Information Technology Services

Blackboard Access Issues

Resolved

On April 25th, a change was executed to enhance our DNS services to prevent DDoS events like the one that took place on 4/20. This change was not successful which propagated incorrect DNS information across the internet. The change was rolled back but DNS is a pull- based request and took time to propagate the correction across the internet. Some users needed to flush their DNS cache or contact their internet provider to flush at ISP level.

Initial Alert

A small number of users are reporting issues accessing Blackboard. Blackboard is aware of the issue with their hosted service and confirms the issue is resolved for most users.

If users continue to receive errors such as “DNS server error” or “This site cannot be reached” flushing your computer’s DNS cache may help. If this does not work, users can try a different network to access Blackboard – such as a different wifi network, using a cellular hotspot, Mason’s VPN, etc.