Four of the 13 computers that manage global
Internet traffic partially failed for a brief
period Wednesday night because of a technical
glitch, Friday's Wall Street Journal reported.

. . .

Network Solutions spokesman Christopher Clough
said it appeared to have been caused by a
technical glitch rather than a malicious attack.

. . .

The problem affected four of the Internet's
13 most-important computers, called root
servers. These computers, controlled by
universities, corporations, government agencies
and research centers, are located throughout the
U.S. and in Tokyo, Stockholm and London. The
affected root servers -- those designated as "B,"
"G," "J" and "M" -- were operated by Network
Solutions, the Defense Department, the University
of Southern California and an organization in Japan.

Excite News

-- spider (spider0@usa.net), August 25, 2000

Answers

Net servers failure a glitch

The operator of computers that manage Internet traffic said this week's breakdown affecting four of its servers was a technical "anomaly." In a statement about the Wednesday night incident, in which four of 12 root servers failed to handle Web page requests, VeriSign's (VRSNnews , ) Network Solutions Inc. said the impact was negligible because most servers are configured to find any one of the multiple root servers available. "Operational changes have already been made to prevent any such occurrences in the future," the company said.

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-- spider (spider0@usa.net), August 28, 2000.