GoDaddy.com is experiencing major technical difficulties this afternoon, according to the company. Reports online suggest that not only have thse problems darkened all GoDaddy sites but that they are related to the Daylight Saving Time switchover, which according to a press account from yesterday, GoDaddy tech support had dismissed as not applying to its servers because they are located in Arizona, which does not observe DST.
(Update, 8 p.m.: One report has GoDaddy saying that it was the victim of a DDoS attack. Make that two: There’s this statement on Slashdot.)
Callers to GoDaddy support this afternoon are greeted by a recorded message reporting that the company is “aware of the problem” and working on a fix. It also directs customers to the support page on GoDaddy’s site, which states:
Last network event occurred at: 3/11/2007 – We are currently experiencing technical difficulties.
We are currently experiencing technical difficulties. Thank you for your patience while we work through these issues.
According to this blogger, the problem is far-reaching:
“So Web fans, I thought it was my ISP, but it’s not,” he writes. “All Godaddy hosted sites are down. Yes you read that right. Why you may ask? I do not know, but there is a hypothesis it’s related to Daylight Saving Time. I guess I have egg on my face that nothing major would happen.”
Same with this blogger:
“The time is now 1:16 PM Eastern Daylight Savings Time (newly adjusted), on Sunday, March 11, 2007 – and it appears to me that none of my dozens of domain names registered and/or served at GoDaddy.com are working. I strongly suspect the problem is related to today’s change to Daylight Savings Time.”
Such suspicions spring from an IDG News Service article yesterday headlined “GoDaddy tells client its servers don’t need DST fix.”
That story carried this reply from GoDaddy to a customer’s concern about DST:
“Thank you for contacting Online Support. As Daylight Savings [sic] does not apply to our servers, since we are on Arizona Time and our time zone does not change, our servers wouldn’t update.”
After being contacted by a reporter, GoDaddy Chief Information Security Officer Neil Warner provided a different account, saying GoDaddy had done its due diligence regarding systems prep and patching.
“Further, over the weekend, Go Daddy developers and quality assurance teams will be monitoring the transition process closely. As for our corporate headquarters being located in Scottsdale, Arizona, while the fact that we do not participate in DST minimizes potential impact, we are taking all precautionary steps to ensure our customers, located all over the world, are not impacted,” the statement read.
I’m trying to get in touch with the company, but don’t be holding your breath.
(Update, 6:30 p.m.: GoDaddy Web site and tech-support phone message are indicating that the crisis has passed. Still no word on the cause.)
