Comcast's Internet service hit by glitches

updated 7:54 p.m. ET April 14, 2005

PHILADELPHIA - Comcast's high-speed Internet customers nationwide have suffered Web and e-mail problems since last week, the company said Thursday.

The intermittent nature of the problem made it difficult to pinpoint how many of Comcast's nearly 7 million broadband customers have been affected, Comcast spokeswoman Jeanne Russo said.

Some Web pages took a long time to load or were inaccessible altogether. E-mail was down for some.

The exact cause of the problem had not been determined, but the troubles related to Comcast's Domain Name Server system, which translates easy-to-remember domain names like "AP.org" into a Web site's actual numeric address, Russo said.

The latest service disruption started about 8:30 p.m. Wednesday and ended shortly after midnight. Customers experienced similar problems last Thursday and during a three-hour period Tuesday starting around 6:30 p.m.

Russo said the problems have been confined to the evening hours.

"Throughout most of the day it doesn't seem to be a problem," she said.

Comcast Corp. provides Internet service to customers in 35 states and the District of Columbia.

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