GMail down - 502 server error!

I use GMail on a daily basis and it's without a doubt a web service I have come to rely on. So when it goes down... I'm in trouble!

Today, when I try to log in at GMail, I get a "502 server error" message instead. It has been noted on the official GMail blog so at least they're aware of it. You can also check out the Google Apps Status Dashboard.

Usually GMail is very reliable but I've had the 502 errors before, maybe a year ago and then it only affected a certain subset of users and was down for about a day (for me anyway). Of course, being without email for a whole day when you rely on it... can be extremely troublesome and create havoc in your life, for several reasons.

Maybe you had to send that important email to a client? Perhaps you need to access an email to access an important attachment you haven't read yet? Will possibly miss important deadlines if the service is not up again soon!? Heaven forbid.

Yeah I know, don't rely on a free service, rather have a paid email service with a local hosting company since they offers support you can actually use but the reality is that GMail is out of the beta stage now so I expect it to be a reliable service.

Let's hope it's up again soon.

UPDATE 02/09/09
GMail is back up again. Gmail outage blamed on capacity miscalculation