Google Warns Of Gmail Access Issues
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Google is preparing users of its Gmail service by warning that the service might be unreliable when they make updates to improve the service.
“Users of all Web services may have periodic trouble with access, and as we make updates to improve and enhance Gmail, some users may see error messages and experience short periods of inaccessibility,” a Google spokesman said in a statement Wednesday. “These errors are neither persistent nor pervasive, but we take all issues very seriously and resolve them as quickly as possible. We encourage these users to contact the Gmail Support team, who can investigate any problems. We’re continually listening to feedback from our users and working to improve the product.”
Some people are saying that you shouldn’t use Gmail because of this and other perceived reliability problems. A common argument these people love to use to rail against Gmail is, “what are you going to do when it’s inaccessible?”
I maintain Gmail’s service has been more reliable than any of my own computers and problems I often experienced with my own web server. Lets not even get into the three dozen or more times Outlook decided to crap out completely on me, until it was reinstalled. I’d take Gmail’s few outages over all the other problems that required ME to stay up late to fix them.
[tags]Google, Gmail, google apps, google docs, google documents and spreadsheets, google documents, google spreadsheets, web services, reliability[/tags]
6 Comments
Matt Dreesner
May 4th, 2007
at 12:42am
I have to agree with the article. I am a charter member of GMail.
I rarely experience problems with their servers. I have used my account with Firefox, Opera, and IE (all versions). Most of the problems are because of Google maintenance/down-time. That is understandable. It is nice to see necessary things being fixed behind the scenes. I figure if they turn off your electric at your house, to fix the power. Internet companies need to shut down and reboot, just like I have to do. Like a great big computer.
CTerrian
May 7th, 2007
at 12:08pm
Yeah, I like GMail, and have had little problems using it.
However, it fails to work with my mobile Cingular Sync phone. When I try running Google Mobile on my Sync, this is what I get:
Content not signed
Name: Gmail
Vendor: Google
Size: 158.28 KB
Version: 1.1
Type: application/vnd.sun.j2me.java-archive
Sorry, Gmail will not work on your phone. Your phone doesn’t have the appropriate certificate to communicate with the server. Try accessing Gmail on your mobile browser at http://mail.google.com
Crap!
According to another user, the phone does have the certificate:
http://tinyurl.com/2pw9xo
Strange part is that this certificate already exists on our phones and is named “verisign_class3.der”. It’s installed at locations \Security\Certs and \Security\Domain3Certs. If you save the file onto your PC, you can verify the serial number and the validity of the cert; 100% what gmail is specifying.
I’ve copied it into all the other cert folders (\Security\DefaultPrivateCert, \Security\DefaultRootCACerts, \Security\Domain1Certs, and \Security\Domain2Certs), but did not fix the missing cert issue.
Does it need a different name?
Does it need to be cataloged in \Security\CM somewhere? (currently 20.Cert = verisign_class3.der) Maybe change the number prefix so it loads earlier?
Any ideas from my gnomie friends?
PSeelos
May 8th, 2007
at 9:17pm
I’m very happy with the availability and reliability of Gmail so far. The only dislike I have is that I cannot turn off Gmail SPAM filtering. I pick up my GMail with Outlook Express and then, using GMail settings, Archive the mail. Therefore, I rarely check GMail online. I don’t like SPAM filters and GMail’s is no exception. After not receiving a message which had been sent to my GMail account I finally found it in the SPAM folder. I’d rather see it in my Inbox but GMail doesn’t give me the choice.
Ann Sadedin
May 9th, 2007
at 6:01am
My brother is waging a campaign against gmail, chiefly I think because he considers it spyware. He doesn’t like Google having access to all one’s mail. He won’t even accept an email from a gmail address. Does anyone have any comment?
Lovs2look
May 10th, 2007
at 11:58pm
Well I’m extremely happy with Gmail’s service.
Yes there are some times when some services are not available, but i understand that servers will go down from time-to-time and they also need maintenance once-in-a-while and they just plain need a rest every-so-often.
Like you Chris, I got sick of Outlook crashing 16 times a day and (sometimes) having to reboot just to get things going again.
I have another POP account routed thru Gmail and this account gets LOTS of spam. Gmail has handled it all flawlessly. I was aprehensive at first, but now after using it for the last 6 months solidly, I can say that no legitimate emails have been incorrectly labelled as spam.
So in conclusion…love it, love it, LOVE IT!
P.S. To: Ann
Your brother needs a life! Fancy rejecting email based upon it’s Gmail address…he might miss something important! Gmail spyware? To my knowledge Gmail has not (so far) installed anything to my PC, so how could this be considered spyware? Pishtosh!
Dave Kovach
October 18th, 2007
at 5:18am
I had Yahoo for web based email before there was gmial. Yahoo mail is terrible when it comes to filtering out spam. I don’t know if I can forward all of my Yahoo email (roughly 200 emails) to gmail without being charged at all. If anybody know if it can be done free of charge. let me know and I’ll do it. I haven’t checked yet to see if it can be done.