Subject: Tuesday January 22 Date: Tue, 22 Jan 2002 13:07:43 -0500 From: "Courtiss, Beth" To: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Dear Valued Hosting.com Customer: On Tuesday January 22, our Boston Internet Data Center (IDC) experienced a network outage. We have received many concerned requests for explanation and assurance that this will not occur in the future. This answers your very appropriate questions about what happened, why, and the steps we are taking to maintain reliability and your continued confidence in our service. What happened? 9:15 AM - One of the components in one of the Access Layer Switches, failed causing an excess of traffic flooding our internal network in our Charlestown Data Facility. Our Network Engineering team immediately started to troubleshoot the issue. Why did this happen? The equipment experienced a hardware failure. We are currently working with Cisco to establish a root cause. We have shipped the faulty piece of equipment to them for their analysis. What we did to correct the problem: We removed all of the customers from the failed piece of equipment. This brought the traffic flow back to normal and all customers were up and operational at 10:50 AM. What steps are being taken to prevent reoccurrence? Hosting.com is currently working with the Advanced Network Services Group at Cisco to review the design to minimize the impact if any hardware failures occur in the future. Are you eligible for service credits for the downtime? Yes, please go to our website www.hosting.com click on Customer Service and then click on Billing Services and request a billing adjustment. Who can address other questions or concerns? Please call the Hosting.com at 800-772-6771. You may also write to support@hosting.com. We value your confidence and loyalty, and look forward regaining your faith in us. It is our duty to earn your trust through consistently reliable service every day, around the clock. Sincerely, Customer Care Hosting.com, an Allegiance Telecom company Beth Courtiss Project Manager Hosting.com Phone: 781-478-1891 beth.courtiss@hosting.com