MSN slowly returning after global outage

By Trevor Mogg September 8, 2011

At the time of writing, 9pm PT, all msn websites around the world are down and have been since around 8.30pm PT. These include Microsoft services such as Hotmail, Office 365 and SkyDrive.

A post on msn’s Twitter feed at 8.50pm PT said, “We’re currently experiencing an outage at www.msn.com We’re aware of the issue and working to resolve it. Thanks for your patience.”

In response to a tweet from someone complaining that they couldn’t access their Hotmail account, msn tweeted: “It’s totally inconvenient and we’re working to resolve it as fast as we can. sorry about this.” The cause of the outage is not immediately known.

UPDATE: A tweet from msn at 9.05pm PT said the company isn’t sure what the cause of the outage is and promised to tweet when it found out. “We’re working to find out why. this is an unusually long outage for us. sorry,” said another Twitter post from the company.

UPDATE 2: Hotmail appears to be working again, as of 9.30pm PT. However, the company is still working on other msn websites. This is a pretty long outage. Everyone ready for the cloud then?

UPDATE 3: Tweet from msn at 10.05pm PT: “we’ve had a global outage and things are slowly coming back online. Very sorry for the inconvenience.” The reason is still unknown, with msn saying it could “take hours to determine the root issue.”

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

Microsoft

Contributing Editor

Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…

Computing

How to pin a website to the taskbar in Windows

A man sits, using a laptop running the Windows 11 operating system.

Windows includes many interesting tools, but if you’re like many people, more and more of your digital life is happening in your web browser and nowhere else. That being the case, you’ll want to keep your most important websites close at hand. The easiest way to access them in Windows is the Start menu and the taskbar, treating them more or less like programs in and of themselves.

Although easy overall, getting a website from your browser to your taskbar is slightly different depending on which browser you’re using.

Web

Amazon’s Big Spring sale: Save on TVs, laptops, appliances, and more

Amazon Big Spring sale promo image

Deal hunter or not, you'll be pleased to know that Amazon's Big Spring sale is officially underway. It's your opportunity to save on a slew of buzzworthy deals, including TVs, laptops, appliances, various electronics, and much more. It shows that you don't always have to wait for Amazon's Prime Day to capitalize on fantastic discounts. If you've been holding off on buying something, hoping for a great deal, now's the time to pull the trigger. Because the sale is so massive, we've gathered a few of our top picks below. However, we still recommend browsing the sale to see what you can find.

What to shop in the Amazon Big Spring sale
For starters, if you want a new tablet, Samsung, Lenovo, and Google during the sale. The Galaxy Tab A9+ is available for 19% to 23% off. Meanwhile, Google's Pixel Tablet is 19% to 25% off, depending on the model. Samsung's , and its gaming monitor is down to $140, usually $190. Or, the beautiful and much larger curved gaming monitor is $700, normally $1,300.

Computing

How to create a Subreddit on desktop and mobile

Laptop Working from Home

Few social media sites are as popular as Reddit. Regardless of what you're interested in, there's probably a thriving community for you to interact with on the platform. Known as subreddits, these communities are home to topics like gaming, world news, science, movies, and more. If you can't find a subreddit with your particular interest, Reddit makes it easy to create your own Reddit community.

Running a successful Reddit community isn't easy – but the process of starting one only takes a few minutes. Keep in mind that you'll want to keep a close eye on your subreddit to prevent it from being shut down or turning into a wasteland with no users, but running a subreddit can be a lot of fun when done properly. If you prefer, you can also create a private community that only your friends can join, giving you a place to hang out beyond Twitter and TikTok.