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from Reuters on Friday, March 21, 2003

PALO ALTO, Calif. (Reuters) - Several government Web sites in the United States and United Kingdom have been caught off-guard by traffic spikes spurred by the looming attack on Iraq and worries about a rise in terrorist attacks. "Some of the major government sites are having a very difficult time ... the government hasn't necessarily experienced this before," said Eric Siegel, principal Internet Consultant at Silicon Valley's Keynote Systems Inc. KEYN.O , a Web performance management and testing company that tracks top sites.

"The U.S. Army home page is continuing to have severe problems," Siegel said.

That site, at www.army.mil, is taking about 80 seconds to load and only 7 of 10 people who attempt to connect to it are successful. The problems started on Monday and have continued to worsen as time has passed, Siegel said.

Web users have also had a harder time getting to the U.S. Marine Corps' official Web site at www.usmc.mil.

Half of the U.K. residents trying to connect with the Home Office's site for terrorism information and advice -- www.homeoffice.gov.uk/terrorism/ -- during peak day-time hours failed to get through.

Many operators of news and information sites in the United States and Britain have already made preparations for traffic spikes -- having suffered similar woes during big news days or the busy holiday shopping season.

In Europe, Internet service providers are bracing for traffic surges the likes of which they've never before experienced. Suspecting much of the news to break while Europeans are asleep, ISPs are counting on a surge in traffic in the early part of a work day.

French ISP Wanadoo NAD.PA said it had invested in extra computer servers to keep e-mail, Web-surfing, and chatting functions performing at normal levels, customary protocol for ISPs expecting audience levels to shoot up by the tens of thousands in a short span. (Additional reporting by Bernhard Warner in London)

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