911 02920 02921 02922

This is supposedly set to last from 2018/04/28 20:00 to 2018/04/29 08:00, with further widespread emergency maintenance planned for 2018/04/29 22:00 to 2018/04/30 06:00.

I've been caught up in this too, my xDSL session is still online but the PPP session has dropped and can't be reestablished. A cursory search on Twitter shows many others affected too.

I'm quite surprised that given the severity of the impact, Zen didn't send out any form of notification - they know the area codes that will be/are affect and know the number that the service is on - and so should have been able to send targeted notifications.

Given the wide impact and length of the emergency maintenance window though, it does sound rather serious. Anyone have some insight in to what's going on?
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sevenlayermuddle

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Re: Zen Widespread Emergency Maintenance
« Reply #1 on: April 28, 2018, 11:16:24 PM »

I am with zen.  My area code is on the list.

No problems at all, so far.
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Ixel

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Re: Zen Widespread Emergency Maintenance
« Reply #2 on: April 29, 2018, 10:24:31 AM »

Perhaps it's a fix for the congestion issues they've been having with some customers?
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burakkucat

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Re: Zen Widespread Emergency Maintenance
« Reply #3 on: April 29, 2018, 04:51:17 PM »

Is it actually described by Zen as "Emergency Maintenance"? (My emboldening.)  :-\
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KingJ

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Re: Zen Widespread Emergency Maintenance
« Reply #4 on: April 29, 2018, 05:00:25 PM »

I am with zen.  My area code is on the list.

No problems at all, so far.

A friend of mine who is also on Zen didn't have her area code listed, but did experience high levels of packet loss when things first started around 8:30PM. My parent's area code was listed, however they didn't report any impact themselves.

Is it actually described by Zen as "Emergency Maintenance"? (My emboldening.)  :-\

Yep, if you click in to the PW codes you'll get the full (well, full-er) details which reference it as "Emergency engineering works - Full outage".

In the end, it seems my own (and judging by Twitter, others too) PPP sessions came back up around 10:30PM - 11:00PM. I had to power cycle my modem though - even though the PPP session was up and got IPv4/6 addresses from Zen, nothing could get past the first hop in Zen's network. The friend of mine who was also on Zen, but didn't have her area code listed in last night's emergency works, also ended up having to do that this morning after seeing extremely high latency and packet loss.

Replies from Zen's Twitter account are now mentioning that this was (likely?) due to maintenance on their supplier's network. All in all though, accurate information seems hard to come by and a significant number of people were affected without prior warning  :(
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burakkucat

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Re: Zen Widespread Emergency Maintenance
« Reply #5 on: April 29, 2018, 05:07:17 PM »

Hmm . . . So not the best notification to, and communication with, end-users.  :-X
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highpriest

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Re: Zen Widespread Emergency Maintenance
« Reply #6 on: April 29, 2018, 10:29:17 PM »

Looks like there is a planned maintenance for my postcode (amongst others) on the night of the 2nd lasting for 8 hours!

https://status.zen.co.uk/broadband/maintenance-outage-details.aspx?reference=110817389

Only reason I know about it now is because of this thread. Why can't they just email their customers informing them of things like this?

I wonder if they are doing some kind of mass patching to address a vulnerability of some sort :hmm:
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V_R

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Re: Zen Widespread Emergency Maintenance
« Reply #7 on: April 29, 2018, 11:07:59 PM »

My area code is on that and various older complete jobs, no issues here.

I quite often see mine list and never actually suffer any lose of service.
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sevenlayermuddle

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Re: Zen Widespread Emergency Maintenance
« Reply #8 on: April 30, 2018, 12:29:04 AM »

Come to think of it, every single area code I have ever had, is listed.  That does not mean all codes are listed, but I suspect most are.   Zen did say, in the links initially posted...

Quote
The notices below are from our suppliers

Strikes me, more likely to have been a BT ‘alert’, effectively nationwide to cover their backs, as they couldn’t be bothered to narrow it down in detail.   That would probably have affected most ISPs, but such a warning  would probably have been ignored by the mainstream offshore ISPs, such as Vodafone and others.   

If Zen were the only ISP who actually passed it on to their customers, then credit to them.   

Nothing bad happened here, Zen customer with affected area code. :)
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KingJ

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Re: Zen Widespread Emergency Maintenance
« Reply #9 on: April 30, 2018, 10:28:21 AM »

I was also affected again from approximately 10:30PM - same as before, the modem is synced but can't establish a PPP session.

It was still down this morning for me, outside of the maintenance window, so I gave them a call. Interestingly, I had two PPP sessions established (due to my backup firewall also trying to connect, oops), which understandably caused some problems! After I resolved that though, all good. Not quite sure why that happened, this is the first time though there's actually been a PPP failure since I  clustered the firewalls so not really had a chance to experience this failure condition before!

Whilst I was on the line to them, I asked if they had any more details about the weekend outages. Apparently Vodafone had been doing some work on the backhauls Zen use, which affected a large number of exchanges. I also asked if there was a way to get automated notifications about planned maintenance as listed on the status page, unfortunately there isn't but they mentioned they could log it as a feature request if I dropped them an email. Even if most of the time having my area code listed means there's no impacted (e.g. because the maintenance results in reduced redundancy rather than a full outage), it'd still be useful personally to get a heads up about any potential issues so if something does arise, I know why rather than having to troubleshoot from scratch!
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roseway

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Re: Zen Widespread Emergency Maintenance
« Reply #10 on: April 30, 2018, 10:35:07 AM »

I'm not with Zen, but I did lose my PPP connection briefly yesterday. Possibly just coincidence, but it's a rare event.
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Ixel

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Re: Zen Widespread Emergency Maintenance
« Reply #11 on: April 30, 2018, 03:29:07 PM »

I'm not with Zen either, but unfortunately my area had a power cut for over an hour yesterday afternoon. I took advantage of it though as I have a UPS :), re-synced both lines (sadly the first line is still banded) but the second line gained a bit of downstream (67Mbps to 71Mbps). Near full 20 megabits upstream on both lines currently I believe (up from around 14Mbps and 16Mbps).
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