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AIM Users Knocked Offline

Hardware glitch blamed for difficulties accessing instant messaging service and buddy lists.

By Scarlet Pruitt, IDG News   

While some users of America Online's Instant Messenger may have found themselves shut out of the network this week, an AOL spokesperson said Thursday that the problem, caused by hardware glitches, has been resolved.

"We had a couple of hardware issues which came up very quickly and were resolved very quickly," said AOL spokesperson Nicholas Graham.

The problems occurred while the company was doing "normal maintenance" on the system and the effect on users was "minimal," Graham said.

Some AIM users had problems logging onto the network Tuesday and Thursday mornings, around 8:30 a.m. EST, Graham confirmed. Some users also reported difficulties viewing their Buddy Lists.

Service Interruptions

While AIM addicts were frustrated by the disruptions, Graham said that occasional problems are bound to come up given that the company is frequently upgrading and making improvements to its system, but that the problems are "always dealt with efficiently and swiftly."

AIM's on again, off again service this week comes amid reports that rival instant messaging services from Yahoo and MSN are gaining ground.

But while IM competitors nip at AOL's heels, the company appears to be taking steps to swell its subscriber base at least by allowing AIM users to chat with users of its other popular IM service, ICQ. The interoperability is currently in beta testing and should be available in the next version of AIM.

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