Update: August 14, 2007

We have heard back directly from both Mr. Charles Ahmes, Vice President of Onboard Service, and Mr. Sean Donohue, Senior Vice President of Onboard Service.  They want to set up a meeting between Onboard Service, ISD (that's the computer folks), AFA, and myself to discuss this ongoing Unimatic connectivity problem and the AOL screen name issue.

We'll let you know how this progresses, but it's a step in the right direction---and I'm pleased that both of them have been responsive in taking this matter and our letter seriously.  In the meantime, if you are still locked out during the bidding, please use our browser fixes (Firefox or the URL retype) as described below.  They do work and will get you onto Unimatic.

Interestingly, the folks at ISD put us in touch with a gentlemen who heads up the AOL tech support center in Ogden, Utah.  We provided him with documentation and our various test results on the Unimatic connection problems--- and offered to test various browsers and to see if a fix can be co-developed.  This was on August 2nd.  We have not heard back yet from them.

As bidding is coming up, and people are still locked out of Unimatic and getting redirected to the AOL home page, please remember the following:

Other 3rd party programs, i.e., Unimatic Add-On, etc., have begun implementing their own fixes as well.

Regardless, the IE 6.0 redirect to AOL home page problems are not solved and all is still not well in Unimaticland.  We're just doing the best we can to help shed some light on this problem.

Christopher

The Fixes

Below are the two fixes that we recommend using if you still get redirected to the AOL home page. If you continue to have problems, please contact the AOL Help Desk.

The URL Rewrite Fix

This is the silliest thing I've ever heard of, BUT IT WORKS. If you are still having redirect to AOL home page problems (like I am), you should do the following:

1. Open IE and try to visit www.gounimatic.com.  You will get the AOL login screen and then afterwards incorrectly redirected to the AOL home page.
2. Once at the AOL home page, type http://airline.compuserve.com/ual/default.asp in the browser's address area and press ENTER.
3. Viola!  You will be taken directly to the AOL Crew Channel where you can click on the "Unimatic' link to open the Unimatic applet.

The Mozilla Fix

Try the following:

1. Visit www.mozilla.com  
2. Download and install the Firefox Web Browser
3. Once it is installed, try to open it and visit www.gounimatic.com. You should be able to get into Unimatic.

Background Information

Video of Problem (IN COLOR)

How this problem began

On June 28, 2007, AOL was receiving 500 to 600 requests a minute for access to Unimatic and Apollo and they thought it was their inability to handle the traffic.  They 'tweaked' some parameters on Thursday and Friday---and from time to time access was more stable with some rejected requests.

Over the weekend, reports came in that the same problem was occurring but not at the same rate.  Depending on the time you requested Unimatic access, the system determined if you were getting in or not.  Once again, AOL could see the failures occurring but were unable to identify any more 'tweaks' to try than those that had already been performed on Thursday and Friday.

Early Monday morning, the problem got worse.  AOL could only handle a small number of requests that were coming in and, to make matters worse, Apollo could not be accessed at all.  Both United and the AOL Network Operations Center decided to look at the requests for access at the switch level versus the authentication level.

The main cause of the problem

What they discovered was a single IP address was generating 90% of all requests coming in at the switch level.  When they realized that one IP address (what's this?) was generating all of the traffic, they shut that requesting IP address off on the switch.  Five minutes after they shut that IP address off, another IP address started coming in generating the same 500 to 600 requests per minute for access.

This type of activity strongly suggests and Denial of Service attack (DOS) on the switch.  (What is a DOS Attack?)

After consulting with the AOL network people, they decided to do two things.  First, they would move all the traffic off the existing Cisco level four switches and onto Cisco Net Layer switches.  The significant difference is that the Net Layer switches require something other than just a request for a TCP/IP handshake to open a port.  The denial of service requests that the level four switches were receiving caused those switches to open a port and send the requests onto AOL Screen Name Services without any other request for services. 

The second thing that they did was to spread the requests out over multiple request points.  This move allowed the load to be shared by more than the two switches previously handling the traffic.

A bad switch also

After both tasks were completed, some requests were still not getting through.  What they discovered was a problem with one of the new switches and they immediately moved the traffic off the 'bad' switch onto the other switches.

Summary

These Unimatic connection problems occurred because AOL had been experiencing a DOS attack---most likely from a malicious source.  The 500-600 requests per minute is not a huge DOS (thus avoiding many early warning systems) but it's enough to cause AOL's screen name services to have problems.

Check back for updates often.  In meantime, try either:

• Prozac (fluoxetine)
• Paxil (paroxetine)
• Zoloft (sertraline)
• Luvox (fluvoxamine)
• Effexor
• Accessing a Unimatic terminal in the domicile

Still no relief? Then call 1-877-340-1014 or 1-800-255-5801 and let them know you still cannot access.  There's nothing we can do at Jumpseatnews about this problem because AOL/Unimatic is not our web site and completely out of our control.

Constructing Unimatic -- Circa 1947