Software Glitch Sends America Crashing Off Line Experts Describe It As Biggest Outage Of Cyberspace Era

Wednesday, America Online was decidedly off line.

In what experts called the biggest on-line outage of the cyberspace era, AOL’s giant computer system crashed for most of the day and well into the evening, knocking out service for 6 million subscribers. As of Wednesday night, AOL was struggling to resume operations.

That left countless business people, far-flung friends, students and techies without a link to the nation’s largest on-line service, which provides everything from electronic mail and access to the Internet to on-line shopping and chat groups. AOL’s “Black Wednesday” echoed the famed AT&T crash of 1990. It was in January of that year that a software problem virtually shut down the country’s leading long-distance carrier for the better part of a day.

Wednesday’s collapse was not as far-reaching, but it did raise a host of questions about the reliability of commercial computer networks, especially as tens of thousands of Americans join the on-line world each day.

“For many, it meant a communication lifeline was snapped,” said Donna L. Hoffman, an associate professor at Vanderbilt University and a leading Internet expert.

For millions of other casual AOL users, the outage was just a frustration, yet another indication that the on-line world is still in its infancy even as it is relentlessly hyped as the future nexus for communications, business and entertainment.

Don Graves, a writer in Jackson, N.H., clicked on his mouse at 6:30 a.m. ready to send a few work-related documents and type off messages to his grandchildren. Instead, he got a missive from AOL advising him to try again later. “It was so frustrating,” he said. “They just repeated the message.”

Graves tried to log on a half dozen times, but gave up at 8:30 in the morning. “They’re certainly capable of doing better than that,” he fumed.

AOL, based in Vienna, Va., blamed the problem on a software glitch that occurred during regular maintenance of the system that began at 4 a.m. But after that, subscribers attempting to log on received a terse note telling them to try again in 15 minutes. By mid-afternoon, the interval had expanded to two hours.

“Every possible resource is being brought to bear to restore the service,” Steve Case, AOL chairman and chief executive, said in a statement. Pam McGraw, an AOL spokeswoman, would say only that the collapse was caused by a new piece of network software being loaded onto the AOL system.

AOL charges users based on the amount of time they spend on line, with most people paying $9.95 a month for five hours of service and $2.95 for each additional hour. AOL’s heaviest traffic comes in the evening hours.

McGraw said all users would be credited with one free day, which would mean a reduction of about 30 cents on the average bill.

But throughout the day AOL subscribers were left in the dark. Chip Scanlan, who was vacationing at his house in St. Pete Beach, Fla., said he had no idea why he couldn’t connect to AOL. “I’ve been trying to log on all day,” he said late in the afternoon, growing increasing frustrated that he could not access his e-mail to see an itinerary for a business trip this weekend.

Scanlan, who directs writing programs at the St. Petersburg-based Poynter Institute, was even considering taking drastic measures: “If they don’t get it fixed, I’m going to have to take off my bathing suit, put on a pair of pants and go into the office,” he laughed. “After all, this is my vacation.”

Industry analysts said Wednesday’s mysterious breakdown was further evidence that the electronic world is not ready for prime time. “Imagine if this had happened to the television network,” said Hoffman. “It would have been unacceptable.”

Indeed, on-line users have come to expect a host of frustrating glitches. Small Internet service providers that have sprung up across the country regularly break down, leaving customers unable to access the global network of computers run independently by thousands of businesses, government agencies, universities and individuals. And the large on-line providers such as AOL, CompuServe and the Microsoft Network - which run their own private networks - often experience short-lived technical glitches.

But never have so many users been affected for so long, experts said.

Graves, like many users, blamed AOL for not doing enough to inform subscribers about the problem. He was considering picking a new Internet provider before the crash, and said Wednesday’s chaos only convinced him he had made the right choice. “I bet they start seeing a lot more growing pain with all those subscribers,” Graves said.