Return-Path: To: jp@midcoast.com Date: Tue, 14 Sep 1999 15:04:30 Subject: Site Availability Dear Jason Philbrook: We have been experiencing performance problems with the Planet Direct service. The problems manifest themselves in the home page taking a long time to load or timing out so it doesn't load at all, or news stories and weather being inaccura te or blank. This means active portals loading those features may not work corr ectly either. The problem is with the database that holds the data displayed on pages, like ne wsfeeds (e.g., Reuters, weather) and personalization information, and how the da tabase connects with the service. The problem is intermittent and unpredictable, but when it occurs it usually aff ects only a portion of our servers, which means only some of your customers, but not all of them, may experience the problem. The servers usually come back on- line in a matter of minutes, not hours. This is the highest priority for Planet Direct right now, we are working around the clock to fix it, and our technology partners Oracle, Navisite, and Compaq ar e assisting us. Hardware has been ordered and should be installed and running by the end of the week, if not before. We recognize this creates a major problem for you, in terms of customer complain ts and quality of service you provide, we apologize for it, and we are dedicated to getting the issue resolved as quickly as possible.