Some of you may have noticed that The Register has been absent from computer screens the last couple of days.

An "administrative error" from PSI Net Europe , our DNS record-keeper, was to blame. On December 24, a PSI Net operative wrongly deleted us from its customer records and detagged our website address with Nominet.

If it had been an act of deliberate sabotage, the timing could not have been better. Although we were aware that there was a problem with the Web site on Christmas Day, and we knew the cause of the problem on Boxing Day early afternoon, we were unable to get PSI Net or Nominet to do anything about it until 6PM GMT this evening. The Christmas break has taken on a new meaning for us. It has also brought home to us how vulnerable web sites are, if we - a relatively big name - can be paralysed by the slip of a bureacrat's pen.

We are awaiting a report from PSI Net, which maintained our DNS records for more than three years without incident until December 24, to identify how this mistake occurred.

In the meantime we wish to apologise for any inconvenience to readers, advertisers and ecommerce partners. ®