BY CHRIS ALLBRITTON
AP Cyberspace Writer
NEW YORK -- Parts of the Internet almost came to a halt Friday when millions of people worldwide swamped government computers and Web sites in search of Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr's report. It was a case of cyber-gridlock as surfers jockeyed for a chance to download the document. While no exact numbers were available, some called it the Internet's busiest day ever.
"This is the first big test of the Internet to distribute a lot of data," said Mark Simmer, a vice president at Web directory Lycos, which carried Starr's report.
"It wasn't designed as a broadcast medium. It was designed as a communication medium," he said. "It's like everyone lifting up the same phone to talk to their mother on Mother's Day."
The news Web site MSNBC.com reported 26 servers working at full capacity -- and more were being installed to meet demand.
"It looks as though we're going to double our highest day," said spokeswoman Loren Pomerantz, referring to the 1.1 million users who accessed the site Aug. 17, when President Clinton testified and addressed the country about his relationship with Monica Lewinsky.
Once the report was posted, CNN's Web site was getting more than 400,000 hits a minute, spokesman Kerrin Roberts said. That was higher than the record 320,000 a minute Aug. 31 when the Dow Jones industrial average plunged.
To ease the crush, CNN.com stripped out most pictures and graphics to present a fast-loading version.
On America Online, usage increased by 30 percent over the same time period last week. In first hour the report was available -- between 3 p.m. and 4 p.m. EDT -- more than 62,000 copies were downloaded at a rate of about 1,000 a minute.
And traffic on The Associated Press' Web site peaked at about 20 times the normal load just prior to the release shortly before 2 p.m., said Ruth Gersh, editor of the AP's multimedia services. Even TV anchors had problems getting the report quickly. "If somebody wants to step over to the fax machine and fax us, we'd appreciate it," said CBS' Dan Rather.
Government computers fared no better. An hour after the report was released, the White House, Senate and House Web sites were hopelessly snarled, as were the four other government sites offering it.
All across the Internet, the slowdown was felt. According to the Internet Traffic Report, a Web site that monitors and indexes the Net's speed, North America and Europe were most affected, especially the areas around New York and Washington.
Gene Shklar, a spokesman for Keynote Systems Inc., a company that tracks Internet performance, said the trouble was in getting into the sites. Once someone got in, they usually could quickly view the document.
The slowdown shows the Web is still primitive, said Abdelsalam Heddaya, vice president of Infolibria, a maker of computers that help move data around the Net.
Another problem, he said, is "flash crowds" -- hordes of Internet users suddenly interested in a single site. That problem can only grow as more people come online, adding to the approximately 70 million regular Internet users in the United States.
