Topic : Please read if your iDisk is still down

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brianguy


Posts: 96
Registered: Jun 1, 2006
Please read if your iDisk is still down
Posted: Jul 30, 2006 6:54 PM
 

Since Apple is taking days to address the ongoing iDisk outage, it looks like we the users have to do the troubleshooting for Apple.

I just noticed that I can now access idisk.mac.com at 17.250.248.76 from one of my remote Linux servers, but I still cannot from my home DSL connection. So let's try to narrow down what is in common for those of us that are still unable to reach 17.250.248.76.

If your iDisk is still offline, please respond indicating who your ISP is and what part of the country you are in. Perhaps this problem is specific to certain ISPs.

My ISP is qwest.net (DSL), and I am in Seattle.

Is there anyone on the U.S. east coast and/or a different ISP that is experiencing the ongoing iDisk outage?

P.S. accessing iDisk via 17.250.248.77 doesn't count, in my opinion, since for all we know that's a backup address. Unless Apple updates its DNS servers to also point to 17.250.248.77 instead of or in addition to 17.250.248.76, I don't think we can trust 17.250.248.77 as a solution.

Thanks for your help with any insights so we can help Apple solve this problem.

In the meantime, I am building an SVN server to replace iDisk for me, but I doubt that most Mac users will want to manage their own iDisk replacement.

Apple sure has let us down. Too bad since they had an opportunity here to show us how great their support was.


Black MacBook, Intel iMac, Black iPod nano, Nike+ Sport Kit   Mac OS X (10.4.7)  

   
Vibeeen

Posts: 44
From: New Hampshire, USA
Registered: Jan 15, 2006
Re: Please read if your iDisk is still down
Posted: Jul 30, 2006 7:21 PM   in response to: brianguy
 

Still down. Adelphia. New England.

iCal.mac.com is also broken, at least for publishing from iCal. Browsing works.

-V

PM G5 Quad/PB G4 1.5MHz   Mac OS X (10.4.7)   2G RAM/1G RAM
R.Jay Goos


Posts: 38
Registered: May 6, 2005
Re: Please read if your iDisk is still down
Posted: Jul 30, 2006 7:34 PM   in response to: brianguy
 

Brian wrote:

I just noticed that I can now access idisk.mac.com at 17.250.248.76 from one of my remote Linux servers, but I still cannot from my home DSL connection. So let's try to narrow down what is in common for those of us that are still unable to reach 17.250.248.76.<

I have no idea what any of this means. On another thread, someone suggested:

http://17.250.248.77/your_own_user_name/

This worked for me, using Cable One as the ISP in North Dakota.

RJ

G3 iMac   Mac OS X (10.2.x)  

Micah Modell


Posts: 21
From: New York
Registered: Jul 24, 2004
Re: Please read if your iDisk is still down
Posted: Jul 30, 2006 7:34 PM   in response to: brianguy
 

Great idea! I'm in South Korea using HanBit Internet. I was able to use the web interface on a PC yesterday from my father-in-law's place.

On a related note, why hasn't there been any reference to this on the .mac status page? There STILL isn't and I've already got a support response saying the issue is fixed. I thought it was just me so I did an archive+install and when that didn't work, I did an erase+install. If I'd had any clue from .Mac that it wasn't just me, I would have saved myself a whole lot of time...

12 PowerBook G4 and iMac G4, Mac Classic Maquarium   Mac OS X (10.4.7)   (freshly squeezed from the install discs)
Chris Bremer

Posts: 3
Registered: May 8, 2005
Re: Please read if your iDisk is still down
Posted: Jul 30, 2006 8:37 PM   in response to: brianguy
 

Location: Orlando, FL
ISP: Brighthouse - via Cable Modem

I've got three computers that all stopped being able to access idisk on or around the 25th of July.

I've looked at the work arounds, but none of them are resonable long term solutions. I hope Apple responds soon.

Powerbook G4, Powermac G5, Sawtooth G4 as Server   Mac OS X (10.4.7)  

   
brianguy


Posts: 96
Registered: Jun 1, 2006
Re: Please read if your iDisk is still down
Posted: Jul 30, 2006 9:06 PM   in response to: R.Jay Goos
 

I have no idea what any of this means. On another
thread, someone suggested:

http://17.250.248.77/your_own_user_name/

This worked for me, using Cable One as the ISP in
North Dakota.

Here's a brief explanation of what this means. When you attempt to access your iDisk, your Mac makes a connection to idisk.mac.com/[your username]

But the way the Internet works is when you access an address by name, such as www.apple.com, the text address is converted into a numeric address -- called an IP address -- that looks like 17.250.248.76.

The technology that converts the text address into a numeric IP address is called DNS (Domain Name Service).

According to Apple's DNS servers, idisk.mac.com is currently assigned to 17.250.248.76 (I confirmed that this is the current assignment by Apple's DNS servers, in order to make sure my ISP's DNS servers are not out of date with any recent changes).

This means that you should be able to access your iDisk using this numeric IP address, which would help us understand if the problem is just a DNS issue (in other words, if the idisk.mac.com name is not properly resoloving).

But the numeric IP address also fails, and DNS is correctly resolving. So this most likely indicates a problem with Apple's load balancer -- don't worry about this terminology, this is just the Apple computer(s) that answers traffic at the idisk.mac.com IP address.

Now a clever user figured out that a different IP address, 17.250.248.77, is successfully allowing access to iDisk services. This suggests that the back end data is not down, but instead a front end web server or load balancer is down (again, don't worry about the terminology).

But 17.250.248.77 is not the address Apple wants to use, since it is not the address published in DNS, which means that this could be a dangerous solution long term. For all we know, this address is pointing to a development server, a backup server, or some other server that may or may not be synchronized real time with the 17.250.248.76 servers.

What if once the problem is resolved, all of the data you have been storing on 17.250.248.77 suddenly disappears when you go back to using iDisk the normal way? You might think you can access 17.250.248.77 forever, but who knows? This is not an officially supported way to access iDisk.

The bottom line is that many Macs are not able to talk to iDisk (and services that require iDisk) without overriding DNS (this is what /etc/hosts does) to foce a value different from what Apple DNS servers are telling us to use.

And the problem has been going on for many days with no response from Apple other than "it is affecting a small number of users [and we think it's resolved now."

This is not the service we expect from Apple. I moved away from Dell to get away from this type of apathy and complacency.

Hope this helps in understanding the issues (both technical and customer satisfaction)...

Black MacBook, Intel iMac, Black iPod nano, Nike+ Sport Kit   Mac OS X (10.4.7)  
Lori Rauchwerger

Posts: 17
Registered: Apr 7, 2005
Re: Please read if your iDisk is still down
Posted: Jul 30, 2006 10:26 PM   in response to: brianguy
 

Mine is also. I have not recieved reply to any of the messages sent to Customer Support or Feedback.
Since iDisk is down, I of course cannot use iWeb or homepages, etc.

Have no intention of trying work around ISP address because like you said if it gets fixed then what......

I am posting this problem to as many other forums read by Mac people as I can think of and plan to send emails to Tech Podcasters covering Macs also if this is not resovled soon.

Have posted to MacFixit and will start going to others, maybe someone will be able to get this issue resoved at its source.


iMac Power PC G4   Mac OS X (10.4.7)   40GB iPod, 250GB LaCie EX HD

   
JMM


Posts: 9
Registered: Mar 2, 2005
Re: Please read if your iDisk is still down
Posted: Jul 30, 2006 10:29 PM   in response to: brianguy
 

Still down here in Manhattan, with Road Runner cable as my ISP.

This has been going on for almost a week now for me, and, after reporting the issue to Apple, I received too that false 'everything is ok now' reply, only it is not.

As many others here, I am aghast not only at Apple's failure to solve the problem, but also at their refusal to simply acknowledge and report the issue on their .Mac homepage.

I remember the days when we Mac users were Apple's best advertisers. It would seem they want us now to turn into their most staunch detractors.

iMac G5   Mac OS X (10.4.7)  
hara1

Posts: 5
Registered: Jul 28, 2006
Re: Please read if your iDisk is still down
Posted: Jul 30, 2006 10:57 PM   in response to: JMM
 

I've been down for about 4 days.
Glendale Ca. Covad DSL

Duel 2.5   Mac OS X (10.3.9)  
John Sowden

Posts: 13
Registered: Jul 1, 2005
Re: Please read if your iDisk is still down
Posted: Jul 31, 2006 2:50 AM   in response to: brianguy
 

No sign of iDisk life "Down Under" here in Sydney for the last 5 days. My iWeb publishing won't work of course! Any other Bigpond users having the same problem? "Hello I'm a PC and I'm a .Mac - BOTH DON'T WORK!"
I have several Macs and none will connect to iDisk so I know it isn't my problem!
NO REPLY from Apple except they received my query!
Here's hoping - this is VERY DISAPPOINTING as I have been fanatically Mac for the last 20 years!!!!
Cheers everyone,
John

iMac G5 20"   Mac OS X (10.4.7)   2 GB RAM

iMac G4 1.25 GHz   Mac OS X (10.4.1)  

iMac G4 1.25 GHz   Mac OS X (10.4.1)  
Roger Wilmut1


Posts: 10,197
From: London, UK
Registered: Sep 20, 2005
Re: Please read if your iDisk is still down
Posted: Jul 31, 2006 3:03 AM   in response to: John Sowden
 

Oddly enough it's OK here in London, England, and has been through this period. All very odd.

   
Micah Modell


Posts: 21
From: New York
Registered: Jul 24, 2004
Re: Please read if your iDisk is still down
Posted: Jul 31, 2006 5:04 AM   in response to: JMM
 

I'm wondering if this isn't related to WWDC coming up August 7 - 11.  I seem to recall having experienced similar outages before when they've prepared to roll out significant changes to their .Mac offerings (last time, I think we jumped from 100 MB to 1GB as well as some other new features).  I'm really hoping that this is the case and that these issues are temporary…

12 PowerBook G4 and iMac G4, Mac Classic Maquarium   Mac OS X (10.4.7)  
Peter Kelly

Posts: 1
Registered: Aug 6, 2004
Re: Please read if your iDisk is still down
Posted: Jul 31, 2006 5:45 AM   in response to: brianguy
 

My iDisk is still down in Manchester, England, U.K.

Has anybody spoken to an Apple technician, as to when it might be restored?

Pete

Powerbook G4   Mac OS X (10.3.9)   iDisk
sg3000

Posts: 7
Registered: Nov 11, 2005
Re: Please read if your iDisk is still down
Posted: Jul 31, 2006 6:17 AM   in response to: brianguy
 

please respond indicating who your ISP is and what part of
the country you are in. Perhaps this problem is specific to
certain ISPs.

I'm in Dallas, TX USA and I have Comcast. I haven't been able to update via iWeb or access my iDisk for more than a week. I can however, mount my iDisk directly from the IP address, as described in this post.

This is really annoying. Apple .Mac support did respond to my initial complaint, but they haven't resolved the problem yet.

MacBook Pro 2.16 GHz, 17" Mac OS X (10.4.7)

MacBook Pro 2.16 GHz, 17"   Mac OS X (10.4.7)  
R.Jay Goos


Posts: 38
Registered: May 6, 2005
Re: Please read if your iDisk is still down
Posted: Jul 31, 2006 6:24 AM   in response to: brianguy
 

Update. iDisk works perfectly from work (a university), but not at home (Cable One). Go figure.

Everybody must be on vacation at Apple.

RJ

Dual G5   Mac OS X (10.4.3)