REDMOND, Wash. - Jan. 24, 2001 - Microsoft issued the following statement today in response to the DNS outage:
At 6:30 last night, a configuration change was made by a Microsoft technician to the routers on the edge of Microsoft's DNS network. The DNS servers are used to connect domain names with IP addresses of the various servers and networks that make up Microsoft's web presence.
The mistaken configuration change limited communication between DNS servers on the Internet and Microsoft's DNS servers. This limited communication caused many of Microsoft's sites to be unreachable (although they were actually still operational) to a large number of customers throughout last night and today.
This was an operational error, and not the result of any issue with Microsoft or third-party products nor the security of our networks. Microsoft regrets any inconvenience caused to customers due to this issue.
At approximately 5 p.m. Pacific time, Microsoft removed the changes to the router configuration and immediately saw a massive improvement in the DNS network. All sites are currently available to customers.
Again, Microsoft apologizes for the inconvenience.
#########
Microsoft is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries.
The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.
For more information, press only:
Adam Sohn, Microsoft Corp., (425) 703-3276
Rapid Response Team, Waggener Edstrom, (503) 443-7000, rrt@wagged.com