Hiccups at Packet 8 due to DNS problems

It seems 8x8 (Packet8) might have a "Service outages before announcing fiscal results" curse. On Thursday, Packet 8 customers were reporting that the company's VoIP service was interrupted and its website was down - not the kind of news the company is looking to talk about when it discusses its 3QFY09 earnings on Jan. 29.

A spokesperson for Packet 8 said that problems arose around 7 p.m. PST Jan. 22.  A DNS (domain name service) registry problem with www.packet8.net [1] resulted in customers not being able to reach the packet8.net website and having failures in phone service; Registry.com apparently mucked something up in the process. Packet8's phones and digital terminal adopters have "several" hard coded fail-over processes built into them, but DNS issues prevented the mechanism from working as anticipated.

Most ISPs updated to correct DNS routings within minutes of the initial problem, except AT&T, AT&T Mobile and Time Warner Roadrunner on the East Coast, said the spokesperson; at some point Cox and Verizon were also involved, according to DSL Reports. Packet8 contacted its customers with a workout for endpoints and phones and was working to contact ISPs to push DNS updates.

This isn't the first time 8x8 has had problems just before a looming financial call. Back at the end of July 2008, a residential service interruption might have lasted for at least an hour or so due to a Packet8 database crash at a Level 3 data center; business customers were unaffected.

Some Packet8 customers previously having service with SunRocket had some déjà vu and panic over the service interruption before matters were solved; SunRocket service and its webpage abruptly disappeared as the company went out of business.

For more:
- DSL Reports report [2].

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