Technical troubles sparked by an overload of user traffic left millions of Excite Email users unable to access their messages for a good part of Tuesday.
Officials at Excite@Home, which runs the email service, say the troubles began around 7 a.m. EST, when a flood of traffic from workers and students checking e-mail after the Labor Day holiday caused a jam.
Added to that, the company had just launched a radio campaign for its Internet-based VoiceMail service, which put even more strain on the system.
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"We're having a bit of a capacity issue," said Faith Sedlin, director of messaging at Excite@Home, who acknowledged that most Excite email users had intermittent trouble accessing their accounts throughout the day.
Excite officials said the email system appeared to be functioning normally by 7 p.m. EST.
The failure was one of several recent lapses among large providers of free Web-based email. Last week, the heat was on Microsoft's HotMail for a security breach that left more than 40 million accounts without password protection.
Excite officials said it was possible that some of its increased traffic came from HotMail users hopping to a competing service, but that the main source of the service overload was more likely returning vacationers and new voicemail customers.
