Ouch!

Leni.

http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,27653,00.html?pt.isyndicate.ne.hl

DNS glitch keeps AOL off limits

By Janet Kornblum
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
October 16, 1998, 1:20 p.m. PT

just in Internet users trying to send email to
America Online or get to the online giant's site have
been plagued by problems due to a major glitch
with the Internet's domain naming system.

Instead of being routed directly to AOL, users from
the Net trying to send email to some of the
company's 13 million members or trying to get to
the company's portal were instead redirected to the
servers of a company called Autonet.net, AOL
spokeswoman Ann Brackbill has confirmed.

The problem was caused when the InterNIC, run
by Network Solutions, changed AOL's designated
name server.

When Net surfers try to reach an address on the
Net, they type in the name in their Web browsers
or in an email message. In order to reach their
destinations, the names are routed through the Net
and sent to the domain name server. If the server is
wrong, the surfer will not reach the proper
destination and neither will his or her email.

The problem has now been fixed, Brackbill said,
but it may take awhile for systems throughout the
Net to catch up with the domain name server.

Systems administrators began noticing the problem
mid-morning as traffic to AOL began bouncing.
Most Internet access providers cache their domain
name server records, so not everyone on the
Internet would have instantly known there was a
problem.