UPDATE 10:05 a.m. PST: Akamai says it’s implemented a fix, and “the service is resuming normal operations.” It also confirmed that the downtime is “not a result of a cyberattack on the Akamai platform.” Downdetector.com is still showing sporadic outages.
Original Story:An internet outage has taken down numerous websites including Airbnb, Steam, and the PlayStation Network.
The outage seems to have started at 8:30 a.m. PST time, according to Downdetector.com. Affected web domains have been showing the error “Service Unavailable – DNS failure” when you try to visit them.
DNS is the domain name system, which acts as a phonebook for the internet, enabling your browser to load the correct web page.
“We are aware of an emerging issue with the Edge DNS service,” said Akamai, a content delivery network provider that helps speed up access to websites. “We are actively investigating the issue.” Akamai counts thousands of companies, including retailers, game publishers, and travel companies as customers.
Still, it remains unclear what’s exactly causing the disruption. The CEO of Cloudflare, another content delivery network provider, tweeted: “Not sure yet why so many sites online not loading, but confirmed it’s not a Cloudflare issue. Bad days happen to everyone so hope whoever is having one it gets resolved quickly.”
According to IT company SolarWinds, the outage has already hit over 30,000 websites. Others ensnared in the disruption include UPS, Newegg, Fedex, LastPass, and Home Depot.
(Disclosure: Downdetector owner Ookla is owned by PCMag parent company Ziff Davis.)
