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Router glitch cripples California DMV network

California workers resort to pen and paper during two-hour network outage at the Department of Motor Vehicles.

Elinor Mills Former Staff Writer
Elinor Mills covers Internet security and privacy. She joined CNET News in 2005 after working as a foreign correspondent for Reuters in Portugal and writing for The Industry Standard, the IDG News Service and the Associated Press.
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Elinor Mills

The California Department of Motor Vehicles department suffered a network outage on Thursday due to an equipment glitch, a state official said.

A router switch malfunctioned, said Bill Maile, spokesman for Office of Technology Services for the state of California.

"It's very rare," he said. "Our staff quickly diagnosed the problem and re-routed network traffic to restore connectivity."

The network was down for about two hours and was restored at about 1:40 p.m. PST, according to Maile.

There are 168 DMV offices throughout the state, said Jan Mendoza, spokeswoman for the DMV.

"We didn't close offices," she said. "When people came in we handled customers manually. We did it the old-fashioned way--with pen and paper."