I just discovered that the SiteMeter (www.sitemeter.com) tracking code that counts visitors to websites was causing visits from Internet Explorer to crash. I first realized the issue at 8:30pm Eastern Daylight Time (EDT).

After further investigation, i discovered that SiteMeter is bringing down every site where its counter code is loaded when the visiting browser is Internet Explorer versions 6.0 and 7.0. The error may also affect Internet Explorer 5.5.

Tens of thousands of publishers use sitemeter to track their content, including thousands of bloggers. The result: sitemeter takes down the internet? not quite, but its pretty amazing.

The text of the error is “Internet Explorer cannot open the internet site.”
How to Fix the IE error on Wordpress, Blogger, and Other Sites

remove the Sitemeter tracking code from your site and the site will loading fine. If you need to remove this from your site, the code you’re looking for is:

<!– Site Meter –>
<script type=”text/javascript” src=”http://s36.sitemeter.com/js/counter.js?site=s36oneprojectcloser”>
</script>
<noscript>
<a href=”http://s36.sitemeter.com/stats.asp?site=yourIDhere” target=”_top”>
<img src=”http://s36.sitemeter.com/meter.asp?site=yourIDhere” alt=”Site Meter” border=”0″/></a>
</noscript>
<!– Copyright (c)2006 Site Meter –>
Status Updates

Update @ 9:00pm EDT: No Change.

Update @ 9:30pm EDT: No Change.

Update @ 10:00pm EDT: No Change.

Update @ 10:30pm EDT: No Change.

Update @ 11:00pm EDT: No Change.

Update @ 11:30pm EDT: No Change.

Update @ 12:00am EDT: No Change.