Hardware components affecting the operation of iiNet's Virtual Private Server (VPS) failed Sunday, crippling iiNet's Webaffiliate web hosting service and its Echidna e-mail boxes.
iiNet technicians said the company had begun replacing faulty components Sunday and the VPS was restored to service around midday WST Monday. However, at the time, the ISP indicated that it hadn't mastered the problem permanently.
"Due to the unstable nature of the intermittent hardware fault, the server will continue to be monitored and a long term course of action will be enacted once more data on the cause of the faults is available," said the ISP in a network status report Monday.
The embattled server again began to falter by Tuesday evening but iiNet technicians restored it to service by Wednesday morning. At the time the company issued a notice informing its customers that its network services would continue to remain unstable until the end of the week.
During periods that the server was down,iiNet Webaffiliate customers were unable to use any of their accounts' functionality and Echidna e-mail boxes could not be accessed.
Webaffiliate is one of iiNet's premium business products. iiNet's business customers, which pay around AU$1200 per year for Webaffiliate, rely on the service for a critical Internet functions, including their customer sites and their branded internal email. The Echidna email service costs AU$60 per year.
According to iiNet, the problems may also have impacted on its consumer customers' Internet connections. Sydney users of iiNet's ADSL service have reported performance degradation and irregularities with their iiNet connections.
ZDNet Australia requested an interview with iiNet managing director Michael Malone for this report but he was unable to respond before publication.
