A slowdown prevented some visitors from reaching Dell Computer's Web site Wednesday, potentially costing the PC maker sales during the holiday shopping season.
The outage, during which some customers could not access the site and others experienced slow download times, has lasted several hours so far. A representative for Dell, the No. 1 PC manufacturer, confirmed that there was a problem and that the company's information technology department was working to resolve it, but did not give details about the glitch.
Dell's Web site, with its sales, support and information pages, has become an essential tool for the company in promoting its PCs and other products as well as in interacting with its customers.
The outage looks likely to cause the company some financial damage, but determining how much could be tricky.