Slowdowns Smack Level 3, Verio

(Nasdaq: LVLT) and Verio experienced major network slowdowns in the wee hours this morning, causing noticeable disruption to parts of the Internet.

The networks appeared to have recovered before much of North America headed out for work, according to the Internet Health Report provided by Keynote Systems Inc.

Keynote reports seeing "significant delays" on Level 3 and Verio's backbone networks between midnight and 8:00 a.m. Eastern time on Oct. 21. "The delays and lack of availability were pretty uniform from all geographic locations in the U.S., Asia-Pac and Europe," a Keynote statement reads.

According to internetnews.com, the culprit in Level 3's case was a software maintenance upgrade that unwittingly unleashed a routing instability. At press time, no similar explanation had emerged for Verio's troubles.

The problems don't appear related to Level 3's feud with (Amex: COI). Earlier this month, Level 3 axed its peering connection with Cogent, causing problems for the companies that use either carrier for Internet access. (See Internet Peering on Thin Ice? , Level 3 Tweaks Cogent, and Cogent Tweaks Level 3.)

— Craig Matsumoto, Senior Editor, Light Reading