is digsby still down?
somehow I was able to connect this morning around 740 PM PST
but now I can't even connect? my internet is working still idk if its just digsby :[

Maybe I should rephrase my question... Does anyone know what is going on or when it might be back up? I have had to result to opening up 5 different IM clients.

Is anyone having problems with Digsby today. I haven't been able to login since 8:30 this morning.

Says servers are back up, however I'm still not able to login.

Any updates would be much appreciated.

Thanks,
- T
Socal

down, trying to connect from Europe..

Servers down again? That's twice in 7 days. We appreciate your free service, but you should definitely revisit your SLA with the hosting company. They are not helping your image.

Do you know have proper battery backup or hosting? Something seems very odd that power outage would cause downtime, very unacceptable IMO. I would highly suggest getting your deployment in order or move it to the cloud like Amazon EC2.

This looks to be a genuine outage, I also cannot connect from Milwaukee, WI area on a Charter connection.

hmmm, that's twice in one week you're down after a long string of new failures. What gives guys and gals?
Is this growing pains or are we reaping the "benefits" of cost cutting?

Lastly, anything the user community can do?

Yeah...still down from about 8:45am to now 10:00am eastern....

Down again, and this time with no acknowledgment from Digsby. Sounds like what you've done to make it so it never happens again didn't work :P

I'm going to hop back on Pidgin until you get your serverless mode up and running.

I'm sure I'll be back again!

Auth seems down again at this moment. I'll keep an eye out for your updates.

9:50 AM EST it's down for me

update please Digby people! that's why we like you, generally you are open. be open now.

ARGH! why cant i connect again????

I'm getting the dreaded Failed to Connect now. Another round of problems? I'm running the beta - so maybe something bad got pushed?

suck - just downloaded the newest version of pidgeon so I can get some work done.

Guys, is your server down again this morning (Feb. 9th)? I cannot connect to your server while GTalk and other clients connect fine.

and trey = tray :)

Hi all,

Is this happening again today?

If so, can somebody post it to the blog so we users can get a clue???

thx much!

It's not working again :/

I still can't connect. Is Digsby down again?

For what its worth, I can't connect now. I'm getting told to check my proxy settings.

apparently it's down again. fabulous.

I still can't connect. Stays at connecting for a while then "Failed to Connect". I take it you are still having issues. From Portugal, by the way.

Still can't sign in.

9:02 in Eastern Time...

Digsby Guys & Gals: My company can host servers and infrastructure for you if that is something you are looking into. We do it for many companies throughout the USA with multiple data-centers for regionalization as well as disaster recovery. Our newest data-center has guaranteed 100% uptime (NOT 5 9's, true 100%). Feel free to send me an email and I can provide detailed contact information as well as answer any specific questions. My name is in the email address.

Try = trey, sorry. typo.

Hi, when I suggested in the other post about IMs appearing in the try, I meant a discreet blinking icon in the corner of the screen in the system trey, not a blinking IM box on the task bar that shows the name of the person you're talking to and their icon as well. Some of us use this at work and have bosses over our shoulder. If you could add an option for new ims to take focus in the lower right corner of the sys tray that would be GREAT. Something like that can't take any longer than 5 minutes.

Trying to sign on to yahoo and its just stuck at authenticating.... it just dropped off and I cant get back on

@Anthony: Your preferences are synchronized so when you log in to Digsby from any other location the experience is exactly the same. We don't have access to any of your passwords and the methodology used to protect your account information from everyone (including us) is described in detail here:

http://security.digsby.com/

No worries guys. I work for a start up company that hosted all our servers in a back closet in the office. Power outages used to be fun. I can relate to what you're going to. But as soon as you have some capital, lets invest in some proper power continuity solutions or go hosted in a proper co-lo, mmkay?

whattt?!?! our passwords are stored on your local server?!?! WTF?!

Some people are telling me that I dont appear on their contact lists (MSN) even if i'm online and visible... anyone else having this problem? could this be related to the server problem?

I am having issue signing into the AIM/AOL Mail server. Does this have anything to do with the power outage or is it a separate issue (alpha tester, by the way)?

To all the people complaining about Digsby's downtime and non-local password storage messing up their work:

This service is free. Shut the hell up.

To Digsby: You guys are awesome. I'm sure you'll figure out something, and you will continue to make your already great service better.

(But I wish they'd add Skype chat already. Had to get that in.)

@Mike: MSN, Yahoo, etc. are free, but they're also bloated and ad-filled. I have the most experience with MSN and I can remember SEVERAL times when the service was unavailable. It happens to them all.

I'm with those who love Digsby and can handle a couple of hours without it. I'm sure they will learn and improve from this, just like they have learned and improved all along. So all of you negative nellies, :P.

Sure the outage was annoying, but like others have said, Digsby is FREE. Use a corporate strength IM client like Lotus Sametime if you're looking for 24/7 dependability. I do agree that you shouldn't be required to log into the Digsby servers for it to work, but I think the bashing is uncalled for.

The complaints just show how useful this program is and how much people enjoy it. I'd rather have passionate people upset if something caused an outage than no one noticing or caring.

Keep up the good work on the program Digsby team. I'm sure this will become another learning experience that helps improve the product for us all.

@Digsby:

I really enjoy Digsby, but I have to say that I really agree with what John Meyer said about the security of our usernames, passwords, etc. That is a critical concern of mine and a solid reason that I am seriously considering no longer using Digsby.

What Chris said about a second set of servers that can report "status" might be a good idea... not sure.

What Darryl said about .ocl and .oclq files is maybe a better and more thought-out approach than what I talked about in my previous post. If nothing else, it's food for thought.

I'm not trying to bash Digsby. I very rarely complain about any piece of software I use. If something bothers me, I usually just quit using it. I _really_ like Digsby, so much, in fact, that I actually bothered to come here and actually complain about it. I wanted the team to know how I felt because I actually do, in fact, give a rip about their software.

Agreed with Darryl. This is the greatest IM application I've ever used. It is FREE of charge and ads and works perfectly. Stop complaining and thanks the team for such a great application.

The problem was solved in a reasonable time and the feedback about this issue was great and usefull.

Hope you guys find a solution in this matter soon.

Greetings from Chile.

I feel I need to say something to outweigh the vocal minority which relentlessly bashes Digsby. I too was disturbed when I couldn't log in this morning. It made me realize how dependent I was on it. Clearly the Digsby team is doing something right to have become an integral part of my computing life - just maybe not this morning. ;)

All the negative feedback! But I think digsby is great! It isn't the end of the world for a short outage...

@Digsby: I am glad to see that you see the validity of the point made by Eric and Joe Williams. I agree 100% with what they both said. Obviously, determining what the best approach/solution is will be the hard part, but you can't have the client "down" like this when something like this occurs. There has to be a reliable backup or bypass.

An idea might be that a local backup is created every 30 minutes or 1 hour. Maybe the time parameter could be a changeable setting. I would think you would want backups to be made at least once per day to capture any changes made by the user, but it might be better if the backups were more frequent than that. A simple little background backup every 30 minutes or hour probably wouldn't even be noticeable to the user or effect their system performance.

It also might be a good idea to automatically make a local backup when Digsby is Quit(ed)/Exit(ed) successfully (either manually by the user or as a result of a Windows LogOff/Restart/Shutdown), but not when Digsby hangs or crashes.

As a last point, it would also probably be a good idea to keep two (2) local backup copies of the user profiles, the most recent backup and the previous one. If the backup copies are being made quite regularly (30 minutes, hour, or worst case once per day), then the chance of the user losing any changes that he/she had made would be minimal. Digsby would try the most recent backup and if there is a problem could automatically try the previous version. Of course, you could prompt the user on all of this so they get a choice or have some buried "advanced" option where one could manually "load" one of the local backup profiles.

Anyway, those are some thoughts off the top of my head.

Keep up the great work!

get rid of the login servers as a requirement, OR make it an option within the software at login for those users who need their profiles, perfs on the move or on different PC's

ex) the normal login prompt and a standalone option where digsby just opens and connects to your various added accounts which could be set under account perfs

why hasn't this issue been addressed? users like your software but they don't need to be held hostage by your servers, if you guys would just allow users to use your software without this restriction, your software would thrive

my 2 cents, digsby is great software but you're shooting yourselves in the foot

Pete: MSN, Yahoo, and the rest are all free too, and I can't ever remember them having a power-related outtage issue. Digsby may be free, but they still have a responsibility to their users, and something like a power outtage is very easy to plan for in advance and any major datacenter should have a redundant power solution, and/or some kind of offsite or cloud backup server.

Amen Darryl! Can I get a witness from the congregation?

Unless you've made a monetary donation to the Digsby cause, or you have worked on code for the application, then you have no business complaining... it just makes you look like Paris Hilton. "Oh no, Digsby is down. Somebody do something or I'm going to scream!" Pshhh!

All of you who say you are going to drop Digsby and go elsewhere... c'mon! You know you are not going anywhere.

So just sit there and stew in your own pathetic selfish juices.

Bunch of wrenis pinkles!

No, it isn't. If only one person says something, it could be pretty easy to assume that less people were bothered by it than is actually the case.

It's not like they have mind readers to probe the silent majority. :|

Ouch, not a good day to be featured in a Lifehacker.com article that made the front page of Digg...

I wish people would stop complaining about this outage. Seriously-- No ads are in digsby, or on the website. They are not charging, so I really tend to wonder what room someone has to complain for a free feature-packed and stable application. And they already stated they were going to look into solutions, so just back off. 100 people saying the same thing is ridiculous, and doesnt change anything.

I tried reinstalling to verify I did not some how get a bad update. Unfortunately the install process also seems to dial home because I got this (http://www.jshall.net/installError.GIF) error.

Wow I just looked up and realized at all the negative comments towards Digsby about this relatively small downtown. Sure a two hour downtime may seem like a lot, but may I remind the community just how much money you spent on Digsby?

Perhaps if I actually paid something for Digsby I might be a little more passionate about the downtime, but for being a "Free" client and awesome client at that, you guys need to get your panties out of a wad and just simmer down a bit.

To Digsby: Keep up the good work. Perhaps having a local cache of the profile would be helpful and probably the most cost efficient. I'm sure things like keeping password strings local would be the main security issue at hand. Anyways, love Digsby and thanks for providing a free client.

Hey you need someone to manage a data center or cloud based fail over, give me a shout.

Or look into Amazon EC2 as a failover server. You would only have to pay for the time that it's in use

Yay, Back online! I just got digsby to log in. 9:25 CDST.

Yay! Looks like the servers are back up! I was able to successfully log in! Thanks Digsby for being the BEST!

Yeah really, this is pretty terrible.

You get someone to tie up all their IM accounts in your client and then make it dependent on you being around? You'll "think" about fixing this, as if this is some optional, annoying fix you might do? I've put up with a lot of silly crap from Digsby because I liked the overall product, but this is a deal breaker.

I'll drop Digsby and not look back if this is not fixed permanently, and soon.

8:23 a.m. Mountain Time - I'm now able to connect.

i'm sry for spamming.
but you are online again! thanks :)

So why aren't the servers hosted in a data center with redundant power and generators? They are in you office with standard power?
I could see this at the early stages, but not now.
How much was the quote?

Changing the role of the Digsby servers makes sense.
They need to be account repositories only.
Every login the application phones home to check for an update. That's when it should sync with the server regarding all account information.
Repeat the sync on logoff.
That's it.

Server failures like this will no longer be an issue.

dito, elle!
registration is back again, but login still does not work -.-

I like what Eric/Joe are suggesting. I would almost think of designing it in a way that digsby always creates a local 'offline contact list' file. (.ocl?) which is synchronized to the server whenever a change is made. Or visa versa, the server copy is synched to the .ocl file whenever a change is made.

When a change to the ocl is made to the localhost, and digsby's servers are down, then it would store the changes in a .oclq (offline contact list queue) file, so that when it reconnects, the client sends this data to the server with the updates.

Just my thoughts. Not thoroughly thought out, but perhaps would help.

HI - Anyway we can get an ETA on the recovery time? Maybe an hourly update - even if it says you are still working on it. THANKS - Love the application!

Hmmmm, a couple hundred bucks for a backup generator would prevent loads of backlash and loss of customers.

Looks like you guys are part of that big power problem around Bailey Road that took down our research building too. Nice! RGE has estimated 1pm as the restoral time. That should be nice.

Are you kidding me? Is there no redundancy? I just switched to Digsby after being a long-term (6 years or so) Trillian user. I don't recall this every happening with Trillian. IM is a critical app for me to do my job. If this is what I can expect, I will need to look elsewhere. While I realize this is a free application, so are others with better uptime statistics.

Power issues? serious? where is this hosted where there is no UPS/generator? Residential grid?

you've got about 30 more minutes before I uninstall this POC.

In addition to a local mode, you may want to consider a second set of servers that provide current network status. Locate those servers on a different network. If Digsby can't connect to the main server, it would hit the status server that just reported the current status of the main servers. You wouldn't need to mirror the main servers, it would send out a static message.

That message would be updated every 15 minutes form the main server. If a client tries to access the main sever and fails, it would ping the secondary server. The secondary server would send a brief message and it it was older than 15 minutes, the client would know that the main server was hosed and it wasn't a firewall or some other connectivity issue on the client side.

I agree with Joe Williams, as I use Digsby for my work IM. We are slowly moving our entire company to use the same IM client, and we'll probably go with Pidgin, simply because they are not very technically savvy. I love Digsby, but the failures and downtime is very hard to bear. This would have been a nightmare Monday had our company all been on Digsby!

Guys - maybe it's time to move to a datacenter with a generator ? You are big time now, the excuse of the "power company" is working on it doesn't fly anymore....

We use MSN Messenger as a crucial part of our business to stay in contact with each other. I just wasted an hour of my day figuring out why Digsby wouldn't connect. Had to download/install Windows Live Messenger. I certainly hope this will be solved in the near future. BTW, our company offers remote disaster recovery, zero downtime solutions. Perhaps the owners of Digsby would like a consult? Alternatively, I think Home Depot sells backup generators...

Joe,

You work in the securities industry yet keep your passwords for all your IM accounts stored in a DB on some server you have no control over? Thanks for reminding me what a bad idea it is to use that type of service. There's only 2 reasons for Digsby to contact Digsby's servers, to check for updates and to compromise user data.

I for one will not use any program unless it's privacy policies guarantee that my passwords (whether hashed or not) will never be stored on any computer except the one I'm using to execute the program. Because if you can't guarantee me that security, then you are guaranteeing me that people other than me have access to any accounts whose data is stored in your system, and that is absolutely unacceptable in any circumstance. Why not just install keystroke loggers on users' machines? Doesn't matter what term you use to describe it, if it compromises user data it's malware.

LOVE Digsby but you guys might want to consider a different hosting company with a larger backup system.

in either case - hang in there - I've been where you are and I know how frustrating it can be to not have control over this!

Peace,
Twitter@JeremyRDeYoung

You mean Digsby isn't a HYBRID? You should be ashamed! I bet your carbon footprint is HUGE!

Only joking. I love Digsby, and I understand the reasons for a local login. Working in IT, I know the power company sometimes has you at their mercy.

I'll keep checking to see when it's up and running. As always, thanks for your great product!

Guessing the servers must still be down .... not been able to connect all morning .... back to ugly old Trillian for now I guess

C'mon guys, I'm lost without my Digsby!! We're rooting for you!

Yes, it is about time to get rid of the mothership connection. Miranda doesn't need that and that's where I'm heading to for the moment.

Hey guys,

We call them generators. Every datacenter I've ever worked at had at least 1 if not 3 Caterpillar generators out back that could sustain the load during a full power outage. It just takes 1 like this to turn thousand of people away. Time to re-think your hosting solution and maybe find an economical co-lo facility nearby that could provide these services to you. That or a Disaster Recovery location. Sustaining your Brand should be of the highest importance. And now you have dropped the ball....it doesn't matter how fantastic your product is...and it is fantastic......but consumers are finicky creatures and they will turn and run at the first signs of trouble. Hopefully you guys will learn from this. Either way, keep up the good work and sort out your HA (High Availability) issues and you'll be all set.

-Brian

I agree with jgreg! Keep up the great work digsby team and I'll be patient till things come back online. :)

Still waiting for a connection (8:58a CST) Overall I like the app but it is frustrating as those have said ahead of me.

This is what I call "support". I can't connect to the service, so I go to your site and what do I see? A blog post explaining the source of the problem.
Congrats and hope you'll fix the problem quickly.

BTW digbsy is the best IM service on a windows platform (on Mac I use Adium).

go out side and if it is snowing out play snow balls and make snowmen to pass the time

...and here I was cursing some unknown change as the result of the latest Vista patches.

Perhaps it may be time for Digsby to move to a cloud computing model, a hot backup location, or at least move the servers to a co-locator who has 24/7 diesel (or coal - I don't care) generator backup?

Of course I AM still getting all of this for free, so maybe I should just shut up.

lol, I can't believe you guys are hosting your own servers for such a big deal that people rely on 100% uptime

I completely understand guys, I remember when I was working at Ga Tech's information technology office, and our power went out. What was fun was, we had a backup, so the intial power switch died, and the surge of power blew the backup. :)

A full p2p network (like Skype i.e.) would make sense, at least for the most important functions.

Is there an ip or something at your office that I can start a ping on, to see when it comes back up?

Hey there,
what an unfortunate beginning for my digsby "career"... I wanted to create an account today, but exactly N O W your power company has got problems...

Greetings from Germany :)

In response to Joe's comment (2 above), there are many apps out there that don't require a server login to use the various IM services. However, those apps don't save all of the settings on a server, so you have to configure each client you install on various computers (colors, skins, renames of various buddies, pictures of yourself and buddies).

I will gladly trade an occasional outage for these beneficial features. Whenever there is an outage, I just go back to Pidgin, or some other less desirable app... but as soon as Digsby is back up, I'm back on the Digsby train!

Great work Digsby! Love your stuff.

A perfect example of why we should have the option to save passwords locally and not on the digsby server...

Yep a local backup would be great ! ;)

@Eric + Joe: A back up local mode makes sense for a scenario like this. The idea will receive a lot of thought over the coming days.

this is by far the best messaging client out there... Nothing else does what digsby can... And in 3 years this is the only problem they have ever had. I will just be using Trillian, and be reminded how bad it is, until Digsby is up and running.

It is for this exact reason Digsby needs to be changed to not require logging into the Digsby servers in order for the clients to work.

Requiring a continous connection to your servers is going to be the deal-breaker for a lot of people. IM isn't just for kids chatting amoungst themselves. I work in the securites industry - stocks and bonds - and IM is more important than the phone system. If I had people here on Digsby this morning I'd be looking for a new job right now.

Connecting to the Mother-ship is fine but we need a plan-B if the ship is not responding - can we do a "last known good config" type of thing?

Of course I can always use a different client while Digsby is balled up but "use something else" is probably not going to be featured prominently in your marketing campaign.

joe

jw

A cached local profile would be an excellent feature.

Power issues in server rooms drive me nuts! Hang in there!

Still down...

Power outages--ugh! I hope the power company fixes this issue soon.

@skankinmonkey: That is exactly what we are talking about right now.

Still down @9:09AM from here (NYC).

Still can't connect, but I'll be patient :)

Guyz, you have created a very powerful tool for the internet ...

Congratulations...

I hope this power problem is going to be fixed soon ! :)

we need you !!! :P

Does digsby have any plans to introduce a fall-back serverless mode for digsby so that when your servers get hit (they seem to be taking a beating recently) users aren't forced to either 1) not use any service 2) bring up an alternative client.

Are there still issues? Stuck on Connecting...

I'd already Dugg it before this was posted, any extra visibility Digsby can get is awesome, lets just hope the servers hold out! :)

i still cant connect...

I still can't connect... 7:49am Central

What's up with the date/time on the update? It says the update was posted at "8:00am 1/2/2008".

Update (8:00am 1/2/2008)

This is correct?

Update --- >>>> Update (8:00am 2/2/2009)

Its still down when I try it. I just stays on "connecting..."

@ 8:44am EST I still can't connect.

hey guys,

i saw the update that everything is fine, however, when i try to connect into my digsby account, it just freezes on the connecting... part of logining in.

thanks

Still can't connect to Digsby :(

I still cannot signin into digby..

I can't login. :S

Good to see that everything is working again.

Apropos of System Tray: Are you guys working on a way that the SysTray icon reflects the current Status (eg. online, away, invisible)?

I'm still having problems connection, 7:30am central, I'm guessing you wrote this about half an hour ago.

Hi Digsby,

i love the application. But the problem is that the app fails a lot. I get: Does not respond. End now?
Therefor i'm obligated to use a different app (like messenger). I would use Disby a lot more if the app was working properly.

Hilde