Incident Number / Tracking Number: 2178210
In April 2007, AOL staff made a change to its FTP server which makes FTP connections to the users.aol.com server difficult. This is a report of that bug.Problem: FTP Server Access Fails.
Status:
Still not fixed. America Online is still ignoring this breakdown, 1 month after I first reported it [more below]Forwarding Notice
This bug report is written in terms which your programmers will understand. The problem is of a technical nature, and cannot be resolved by front-line customer service staff. Therefore, direct forwarding of this bug report to the America Online programming dept. is requested.Problem Type
Breakdown of advertised feature.Feature Affected -- Background
AOL provides its customers the ability to make web sites. (If you are not familiar with this feature, please see AOL's description of this feature at keyword "My FTP Space.") AOL provides its users with disk space on the server and FTP access, including FTP client software for managing user websites.Symptoms and Demonstration
To see the problem: 1. Log into your AOL account. 2. Go to keyword "My FTP Space." 3. Click the "See My FTP Space" button. You should see a directory listing of your FTP area. When the bug is active, notice that the AOL server replies: Sorry, unable to connect to members.aol.com Can't set guest privileges. The problems are: 1. The server no longer lets me access and maintain my website. 2. The error message is inappropriate because I am not a guest -- I am the owner of the account. Obviously the server is not recognizing me as the account holder.History
I have used this AOL feature continuously since 1997. The breakdown occurred this week. The breakdown occurred even though I have not changed my account settings recently. Therefore this rules out any possibility that the bug might be mine and not AOL's. Problem First Appeared: April 10, 2007 Problem First Proven to Exist: April 11, 2007 Feature was working: April 7, 2007 Date Reported to AOL: April 11, 2007 UPDATE: As of April 15, 2007, FTP connections are sometimes possible but are IRREGULAR AND TIME CONSUMING.Cause
Unknown. Did you "upgrade" your FTP server software recently? If so, reverting the FTP server software to the previous version might fix it. Please, when may I expect this problem to be corrected?
*** Normally I would upload a complete bug report to my website, to give you easy access to an easy-to-read HTML version of this report. *** However, the breakdown of your server's FTP access makes uploading impossible. *** Therefore I'm sending you a text version of the report (in this e-mail). NOTE: Because probability is involved, you may need to test the server several times, and several times throughout the day, even if it appears to work the first time. The failure rate is not 100%, but it's not zero either. This is important to keep in mind if you delegate this bug report to a new employee who doesn't understand probability; some newbies will click a link once, and if it doesn't fail immediately, will pronounce the problem solved. This naive approach to testing does not promote quality.
Closing Comments
This bug constitutes a reduction in the user experience and a reduction in AOL's level of quality. This problem is easy to see and understand. All the information necessary to understand the problem is included in this page and the linked pages. Therefore, if this bug is not corrected by April 14, I will report it to AOL management.Time to Investigate and Write This Bug Report:
About 90 minutes
Sincerely, (mr.) Software Engineer and Tester (for hire) Testing Pays! http://users.aol.com/JEBrown800 Los Alamos, New Mexico USA , BS Computer Science, has been a software engineer for over 20 years and an AOL user since 1996.
Caution
Note: As in every company, it's possible you'll delegate this bug report to a new employee. If you do, please keep an eye on his or her progress. New employees sometimes have little experience with customer support and service, and sometimes find it easier to blame the customer than to fully investigate the problem. Such behavior is unprofessional. My policy on unprofessional behavior is to report it to AOL management. So, if you delegate this bug report to a new employee, please see that he or she has adequate supervision. This is an AOL breakdown. Any attempt to shift blame onto the customer will be regarded as unprofessional and will be forwarded at once to AOL management, along with the name of the offending employee. I'm sorry to have to put it in those words, but I have years of experience dealing with certain non-technical AOL employees who treated me that way. Thank you for working hard to address the quality problems at America Online.
Status: Unresolved + over 30 days delinquent
Issues:
AOL complaints, AOL problems, AOL breakdowns, reviews of AOL, how AOL treats its customers
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