Bug Report 042105-A

Code name: Zero-Quota Bug

Status: Resolved [more below] 

Date: April 22, 2005 

On or around April 9, 2005, AOL made a change to its server 
which caused failures in certain user-owned web sites on the users.aol.com server. 
The change introduced a bug. 
This is a report of that bug. 


Forwarding Notice
 
The author of this bug report is an expert AOL user. 
This bug report is written in terms which your programmers will understand. 
Therefore, direct forwarding of this bug report to the America Online FTP staff 
or programming dept. 
is requested. 


Problem Type
 
Breakdown of advertised feature. 


Feature Affected -- Background
 
As you know, AOL provides its customers with the "users.aol.com" server 
(also known as members.aol.com and hometown.aol.com), 
a place where customers can make their own web sites. 

(If you are not familiar with this feature, 
please see AOL's description of this feature at 
ftp://members.aol.com/wwwadmin/README.) 


Feature Affected -- Specifics
 
AOL staff modified the server in a way that 
accidentally reduced my disk quota to zero. 
I am no longer able to upload files to my main screenname's account 
at ftp://users.aol.com/JEBrown800/ . 

Uploads to my #3 screenname's account fail the same way. 

(Uploads to my #4 screenname's account work as always.) 


History
 
I have hosted extensive web sites at users.aol.com continuously since 1997. 
I did not upload any large files recently; 
in fact, in the last week I have deleted far more kilobytes than I have uploaded. 
Therefore this rules out any possibility that the bug might be mine and not AOL's. 
This rules out any possibility that I am over my quota. 

Problem First Appeared: April 21, 2005 

Problem First Proven to Exist: April 21, 2005 

Date Reported to AOL: April 21, 2005 


Cause
 
Change in server configuration? 
"Upgrade" in server software? 

One of AOL's programmers has broken a feature that has worked for years. 
Clearly the programmer made a change and then 
failed to make sure that the change didn't cause something else to break. 
Proper testing would have totally prevented this failure. 


Symptoms
 
The problem is easy to see and understand.
Whenever I try to upload files to my primary account's web space, 
the server refuses, and falsely claims that I am over my quota. 

Today I carefully counted my files. I am not over my 100MB quota. 
In fact I am under 5 MB. 

Uploads to my other AOL screen names work as usual, 
and furthermore, the FTP server informs me I still have 100MB quotas 
on those accounts. 
However, when I try to upload to my main account, the server says 

        This site is made available for internet users to exchange
        files via FTP and access user web pages.  Each AOL user has
        a disk quota of 2Mb; please respect this limit on uploads.
            /jebrown800 quota is 0 bytes (-1 free)

This is in error for 2 reasons: 
1. My quota on this account used to be 100MB (not 2MB, not zero). 
2. No one has a quota of zero bytes! 


Normally I have 2 methods that work for uploading: 

1. Use Netscape to make an FTP connection to my web site, 
   then drag-and-drop files onto Netscape. 
2. Use AOL's built-in FTP client. 

However, both of these methods started failing this week. 


 


Closing Comments
 
This bug constitutes a reduction in the user experience and a reduction 
in AOL's level of quality. 
This problem is simple in nature 
and will not take more than a few minutes for your programmers or server staff to correct. 
Therefore, if this bug is not corrected by April 28, I will report it to AOL management. 

Please, won't you pass this bug report to someone who knows how to fix the problem? 



 

	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. 



Professionalism Alert
 
On April 21, 2005, I e-mailed FTPMaster@aol.com about this problem. 
Today I checked the status of that e-mail, using my outbox tools; 
the status window shows that 
FTPMaster ignored this bug report. 

It is my policy to ask management to take disciplinary action when this happens.

Status

Status: Resolved

As of April 23, 2005 at 8:10 AM, this problem had mysteriously cleared up, and I was able to upload files.

Issues:

Concepts:

AOL complaints, AOL problems, AOL breakdowns, reviews of AOL, how AOL treats its customers

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