Econet websites unavailable unless you’re using an Econet connection

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May 3rd, 2011
       78 comments

We use Mweb (now iWayAfrica) for our primary internet connection at the office. I have 3 mobile broadband dongles from Africom, Telecel and Econet, which I use in order of the most affordable and usable at any given time. Now the problem with Econet sites is that, unless I’m using the Econet dongle, I cannot open them.

Right now for example, I’m on the Mweb connection and can’t open the Econet websites www.econet.co.zw , comms.econetmobile.co.zw and www.econetbroadband.co.zw. These sites won’t open on the Telecel and Africom connections either. A friend using a ZOL internet connection tells me the three websites won’t open for her.

Econet Unavailable

We’ve told Econet business development employees and they say nothing is wrong because, well, it opens perfectly from their end! We know it does.

Tracing the route the internet route of the three websites to find where they are hosted, you can see the trace ends at Econet servers in Zimbabwe. We’re figuring this is something Econet can do something about.

It’s been like this for some months now so not sure if it’s because nobody at Econet cares to actually take a look or they’re finding it difficult to fix. Whatever the reason, it needs to be fixed. The websites serve subscribers with information they can’t get anywhere else. They’re also a gateway to subscriber mailboxes, and that must count for some prompt action in fixing it. Unless ofcourse Econet deliberately won’t let you access the mail services if you’re on a rival connection.

A great alternative if Econet is finding this non-core business a pain would be just hosting the websites at a local company that specializes in hosting. We know at least one that might be able to handle hosting a site for a business the size of Econet.

And it’s not just Econet with these avoidable misconfigurations; Africom won’t fix the resolution of the afri-com.com name no matter how many times I complain. You can only get to the Africom website by typing in the full www.afri-com.com (with the www). The PowerTel website too has been having lots of issues lately; today for example it’s returning the nasty errors below about a Joomla session crashing.

powetel-web-error

Surely, these problems are not that hard to fix.

We (and I’m sure Econet, Africom and PowerTel) would love to know your thoughts about this. What would be the best strategy for these companies? Just host their websites at dedicated hosting companies? Employ dedicated web teams? Or maybe just care more about their internet platforms?

Related posts:

  1. Econet takes Zim websites offline after hacking incident
  2. Zimbabwe’s Broken Websites: Telecoms Operators
  3. TelOne’s fibre connection on EASSy now live, total 2.48 Gbps lit
  4. PowerTel’s International Fibre Connection and the Expectation of Broadband Price Slashes
  5. The Econet Mobile Broadband Letdown
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  • Macd

    Ben
    Do you use iBGP or not in your core network? if not are you using MPLS?

  • Passpot

    still not working if not on econetbroadband

  • Bethel Goka

    the error on the Powertel website message on the Powertel website means there is an error with the jos_session table. This could easily be solved by repairing the table.

    I think Tech Companies must employ like econet, telecel, powertel must employ an in-house web designer-developer to develop and manage their websites. The web has become an alternative store-front, advertsing platform, as well as a source info.

    Therefore its imperative that these companies take their online strategies seriously because incidents are tad bunglesome

  • Macd

    24hrs and still counting……….. Econet customer services is the most arrogant and irresponsible ISP in Zimba.

    l spare Ben but most of Econet staff seems like they operate from a shabeen, they are a clueless lot.

    Econet everything is working from where lm(outside zim) which still points to there internal network from the trace logs l did. Where as Ben was on top of it yesterday according to him, l think now everything is on top of him.

    PE and POP routers failing to filter internal network, its a cut and run job Econet is doing. l now understand why the likes of Powertel does not want anything to do with econet locally. They are the kind who will load you with there traffic and refuse to pay transit fees.

    Like David said yesterday, move away from such providers. Telecel, please be quick

  • Ben Roberts

    Both and others too.

  • Ben Roberts

    You really expect a response to all of that?

    Chap is still working on looking at whats wrong with website. as mentioned previously it seems to be at the website itself. Its not obvious what is wrong, but can confirm that nothing was altered yesterday though we did ping from the web server to YoAfrica then Yo Africa confirmed that they could reach the websites.

    I am talking to Web admin chap at Econet, though.

    I appreciate everyone may have had experiences getting through customer services, but the issue is in hand with the exact right people now and fault ticket is open and to be followed to conclusion.

    If anyone wants to leave useful helpful feedback then please do tell me which ISPs are currently not able to connect to Econet websites.

  • Macd

    Ben
    l appreciate your efforts but from my experience with Econet in Zim, you have not started yet. The econet personnel are the most unfriendly and rude people l have ever met.

    l guess you are not in Zimbabwe and you are being fed information from Zimbabwe. Ask anybody here, remote control does not work. You have to be there to see for yourself.

    Nothing has change from yester, have a look :

    7 * xe-5-3-0.lon10.ip4.tinet.net (89.149.185.234) 126.339 ms *
    8 * * liquidtelecom-gw.ip4.tinet.net (77.67.65.58) 22.107 ms
    9 46.17.232.5 (46.17.232.5) 247.529 ms 247.648 ms 247.716 ms
    10 * * *
    11 46.17.232.24 (46.17.232.24) 266.907 ms 267.003 ms *
    12 * * *
    13 * * *
    14 * * *
    15 * * *
    16 * * *

    Somebody in Zim is pulling a fast one on you Ben!

  • TeleEnthusiast

    l ALSO tried all the[ECONET] links provided and from where l am( SA), they are all NOT working.

  • Ben Roberts

    Yes but the website works from outside.

    I am aware of stars in the trace and I know why they are there and they arent actually a problem. I am sorry you find them quite so annoying, but not affacting me. And yes, Nothing has changed since yesterday, but a small change is planned to help troubleshooting. I dont really need to share much more detail than that
    And nobody is pulling a fast one on me. I am working with one of my Econet colleauges who is very cabable and knowledgable, and I can say I very much have enjoyed working with all my friends and colleagues there for the last 10 years. I am not currently sitting in Zimbabwe but I am frequently there with my colleauges, friends and customers.

  • Macd

    OK l might agree that trace is being killed by firewall hence no response. But it still interesting to note that from outside zim, you web server is working and responding fine dishing out requested pages, why is not doing the same from people inside Zim?

    l still believe there is more to it than a mere LAN/DMZ NAT problem as you are claiming. The fact that you are now pulling non-disclosure defends makes it even more interesting.

  • Ben Roberts

    I have been told its working from Africom now too. Still waiting for anyone to tell me if there are any ISPs that cant connect still. If there are then I will look at it.

    As mentioned we didnt change anything last night but it did start working at the same time as we pinged out from the web server. Best guess would be that server itself had an arp cache issue to its default gateway that cleared by pinging out. We are planning a small change on firewall but clearly an ISP would never disclose any detail of his firewall configuration to any party outside, let alone a public forum. I am sure it must be obvious why. There is no dark conspriacy here dude. Lets just rejoice that more of Zimbabwe can access our lovely websites. And sorry, it really isnt that interesting, just normal day to day problem that us tech guys resolve as due course.
    Leaving it at that unless any new reports arise of people unable to connect.

  • Macd

    Ben
    Agreed, if people are getting respond and getting connected as you are claiming, then thats good news. l never asked for exact configs or layout of your network, but was just challenging what you were saying from different dimensions because where l work at BBC(British Bottom Cleaners) we have no use for them trust me!

    But it has been an enlightening chat!

    thanx

  • Nyakudirwa

    Why dont you put the whole trace result Macd, from the first line so we all can see where you coming from and where you tracing to

  • Muchamaya

    i dont see private IPs in that trace

  • Nyakudirwa

    Kabweza, is it still fair to have the topic implying Econet is unreachable from anywhere else but from Econet domain when David can access from London and from ZOL there is access. I suppose yo africa migh have a problem

  • Macd

    the issue of trace has been resolved, Ben pointed out that their firewall is the one cutting icmp which l believe is a good security measure.

  • Macd

    true, there was a bit of mix-up between private IP addresses and class A addresses,

  • Macd

    the issue has always been like that from the beginning, people in Zim which are not on econet where not able to access econet where as if you outside zim, you can.

  • Ben Roberts

    Err except its fixed we think and its confirmed that Africom and Yo can now access our websites.

    I return to give final update. Private IPs are now removed from the path to the websites.
    My trace below. Some people might see stars on MPLS hops. Thank you Robert.

    May I please ask the forum that I have the priveledge of the last word on this? I expect not haha
    Private IPs removed from the path

    H:>tracert http://www.econet.co.zwTracing route to http://www.econet.co.zw [217.15.122.100]over a maximum of 30 hops:
    Tracing route to http://www.econet.co.zw [217.15.122.100]over a maximum of 30 hops:
    1 24 ms 1 ms 1 ms 217.15.112.85 2 228 ms 228 ms 226 ms 46.17.232.7 3 234 ms 234 ms 234 ms 46.17.232.15 4 239 ms 239 ms 239 ms 46.17.232.24 5 239 ms 240 ms 239 ms 46.17.233.5 6 239 ms 239 ms 239 ms wfalls-wil2.ecoweb.co.zw [217.15.120.238] 7 240 ms 240 ms 240 ms ibills.econet.co.zw [217.15.122.100]
    Trace complete.
    H:>

  • ini

    @90315263c133399a559a343a33adfa4e:disqus Please use your ISP’s smtp servers for sending out emails. When connected to the net using Econet/Ecoweb connection use: smtp2.ecoweb.co.zw as your outgoing server. Note: server does not require authentication.

  • Macd

    Ben

    Thanx Ben and lm very glad now for two things:

    1. that everything is working.

    2. that you have unintentionally answered my question you were avoiding to answer that Econet use MPLS instead of iBGP at its core network.

    Again well done you have shown great leadership and l really admire that. We need a lot like you and David, thanx guys, internet in Zim will never be the same again.

  • Ben Roberts

    I answered question already.
    You asked if I used ibgp or mpls routing protocols.

    I answered “both, and others too”.

  • Macd

    you have been outstanding throughout, keep the good work going

  • Daniel Private Com

    David

    We have been trying to connect to Zinx and also to register with ZISPA especially for our DNS servers. It has been 3 months now, all we got was an email that never get replied (admin
    @ziapa:twitter
    .org.zw) Would you kindly help by providing a physical address especially for Zispa as no one seems to know. We hear there is one Mr Holland who has the following non-functional numbers

    04 700363 / 700494 /
    700579. People out there are not even aware that ZISPA/ZINX is very difficult just to find. We have the joining fees ready, AS number, Border Router, we have our own IP block. Where on earth do you get ZINX and ZISPA. I would love to visit them first thing monday morning. Also do u have names, emails that we may also use other than admin
    at
    zispa.org.zw.

  • David

    Daniel who is “we”? ZOL is one of the managers of ZINX – so contact me at ZOL and we can get you into ZINX immediately.

    ZISPA we can also help you with. For a number of technical and commercial reasons general public cannot register domains with ZISPA (I can see this opening a huge discussion!). If you are an ISP, if you have an AS number, your own IPs, and know how to configure BGP you must be smart enough to find ZINX and ZISPA!!!

  • Yunketsui

    I just looked at this post today and have been going through the comments. I do believe that econet customer care is pathetic and the fact that they did not bother to come and explain their side of the story goes a long way in showing how poor their service is. Thank you very much Ben, you took the initiative to get this sorted out. I work for one of the IAP’s and tried taking up the issue with econet when i failed to open my econetmail from work but they told it worked fine from their end and left it at that.

    Love the way your people do business Dave (hope my boss does not see this or I am fired)

  • Yunketsui

    I just looked at this post today and have been going through the comments. I do believe that econet customer care is pathetic and the fact that they did not bother to come and explain their side of the story goes a long way in showing how poor their service is. Thank you very much Ben, you took the initiative to get this sorted out. I work for one of the IAP’s and tried taking up the issue with econet when i failed to open my econetmail from work but they told it worked fine from their end and left it at that.

    Love the way your people do business Dave (hope my boss does not see this or I am fired)

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