Millennium Madness: eBay takes no chances with Y2K bug

Huge US auction house eBay will pull the plugs on its Web site between 3.30 PM Pacific Standard Time today to 6 PM PST today, and again at 11PM PST in order to perform what it describes as "Y2K verification". Ebay says it will open for business tomorrow, Saturday the 1st of January 2000 at 3 AM PST. Throughout this year, eBay has been plagued by downtime, leading to complaints from its users and some criticism of the Sun hardware used to run its system. In a statement on its Web site, eBay says that attempting to connect during the downtimes may lead to users being unable to connect. That makes sense. A letter to its customers on its Web site apologises to users for problems they may have experienced during this year. However, Sun is insouciant about the Y2K. Its site shows no problems with its kit...so far...although it says it will update customers on a regular basis through the midnight hours... ® See also Scott McNealy uses Tardis to reassure customers about Y2K bug