back to article It's Baaaaaack (or is it?): Microsoft Teams suffers a Tuesday totter

What's the difference between Microsoft Teams and Microsoft Stores? When Teams closes down, people seem to notice. Microsoft's collaboration tool for suits started off Tuesday with a repeat performance of yesterday's wobbles for some European users. Impact related to the SI#TM206556 has returned. We'll continue to provide …

  1. Dave K

    Not just Teams. WebEx has been down for us since mid-morning as well.

    1. Robert Grant

      WebEx has been down for the last 11 years though.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Holmes

      We're number two!

      Puns aside, it seems like Teams is maintaining the second best environment behind Hangouts. They're still responding better to the crisis that many (most?) companies and governments.

      1. teknopaul

        Re: We're number two!

        Err no. Everything else is working. When its broke its not second best. Its worst.

    3. Michael Wojcik Silver badge

      I was unable to get on a GoToHellWebinar call today. Hurrah! I mean, drat!

  2. MJB7

    WfM

    Teams worked for us at 8:30 UTC (most participants in Switzerland, one in Czechia) .

    1. MiguelC Silver badge

      Re: WfM

      I was using it as this story was being posted.

      No trouble today with either Teams or Zoom (as opposed to yesterday morning's sound of silence from both)

    2. katrinab Silver badge

      Re: WfM

      Teams is working for us too. I believe we are considered to be in Switzerland.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: WfM

      Its been working here in the UK for meetings over the last 2 days. It does tend to crash for some people as soon as they try to share their screens. But the biggest problem was during the morning stand-up when someone enabled video while still in his PJs, and you can't unsee that.

  3. A Non e-mouse Silver badge

    If it's bad now, think what it will be like once America wakes up and joins the party.

    1. Rich 11 Silver badge

      Why does that elicit images of frat boys and a lake of vomit?

  4. TRT

    Teams is working for us...

    but a bit flakey. Long delays in chat and file dropping.

    1. A Non e-mouse Silver badge

      Re: Teams is working for us...

      It's not as bad for us today as it was yesterday.

    2. Charlie Clark Silver badge

      Re: Teams is working for us...

      I've always found Teams to be flakey though a lot of people seem to like it.

      But when it comes to keeping network chat toys up I've found no one beats Google.

      1. katrinab Silver badge
        Flame

        Re: Teams is working for us...

        No-one beats Google for killing them off. How many are in the Google Graveyard now? I think I counted 27 of them. Microsoft only has one (MSN Messenger) in its graveyard.

        1. el_oscuro

          Re: Teams is working for us...

          There is also PlaysForSure, Zune, MS Passport, and the Phone to name a few more in its graveyard.

          1. jamm13dodger

            Re: Teams is working for us...

            But none of them are chat tools are they?

        2. Charlie Clark Silver badge

          Re: Teams is working for us...

          Sure, but the networking of Hangouts has been rock solid for years now: I remember having a nearly ten years ago with seamless handover between wifi and 4G. They did try various consumer toys but outside of YouTube that really doesn't seem to be their market. Credit where credit's due: they really know their networking stuff.

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Teams is working for us...

            I guess it'll be panned pretty quickly now then

          2. teknopaul

            Re: Teams is working for us...

            These big corps that enforce chat silos should all be called out in times of crisis.

            We have email.

            There is no global chat in 2020.

            There is no global video service.

            There is no global presence.

            Global voice still costs a fortune per min.

            We have the tech to connect granny and granchild but the likes of Microsoft and Google and the Anti-Social network make it _not_ work.

            They could all be compatible with less work than it takes to make them incompatible and try to "differentiate".

            They shamelessly make money from thier silos and have no interest in connecting the world.

            If you are having difficulty working out if you should sms, call, skype, viber, facetime, team up or hangout with granny this weekend. Make sure you are aware who is to blame.

        3. teknopaul

          Re: Teams is working for us...

          I would include Skype in Microsofts graveyard.

          For biz. Then not for biz. Then not for love nor money.

  5. wolfetone Silver badge

    Haven't really had any problems with it this morning. Just had one user tell me that their webcam wouldn't work, adamant the issue was with Teams as it had a wobbly yesterday.

    Turned out there's a cover on the webcam on the laptop, and they had managed to close it without realising.

    Still, you got to laugh.

    1. Charlie Clark Silver badge

      Cattle prod out of charge?

      1. wolfetone Silver badge

        Nope, just doesn't reach far enough now seeing as we're all working from home.

        And Microsoft Teams doesn't have that feature for some reason.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Devil

        We need remote cattle prods ASAP!

        1. Charlie van Becelaere
          Coffee/keyboard

          Re: We need remote cattle prods ASAP!

          Perhaps that could be wired to the "any" key?

          1. TRT

            Re: We need remote cattle prods ASAP!

            Drone delivery.

        2. Intractable Potsherd

          Re: remote cattle prods

          Remote cattle prods delivered by drone sound like the precursor to knife-missiles. Are you really sure we want to go there?!

          (Why, yes, I am a fan of the Culture stories - currently re-reading "Use of Weapons" actually. Why do you ask?)

  6. chivo243 Silver badge
    Windows

    Up and Down across the board

    But the Store being shot down?? Is it that bandwidth thirsty? Or did they need the rack for Teams??

    1. Charlie Clark Silver badge
      Happy

      Re: Up and Down across the board

      It's just an excuse because no one goes there anyway.

    2. wjake
      FAIL

      Re: Up and Down across the board

      Physical Stores, not the Microsoft App Store

  7. ITMA Silver badge

    I wish they'd stop forcing it to auto-start with Windows (just like Skype) and requiring you to login to the stupid thing to stop it (just like Skype)!

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      There's a tick box and everything...

    2. Michael Wojcik Silver badge

      Doesn't auto-start on either of my machines. Maybe this is a site configuration option?

  8. Pascal Monett Silver badge
    Trollface

    "a $15m donation"

    Well yeah, he gave his pocket change. He wasn't going to give a billion, that's for the shareholders.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: "a $15m donation"

      Yawn yawn yawn

      $rich_person doesn't immediately give everything he owns to help $current_problem.

      1. Intractable Potsherd

        Re: "a $15m donation"

        Yawn yawn yawn

        $AC apologist for $disgustingly rich person trolls the boards.

  9. Mike007 Bronze badge

    I suspect it is likely to be the educational sector here. Yes there have been a lot of businesses changing how they do things, but that has been spread out over at least a few weeks (the biggest growth anyway) and I suspect microsoft are keeping ahead of this aspect enough that even the further increases this week from this kind of thing would not be a problem.

    What you might not realise is that a significant number of universities use the microsoft ecosystem. Microsoft give things like Office365 to them completely free. From a university perspective an industry standard corporate grade email platform for free is worth switching to, and the fact that this subscription also replaces their existing office installs with licenses they got for free whilst giving free licenses to students... oh, and we can also enable this "azure" thing for our domain controllers and we have fewer servers to maintain, and, and, and...

    Once a university has signed up that well known tactic of "if all people learn at school is microsoft, companies will have to buy microsoft" kicks in. Microsoft have been trying to "encourage" universities to use Teams for a while, but the reaction has mostly been a shrug as they can't really see much point in changing how they do things and already have systems that seem to work just fine for what they actually use it for.

    Yesterday several european countries officially closed all educational institutions, and whilst it is not official in the UK universities did "decide for themselves" to start switching to online-only delivery. They already have this Teams thing that they never used, it claims to be designed for exactly this kind of thing, how many will have decided to give it a try?

    I have no idea about colleges and schools, but universities even if "closed" still need to continue running courses and their students are expected to be able to adapt and make use of what is available. Many colleges might also go down the online delivery route, but schools will likely just be "giving up" as they can not expect students to be able to access online resources with equipment they might not have using software nobody has ever shown them how to use. I also suspect that any colleges or schools who do go the online-delivery route are more likely to be looking at Google Classroom which has far bigger market share in that sector.

  10. Lucy in the Sky (with Diamonds)

    Chatting vs. Conversation

    Back in March of 1997, for a glorious three weeks, I had a rather impressive (in my book anyway) 20-hour-a-day chat addiction. The internet was brand new for me, and I have found a place called the WebChat Broadcasting System (or WBS for short).

    Since each conversation thread took a few minutes to respond, I have found that maintaining 20-30 of them at a time was about the right amount to keep things going. Okay, basic conversations, that would have taken a few minutes face to face or over a phone now took hours, but it was new, and possessed the mystery that the pretty girl I was pitching woo to was likely to be a fat hairy truck driver in Texas with a laptop on his steering wheel. Well, no mobile internet back then, but the same general idea.

    I simply stayed in my room, chatted with the Aussies until they went to sleep, then with the Brits, then the Yanks, then the Aussies woke up, and it all started again. It had to stop.

    So, my solution was to walk away, ride off into the sunset, and do not look back. Since then, every so often a company I work for insists on making me use chatting software to communicate, so I use the Ali method of problem resolution, by floating like a butterfly around the issue, then stinging like a bee against trying to force me back to successfully kicked addiction.

    Anything that can be achieved by chatting or texting in a day can also be achieved in five minutes in an actual conversation. How’s that for a productivity tool?

    1. SalemTheRat
      WTF?

      Re: Chatting vs. Conversation

      Yeah... but no. I have about five different conversations at least going on with different mixes of people all day every day: For IT professionals, chat is invaluable.

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Bloody good considering

    I have put in a 1,000 seat Teams roll out over the last year and considering the amount of extra strain, it's coping brilliantly! Anon because otherwise it's boasting/complaining.

  12. Ken Moorhouse Silver badge

    The cats in the picture...

    Is this to do with cat being chat in French?

  13. JST24601

    Teams using multiple calendars

    As a PA I am working on five or six individual calendars all day every day. Teams via outlook has been disabled by Microsoft (so I'm told by our IT) if I go directly into teams I only have my own calendar, I am tearing my hair out, any ideas?

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Teams is utter shite at all times

    The end.

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