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504 Gateway Time-out errors when accessing TPG Post Office

mdsl
Level 2
Level 2
‎27-11-2023 02:11 AM

Problem description

 

I am receiving "504 Gateway Time-out" errors when accessing the TPG Post Office via the web and email client.

 

This issue has been occurring intermittently for prolonged durations over the past week and effecting multiple users.

 

Steps to reproduce

 

  1. Go to TPG website (https://www.tpg.com.au/)
  2. Click "Post Office" (forwards to https://postoffice.tpg.com.au/login)
  3. Enter email credentials

Expected: Login to TPG webmail is successfull and browser displays TPG webmail user interface (https://vpostoffice.tpg.com.au/index.php/mail).

 

Actual: After entering email and password credentials at the webmail signin page the throbber will spin for 60 seconds and then display a "504 Gateway Time-out" error.

 

Observations

 

  • Delivery of inbound emails can be delayed between 7 - 12 hours (apparently no emails are lost)
  • Does not affect outbound emails (ie. emails sent from an email client (eg. Gnome Evolution, Thunderbird etc) are delivered successfully)
  • Issue is not affecting all TPG email accounts simultaneously (eg. "mdsl" works but "mvanle2" and "ypanbbs" do not)
  • When entering invalid credentials at the webmail sign-in page the system immediately returns "Wrong username or password, please try again" error (indicating that the authentication mechanism is working)
  • Affects multiple browsers (Firefox, Chrome)
  • Affects multiple operating systems (Windows, Linux)
  • Affects multiple devices (Desktop, Mobile / Android)

 

Additional observations (by other users)

 

I have verified all the symptoms experienced by multiple TPG users in the following posts:

 

 

Screenshots

 

Please see the attached files for further details: 

 

  • postoffice_login.png (Post Office login page)
  • gateway_timeout.png (Gateway timeout error)
  • email_client_error.png (Error from email client)
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2 REPLIES 2
david64
Level 15
Level 15
‎27-11-2023 03:14 AM

Hi @mdsl . What device are you using to access Post Office when you get 504 error?

Does your mail client have a logging function? The broken pipe is not necessarily a bad password; the session could be dropping at that moment.

 

Some weeks ago, I received a printed letter from a sender advising they were unable to send an email to my TPG address. Mail senders don't just give up after one go; they try several times over many hours. Some of my mails are delayed > 48 hours. Delays have started since a big change to remove TLS 1.0, and introduce a mechanism to handle transfer to TMC.

My mail client can display email date/time created and date/time received. While one particular sender might mainly have minimal delay, they can also have delays. Its not consistent.

Looking at emails from early in the year, delays are minimal or very short.

 

My access to Post Office has generally been fine. Have had a few occasions using my tablet which could have been time (early in morning) or low wifi speed due to distance. Mail client has been ok also.

 

 

0 Likes
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mdsl
Level 2
Level 2
‎27-11-2023 03:53 AM

Hello @david64, 

 

What device are you using to access Post Office when you get 504 error?

Both Desktop and Android using the latest web browser versions.

 

This is not a user-specific issue. It is affecting multiple users with the same symptoms and is intermittent despite no changes being made to any user-side configuration.

 

Does your mail client have a logging function?

Not that I am aware of.

 

The broken pipe is not necessarily a bad password; the session could be dropping at that moment.

Yes, I suspect the broken pipe to be due to a timeout (as is reproducible via the web).

 

Timeouts are symptomatic of an API or connectivity error. My guess is certain requests are being load-balanced to a particular faulty server, or the TPG to TMC gateway is not working properly for some accounts (despite TMC claiming that emails have not yet been migrated).

 

Mail senders don't just give up after one go; they try several times over many hours.

My email tests are between internal TPG accounts (ie. from TPG to TPG) so any delays are due to system issues with TPG and not external providers.

 

Delays have started since a big change to remove TLS 1.0, and introduce a mechanism to handle transfer to TMC.

If it is TLS related then it is probably caused by upstream server(s) that TPG's email server(s) are communicating with. It is not likely user-specific because most web browsers and email cients these days are not using TLS 1.0 (which was a standard in 1999).

 

My access to Post Office has generally been fine. Have had a few occasions using my tablet which could have been time (early in morning) or low wifi speed due to distance. Mail client has been ok also.

This is not a connection quality issue. I can load and access various content-heavy websites without latency (eg. "outlook.com", "mail.com", "smh.com.au" etc).

 

Furthermore, this issue is affecting some TPG email accounts but not others (eg. "mdsl" works but not "mvanle2" or "ypanbbs"). Since you are not experiencing any problems I assume you are using an account that is not affected by this issue - however there is clearly an issue as it is affecting multiple email accounts from different TPG customers.

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