Aussies face more frustration as Census servers continue to fail despite repeated attempts

FRUSTRATED Australians are still trying but are failing to fill in the Census online, just days after the ABS claimed to have fixed it.

Australian Statistician David Kalisch says the census server is up but many Australians would disagree. Picture: Kym Smith

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FRUSTRATED Australians are still trying, and failing, to use the Census online days after the Australian Bureau of Statistics claimed to have fixed it.

Meanwhile, two Queensland University of Technology students at a student hack-a-thon on the weekend designed their own version of a Census system using an expandable cloud server able to cope with four times the traffic of the IBM-designed Census system and survive a denial of service attack.

So. A team at a weekend hackathon built a census solution. Seeking a buyer...cc: @QUTCode @sbxr @pjlaurie pic.twitter.com/8GT3KDFwSx

— Mike Ciavarella (@mxcia) August 14, 2016

The students, Austin Wilshire and Bernd Hartzer, told tech commentator Trevor Long they built their system in 54 hours for a cost of $500 — just $9,606,252 cheaper than the system IBM built that failed on Tuesday night.

In the past 24 hours, a steady stream of people have complained to the ABS Census that repeated attempts to use the site using every connected device in their home has resulted in error messages.

There is also a swag of complaints from people saying a simple email from the ABS requesting that the password for their online application has taken days to arrive.

The advice online from the Census staff has been to turn on JavaScript in your browser options, although several people online say following that advice still does not work.

As for the delayed emails, the advice from the Australian Bureau of Statistics office has been that people write their password down on a piece of paper _ which breaks one of the basic rules of password security.

News Corporation Australia has contacted the ABS asking for clear and simple explanation on what browser and settings Australians should use if they want to be able to complete the census online.

The ABS has not replied to the request, however repeatedly online the response to people unable to access the site is try another device or ring the ABS and get a paper form.

@ABSCensus have tried iPhone, iPad and two different Macs. All of which have the same message even with JavaScript enabled

— Mitch Grayson (@MitchGrayson) August 14, 2016

@ABSCensus I've tried using 5 browsers across 2 different OS's and all are telling me javascript is req'd when all have it turned on. Help?

— Bryce (@Doublelobe7) August 16, 2016

@ABSCensus @blondeloise so website still not working. Tried iPad and laptop. Fix your problems rather than trying to go paper. #CensusFail

— Jarred (@jarred_stead) August 14, 2016

@ABSCensus tried 6 different devices/browsers and your website fails to work Worked fine before u shut it down last week. Wont operate Java?

— Dylan McKibbin (@drmck13) August 15, 2016

60 hours after filling in my census I finally received my password and receipt by email. Why so slow? #CensusFail

— jacques soddell (@soddell) August 13, 2016

Finally got my 2016 Census password email, dated 1 Jan 1970 10am... They must be doing this on purpose now. #CensusFail

— Chris Kenward (@cken99) August 13, 2016

.@ABSCensus your data is safe with us! From the same team who brought you the security advice: 'write down your password' #CensusFail

— iTwittles (@itwittles) August 12, 2016

The Australian Bureau of Statistics has not updated the number of people who have successfully lodged their Census form although head of the census program told Sky News last night that it was “making up lost ground”.