America Online Loses E-Mail Service

America Online lost e-mail service for nearly five hours Tuesday during the third brownout in less than a month for the nation’s largest online service.

AOL, which is still installing new equipment because of massive outages earlier this year, said the problem causing the three brownouts should be eliminated after the company installs new hardware next month.

AOL spokesman Tom Ziemba said Tuesday’s problem started about 6 a.m. PST. Subscribers already using e-mail were blocked from all e-mail functions but still could use other AOL services such as access to the Internet. However, those not logged onto AOL could not use any functions.

By 8 a.m., the log-on capacity was fully restored but there still were problems with e-mail. By 9 a.m., subscribers could generate directories of their e-mail and read previous messages but could not send new messages.

By 10:40 a.m., AOL said, service was completely restored, no e-mail was lost, and AOL claimed to have a solution to its predicament.