Unable to read mail on https://dslmail.afrihost.com/ —"Your session is invalid or...

N

NetUser

Active Member
Joined
Jan 16, 2017
Messages
68
Reaction score
2
Hello there,

I reported this problem by way of email ticket on the 14th of May:

Unable to read mail on https://dslmail.afrihost.com/ with error "Your session is invalid or has timed out".

1. Problem still unresolved;
2. Problem occurs on 3 different networks where-from other sties are available;
3. Speedtests show good results;
4. Most traces show that dslmail.afrihost.com is reachable;
5. I can reach the logon page and enter credentials; thereafter the connection times out with the error above;
6. This problem has occurred in the past with Afrihost;
7. The problem is most prevalent during office hours but does also happen after hours;
8. The problem is intermittent;
9. Almost invariable I can otherwise download the mail with Outlook (when at home).

Afrihost, can you provide a solution once and for all. Anything you can do will be highly appreciated.
 
Last edited:
NetUser said:
Hello there,

I reported this problem by way of email ticket on the 14th of May:

Unable to read mail on https://dslmail.afrihost.com/ with error "Your session is invalid or has timed out".

1. Problem still unresolved;
2. Problem occurs on 3 different networks where-from other sties are available;
3. Speedtests show good results;
4. Most traces show that dslmail.afrihost.com is reachable;
5. I can reach the logon page and enter credentials; thereafter the connection times out with the error above;
6. This problem has occurred in the past with Afrihost;
7. The problem is most prevalent during office hours but does also happen after hours;
8. The problem is intermittent;
9. Almost invariable I can otherwise download the mail with Outlook (when at home).

Afrihost, can you provide a solution once and for all. Anything you can do will be highly appreciated.
Click to expand...

We're battling to recreate this issue - we've been looking at it from as many angles as we can.

I've asked one of our senior network engineers to look into it to see if he can identify what could be happening.

What's confusing is that we're not getting any general reports of users having this problem, and we have several thousand (or tens of of thousands) using this service.
 
AfriMan said:
We're battling to recreate this issue - we've been looking at it from as many angles as we can.

I've asked one of our senior network engineers to look into it to see if he can identify what could be happening.

What's confusing is that we're not getting any general reports of users having this problem, and we have several thousand (or tens of of thousands) using this service.
Click to expand...
Thank you Afriman,

The problem is not with the network. Like I say in point 5:

"5. I can reach the logon page and enter credentials; thereafter the connection times out with the error 'Your session is invalid or has timed out'.

The problem is with the server. It seems as though it cannot cope with the amount of people connecting to it —and remember that the problem is intermittent. I've seen this problem elsewhere before and the solution was to beef up resources.
 
Last edited:
NetUser said:
Thank you Afriman,

The problem is not with the network. Like I say in point 5:

"5. I can reach the logon page and enter credentials; thereafter the connection times out with the error 'Your session is invalid or has timed out'.

The problem is with the server. It seems as though it cannot cope with the amount of people connecting to it —and remember that the problem is intermittent. I've seen this problem elsewhere before and the solution was to beef up resources.
Click to expand...


Please can you check to see if you are still having an issue.

Yes, the issue might be with the server since all the DSL mail address are free and they are used frequently and this can cause quite a bit of load on the server. It might be a good idea to possibly invest in a paid for hosting package as you wouldn't run into these issues and it would be a lot easier for us to fix.
 
Thank you AfriNatic,

Listen to the customer requirements:

I require a simple email address in the afrihost.co.za domain and I'm even willing to pay for that. Just please upgrade the DSL mail server.

My first attempt at logon to https://dslmail.afrihost.com/ today (Sunday) failed. The 2nd attempt succeeded but the server logged me out shortly afterwards. If this happens on a Sunday, your DSL mail server is long overdue for an upgrade.
 
NetUser said:
Thank you AfriNatic,

Listen to the customer requirements:

I require a simple email address in the afrihost.co.za domain and I'm even willing to pay for that. Just please upgrade the DSL mail server.

My first attempt at logon to https://dslmail.afrihost.com/ today (Sunday) failed. The 2nd attempt succeeded but the server logged me out shortly afterwards. If this happens on a Sunday, your DSL mail server is long overdue for an upgrade.
Click to expand...

We've run tests on the server and performance appears to be normal. We'll continue to monitor.
 
Hello Afriman,
I monitor another two web-based email accounts but Afrihot's DSL mail is the only one that gives me problems. Today Monday it has been inaccessible most of the time: the few times I could get in, I did not last more than 3 minutes and was then logged out. More people are logging onto the DSL (web) mail than your server can handle. This is getting too time consuming. Quite frankly Afriman, I'm starting to think that Afrihost is in denial about this problem.
 
NetUser said:
Hello Afriman,
I monitor another two web-based email accounts but Afrihot's DSL mail is the only one that gives me problems. Today Monday it has been inaccessible most of the time: the few times I could get in, I did not last more than 3 minutes and was then logged out. More people are logging onto the DSL (web) mail than your server can handle. This is getting too time consuming. Quite frankly Afriman, I'm starting to think that Afrihost is in denial about this problem.
Click to expand...

We are definitely willing to keep working with you and testing. As mentioned we cannot seem to replicate this on our side, so it's difficult to diagnose the issue. We've tried replicating it using your specific mailbox and we're not seeing the same errors.
 
AfriMan said:
We are definitely willing to keep working with you and testing. As mentioned we cannot seem to replicate this on our side, so it's difficult to diagnose the issue. We've tried replicating it using your specific mailbox and we're not seeing the same errors.
Click to expand...
Afriman,
Just to be sure that the network is not a factor at all (or that it is...) may I suggest that you try accessing the mailbox from a network other than Afrihost? Because I'm getting the same set of results (on Afrihost's and on another two web-mail accounts) on three different networks (one at home and two corporate ones at two work sites). This should tell you something. I bet that if you access my mailbox from your office, you will somehow enjoy priority access to that server. To reproduce my situation, you have to try from outside.
 
NetUser said:
Afriman,
Just to be sure that the network is not a factor at all (or that it is...) may I suggest that you try accessing the mailbox from a network other than Afrihost? Because I'm getting the same set of results (on Afrihost's and on another two web-mail accounts) on three different networks (one at home and two corporate ones at two work sites). This should tell you something. I bet that if you access my mailbox from your office, you will somehow enjoy priority access to that server. To reproduce my situation, you have to try from outside.
Click to expand...

We have several connections setup on our premises so that we don't make that mistake. While we do have a fibre connection directly into our environments, we would always test from a normal fibre or DSL line.
 
AfriMan said:
We have several connections setup on our premises so that we don't make that mistake. While we do have a fibre connection directly into our environments, we would always test from a normal fibre or DSL line.
Click to expand...
Very good then, so let me add that I use one set of computers at home, and another at work. The problem remains exactly the same at all 3 sites.
 
NetUser said:
Very good then, so let me add that I use one set of computers at home, and another at work. The problem remains exactly the same at all 3 sites.
Click to expand...

Can you please update the ticket you referenced with time stamps for when you tested and any other information we can use to replicate?
 
AfriMan said:
Thanks so much :)
Click to expand...
Welcome Afriman,

Somebody replied today to say:

"We have adjusted the settings on the server.
If this doesn't improve matters, please let us know."

The problem remains unresolved; I've just updated the ticket to say say so. The problem now occurs day and night, ie: no longer intermittent.
 
AfriMan said:
What's confusing is that we're not getting any general reports of users having this problem, and we have several thousand (or tens of of thousands) using this service.
Click to expand...

I have had these same issues. Using Vox, different computers.

Real PITA !!!
 
NetUser said:
Welcome Afriman,

Somebody replied today to say:

"We have adjusted the settings on the server.
If this doesn't improve matters, please let us know."

The problem remains unresolved; I've just updated the ticket to say say so. The problem now occurs day and night, ie: no longer intermittent.
Click to expand...

I've let him know you've updated the ticket so he can take another look.
 
Jola said:
I have had these same issues. Using Vox, different computers.

Real PITA !!!
Click to expand...

Took me a while to figure out PITA ....

If you're experiencing the same issue, the troubleshooting we're doing should benefit you when we figure it out.
 
Hello Afriman,

I've just updated the ticket with the following comment:

"The problem is not resolved: this evening worse than earlier today."
 
NetUser said:
Hello Afriman,

I've just updated the ticket with the following comment:

"The problem is not resolved: this evening worse than earlier today."
Click to expand...

I saw that our engineers is trying a few different changes. If you can keep updating him, I'm sure we'll get your experience right.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X