FIVE-day ZoneEdit outage freezes thousands of sites

Hundreds of thousands of websites have been hit by an unexplained outage at DNS services provider ZoneEdit, with users seeing five full days of downtime.

While the 600,000 customer domains ZoneEdit looks after were all apparently still resolving during the outage, users were been able to log into their accounts to make updates to their zones since Friday.

"I have a static IP being changed by my service provider this week," one loyal customer blogged. "With only two days left before the change and potentially 500-1000 users being affected I am left with tough choices.

"I will give ZoneEdit until tomorrow morning before I find an alternative service or host the DNS myself."

Two days ago the company's website went offline completely, again without explanation. This morning, however, the site returned and users reported that they could once again log in and use their services.

ZoneEdit, which is owned by the domain name registrar Dotster, has provided updates on Twitter, albeit only once or twice a day and without any insight into what the problem is or how long it will take to resolve.

In its most recent tweet, it states: "We understand the seriousness of this issue and its effect on you. We are truly sorry. We have every person possible working to resolve it."

Even with the problem apparently resolved, customers still do not know what happened.

Users have also predictably taken to Twitter to vent their frustration – not only regarding the downtime but also about the lack of communication from the company. Some have even speculated that the website may have been the victim of an attack.

ZoneEdit has been providing cheap and cheerful DNS resolution services since 2000. According to HosterStats, 150,000 domain names use its DNS to make their websites and email work.

The company did not respond to a request for comment. ®