Excite, Yahoo E-Mail Systems Hit by Delays

PALO ALTO. —  E-mail service was delayed for millions of Excite@Home Corp. and Yahoo Inc. customers in recent days because of problems with the technology that supports the services.

Excite@Home said the e-mail on its high-speed @Home service has been delayed for about two days, since one of the two “load balancers” that supports the system failed. As of midday Wednesday, the balancer was fixed but the e-mail was still delayed one to two hours because of backlogs.