robert_cringely
Columnist

AOL goes AWOL

analysis
Aug 23, 20072 mins

AOL – or at least the Webmail portion of the service – appears to have pulled a Skype. According to postings on AOL's webmail messageboards, the service has been inaccessible for roughly 24 hours, with no explanation forthcoming as to why. Untold numbers of AOL sufferers are encountering the mysterious error code C0FE1800 when they try to log in to their accounts. Notes one agitated AO-Heller: I agree with the o

AOL – or at least the Webmail portion of the service – appears to have pulled a Skype. According to postings on AOL’s webmail messageboards, the service has been inaccessible for roughly 24 hours, with no explanation forthcoming as to why.

Untold numbers of AOL sufferers are encountering the mysterious error code C0FE1800 when they try to log in to their accounts. Notes one agitated AO-Heller:

I agree with the others when I say the new “improved” aol sucks. It has gotten a lot worse and every time I log in sometimes it will let me read my mail and sometimes it won’t. Its freaking ridiculous and someone better fix it soon so I can switch to some other email provider.

Anybody out there know what’s going on? Post your answers below or email them to me here.

(Thanks to Cringester K. H. for that late breaking tip.)

UPDATE: An AOL spokesperson says “we experienced a sporadic AOL Web Mail outage earlier today. Our product team identified the problem quickly and put a solution in place by 2:00 pm EST restoring service to members.”

However, disgruntled AOL users continue to post complaints as of one minute ago (or 2.5 hours after service was allegedly restored). So… who knows what’s really going on over there.