Internet To Close For Maintenance This Weekend

April 1, 2005 Posted: 6:36 AM EDT (1136 GMT)

BERN, Switzerland (Reuters) — Long-scheduled maintenance will bring the Internet down this Saturday from 9PM to 3AM Greenwich Mean Time.

The Internet Architecture Board, in coordination with the United Nations, has planned an “infrastructure maintenance window” for several years. According to IAB Senior Consultant Ursula Techenspüf “such a massive network requires occasional maintenance to upgrade aging equipment.” Also planned is the first resorting of IP (Internet Protocol) numbers since before the dotcom boom.

Techenspüf added “Years ago, when the Internet was largely academic, such maintenance was not as stressful or disruptive. Most maintenance can be performed on a ‘hot’ network now, but resetting of the Internet core still requires taking it down.”

Users should not expect to lose much data, although experts do warn of a potential data surge when the network comes back up, and advise users to bring systems back on the network slowly and cautiously.

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