ie8 fix

Between the Lines

Larry Dignan, Andrew Nusca and Rachel King
Home / News & Blogs / Between the Lines

Facebook hit with outages; Office managers everywhere rejoice

By | September 23, 2010, 12:53pm PDT

Summary: Facebook is experiencing site slowdowns and outages this afternoon. The company is working on the issues.

Nothing will bring an uptick to office productivity faster than a Facebook outage.

The site appears to be experiencing problems and Facebook addicts around the globe are doing exactly what you’d expect them to do: they’re tweeting about it.

Details about the outage - the source of the problem, how long it’s expected to be down or how widespread it is - are still unknowns. Of course, by the time this post even publishes, the site may be back up.

Facebook reportedly had some service outages yesterday, related to networking issues, but the company tells Mashable today that the site issues today are unrelated to what happened yesterday.

Be on the lookout for slow-loading pages or problems “liking” news articles across the Internet.

updated: 3:05 p.m PT - Facebook is back up, the company confirms in a tweet. The company did not offer an explanation for the outage.

updated: 7:05 p.m. PT - Facebook offers good technical detail of the outage in a blog post and apologizes.

Early today Facebook was down or unreachable for many of you for approximately 2.5 hours. This is the worst outage we’ve had in over four years, and we wanted to first of all apologize for it. We also wanted to provide much more technical detail on what happened and share one big lesson learned.

The key flaw that caused this outage to be so severe was an unfortunate handling of an error condition. An automated system for verifying configuration values ended up causing much more damage than it fixed.

Kick off your day with ZDNet's daily e-mail newsletter. It's the freshest tech news and opinion, served hot. Get it.

More from “Between the Lines”

Topics

Facebook, Manufacturing, Sam Diaz

Sam has been a technology and business blogger for more than 18 years.

Disclosure

Sam Diaz

Sam Diaz has nothing to disclose.

Biography

Sam Diaz

Sam has been a technology and business blogger, reporter and editor at ZDNet, the Washington Post, San Jose Mercury News and Fresno Bee for more than 18 years. He's a member of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and a graduate of California State University, Fresno.

28
Comments
Add Your Opinion

Join the conversation!

Just In

RE: Facebook is experiencing outages; Office managers everywhere rejoice
tomlin21-24319035676893835085146735905770 11th Oct
I am honestly dissatisfied of diploma reebok jerseys of this on-line web-site. I've certainly not previously seen so horrible written content items, finish not favorite!
View in thread
0 Votes
+ -
RE: Facebook is experiencing outages; Office managers everywhere rejoice
mrgone2 23rd Sep 2010
I check twitter when it looks like FB is down
0 Votes
+ -
RE: Facebook is experiencing outages; Office managers everywhere rejoice
sbarmania 23rd Sep 2010
I'd like to "like" this article but.... oh the irony!!!
0 Votes
+ -
Contributr
RE: Facebook is experiencing outages; Office managers everywhere rejoice
Adrian Kingsley-Hughes 23rd Sep 2010
@sbarmania happy
0 Votes
+ -
RE: Facebook is experiencing outages; Office managers everywhere rejoice
docdalek 23rd Sep 2010
After the news of the Zuk making 30-something on the rich-man list I think it is just a DOS by someone....
0 Votes
+ -
RE: Facebook is experiencing outages; Office managers everywhere rejoice
apche_smurf 23rd Sep 2010
Yeah, my dumb a55 clicked on "like" .... ha ha ha
0 Votes
+ -
RE: Facebook is experiencing outages; Office managers everywhere rejoice
DDFromBklyn 23rd Sep 2010
Well Facebook doesn't work for me and a few of my neighbors who don't have the iphone or blackberry. It doesn't work on Google Chrome, IE8 or Firefox. Good grief!!!!!
0 Votes
+ -
Head for the hills!
Cylon Centurion 23rd Sep 2010
Loot the super markets! This is going to be a tough storm to survive!
0 Votes
+ -
RE: Facebook is experiencing outages; Office managers everywhere rejoice
cyberslammer 23rd Sep 2010
I tried to update my Facebook status that it was down but it won't work...any ideas?
0 Votes
+ -
Facebook had some problems yesterday too
Vierotchka Updated - 23rd Sep 2010
My firewall detected and blocked attempts to place a trojan on my computer while I was on facebook and some of the applications. I set it to permanently block that trojan, and it kept reporting and blocking attempts for a couple of hours. Facebook became extremely slow and unstable after that. I suspect that it was one of the advertisers on the facebook pages which is the culprit. Tonight (I'm in Europe) Facebook became even more slow and unstable, then petered out. Correlation is not causation, certainly, but they are not mutually exclusive.
0 Votes
+ -
RE: Facebook is experiencing outages; Office managers everywhere rejoice
DDFromBklyn Updated - 23rd Sep 2010
I gotta admit it shows how addicted I am. lol I don't tweet so I guess I'll have to find something out of facebook world to keep me busy till it comes back on. Hmmmm Could this be the end of facebook? Oh yeah and if it wasn't for zdnet.com, I would have never known since I don't tweet, use an iphone or blackberry. Thanks Zdnet!!!!!
0 Votes
+ -
Facebook Outage Site
hiresolve 23rd Sep 2010
Is there not a facebook outage site, where facebookers can go to get their fix of facebook outage news, facebook outage events, and facebook outage status messages?

[ remove tongue from cheek ]
0 Votes
+ -
RE: Facebook is experiencing outages; Office managers everywhere rejoice
Loverock Davidson 23rd Sep 2010
No difference to us, Facebook is blocked.
0 Votes
+ -
RE: Facebook is experiencing outages; Office managers everywhere rejoice
todbran@... 23rd Sep 2010
@Loverock Davidson

Yeah Lovie. Since they are probably using Microsoft servers, it is just like you to blow it off instead of finding fault. Not surprising since you and Bill are "buddies".
0 Votes
+ -
Huh?
John Zern 23rd Sep 2010
@todbran@... all he said is that they block Facebook at his work, so whether the servers were up or down, they wouldn't have noticed.

So how does that lead to "blowing it off because they use MS servers", or whatever?
0 Votes
+ -
RE: Facebook is experiencing outages; Office managers everywhere rejoice
Pete "athynz" Athens 23rd Sep 2010
@todbran@... It's more likely blocked so that the employees won't waste company time on facebook - they also have other sites blocked as well... guess you've never worked for a large corporation or you just don't like LD here...
0 Votes
+ -
RE: Facebook is blocked.
fatman65535 24th Sep 2010
@todbran@...

While I express no fondness for LD's inane comments on Linux; his employer is not the only one that blocks Facebook. Our networking guys got clever some time back. Instead of a hosts file on each and every desktop, with its attendant maintenance nightmare; we use a BIND server to perform the same function.

All access attempts to banned sites are logged. Take one guess as to who sees that log? Surf to too many of those sites during work hours; and you have an appointment with HR.

Anyway, the headline should have read: "Facebook down, employee productivity increases; management thrilled."
0 Votes
+ -
RE: Facebook is experiencing outages; Office managers everywhere rejoice
fibreoptik 24th Sep 2010
@Loverock Davidson

Glad I don't work for your retarded company.
0 Votes
+ -
RE: Glad I don't work for your retarded company.
fatman65535 24th Sep 2010
@fibreoptik

His is not the only company that blocks web sites.

As I pointed out above, mine does too. We are privately owned, our owners work in the office every day. You better believe that we do our best to prevent foreseeable security breaches. And Facebook is ONE!!!

Now, this is not completely bad news. In the break/lunch room is wi-fi, which is connected to the internet outside of the firewall. Bring in your laptop, and during your unpaid lunch hour; you can surf to any nasty site you want. Just leave that laptop in your car or locker when you are done with lunch.

Now, to put the `shoe on the other foot`; I would not want to work for a company where the management is so clueless that they allow employees to have unfettered access to he web; putting the company's assets at risk. It is damagers like this who I can not stand having to come in afterward, and clean up the mess they have left behind.

Thank God, a damager that ignored security protocols a few years back, and caused a breach was promptly SKITAed.

SKITA = `Swift Kick In The A--`
0 Votes
+ -
I need help
Cylon Centurion 23rd Sep 2010
remembering how to use my phone. Does anyone still know how to use one of those things?
0 Votes
+ -
RE: Facebook is experiencing outages; Office managers everywhere rejoice
apche_smurf 23rd Sep 2010
@Cylon Centurion 0005 What's a phone? u mean a cell? ha ha
0 Votes
+ -
Yeah! One of those things!
Cylon Centurion 23rd Sep 2010
@apche_smurf

But its all good now. Facebook is back up! Managers everywhere raise flag of defeat.
0 Votes
+ -
RE: Facebook is experiencing outages; Office managers everywhere rejoice
animageofmine1 23rd Sep 2010
i used it consistently this afternoon...din't face this issue...
0 Votes
+ -
RE: Facebook is experiencing outages; Office managers everywhere rejoice
Gis Bun 23rd Sep 2010
People around the world must of been going nuts while Facebook was having problems. I suspect shrinks were quite busy as well a psychiatric hospitals. happy
0 Votes
+ -
Those were the longest 2.5 hours of my life.
Cylon Centurion 24th Sep 2010
Face it, we're all addicted in some way or fashion.
0 Votes
+ -
RE: Facebook is experiencing outages; Office managers everywhere rejoice
terraterm 24th Sep 2010
i think facebook sucks and goverments across the world should ban it.

and don't go see the movie, like that dipstick needs anymore money.

if people really want to social network, go outside and meet real people.

i prefer the a real human being
0 Votes
+ -
good idea about facebook
gavin.chan 30th Sep
Good post, and I learn more about it. We supply various brands of camera and camcorder batteries, including Canon, Casio, Fuji, JVC, Nikon, Olympus, Panasonic, Sumsung and other brands. Buy Buy samsung digital camera battery from dealingway at wholesale price.XYyjR
0 Votes
+ -
RE: Facebook is experiencing outages; Office managers everywhere rejoice
jackson1984-24316069205748857739440257893812 10th Oct
Awesome submit! china nfl jerseys I choose to observe a follow up on this matter??
0 Votes
+ -
RE: Facebook is experiencing outages; Office managers everywhere rejoice
tomlin21-24319035676893835085146735905770 11th Oct
I am honestly dissatisfied of diploma reebok jerseys of this on-line web-site. I've certainly not previously seen so horrible written content items, finish not favorite!

Join the conversation!

Formatting +
BB Codes - Note: HTML is not supported in forums
  • [b] Bold [/b]
  • [i] Italic [/i]
  • [u] Underline [/u]
  • [s] Strikethrough [/s]
  • [q] "Quote" [/q]
  • [ol][*] 1. Ordered List [/ol]
  • [ul][*] · Unordered List [/ul]
  • [pre] Preformat [/pre]
  • [quote] "Blockquote" [/quote]
ie8 fix

The best of ZDNet, delivered

ZDNet Newsletters

Get the best of ZDNet delivered straight to your inbox

Facebook Activity

Blog Roll

Blog Archive

White Papers, Webcasts, & Resources
ie8 fix