EarthLink

EarthLink was one of the defining internet service providers of the dial-up era — the company name was synonymous with getting online for millions of Americans in the late 1990s. Founded in 1994 by Sky Dayton, EarthLink quickly became one of the largest dial-up ISPs in the country before the market shifted to broadband. Unlike most major ISPs from that era, EarthLink survived the transition by evolving into a national broadband provider that delivers internet service primarily by reselling or leasing access over other carriers' networks — including fiber, DSL, cable, and fixed wireless infrastructure. Today EarthLink serves residential customers with bundled internet, phone, and in some areas TV products as a national brand without owning significant physical infrastructure.

EarthLink's business model means it depends on relationships with multiple underlying network providers in different markets. The internet product a customer receives is technically delivered by a regional provider's infrastructure while billing, customer service, and account management flow through EarthLink. The My EarthLink app and portal handle account management, bill payments, and technical support. Because EarthLink operates as a reseller across heterogeneous network types, troubleshooting outages often involves determining whether the issue is at the EarthLink platform layer, the underlying carrier network layer, or the customer premises equipment.

Service disruptions for EarthLink customers can originate at multiple points in the delivery chain. Physical connectivity failures trace to the underlying network provider's infrastructure — DSL line faults, cable node failures, or fixed wireless outages — and may take longer to resolve because EarthLink must coordinate with a third-party carrier rather than dispatching its own technicians. Account-level issues, provisioning problems, and authentication failures trace to EarthLink's own systems. The My EarthLink portal becomes unavailable during EarthLink IT outages. Customers sometimes face confusion distinguishing EarthLink-side issues from the underlying carrier's network problems.

Outage.gg tracks EarthLink service disruptions using community reports from customers. If your EarthLink internet is down, the account portal is unavailable, or service is severely degraded, the live status page shows whether others are reporting similar problems.