PlayStation Network: PSN Is Still Down Three Days After Initial Attack, 18 Hours After Sony Claims ‘Gradual’ Fix Underway

Update: Sony announced on Twitter that service should be fully restored for all PS4, PS3 and PSP users. However, it said shortly after 5 p.m. EST that PS4 users who are still having trouble connecting should try rebooting their console.

Additionally, readers have said that there is one network setting that helps with those who are still having trouble after a reboot. Please note that this network setting fix may have worked for some users, and not all, and is not official advice from Sony, so proceed with caution.

Go into the PS4's "Settings" menu, select "Network" and then "Set Up Internet Connection." Then go to "Use Wi-Fi" and then "Custom," select your wireless network and fill in the necessary settings. Under "MTU Settings," select "Manual" and change the value for "maximum transmission units" from the default 1,500 to 1,473. Then try connecting again.

Original post follows: The PlayStation Network, or PSN, is still down for a number of users three days after hackers followed through on threats to hack the gaming network Christmas Day. The group, calling itself Lizard Squad, took out Microsoft’s Xbox Live service in addition to Sony's PSN.

Microsoft was able to restore much of its Xbox Live service hours after Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom claimed to have stopped the attacks by offering the hackers free lifetime subscriptions to his file-storage service. PSN remained down Friday evening, but the PlayStation team said service would be “gradually” restored shortly after 4 a.m. EST Saturday.

That still does not appear to be the case for many users. More than 18 hours after claiming PSN was down, customers say they are still incapable of logging into the service. The manufacturer did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

“PSN engineers are working hard to restore full network access and online gameplay as quickly as possible,” Catherine Jensen, vice president of Sony Computer Entertainment of America, said in a blog post Saturday at 3 p.m. EST. “From time to time there may be disruptions in service due to surges in traffic, but our engineers will be working to restore service as quickly as possible.”

Sony charges $50 per year for access to PSN, which allows owners of its PlayStation 4 (PS4) and PS3 game consoles to play online. A number of comments on the blog post complained about the situation.

“For every day we cant login into PSN you should give us additional days of FREE [PlayStation Plus],” one wrote. Another posted the “DDOS attacks ended almost a day ago keep in mind Xbox Live is up and running since yesterday.” Jensen replied Sony understood users’ “frustration.”

The Lizard Squad said Friday it would no longer attack Sony’s PSN and Xbox Live, and Dotcom said he would revoke the Megaupload passes if the hackers did not refrain from similar attacks. The group has displayed particular animosity toward Sony, once grounding an executive's plane with a bomb threat. The Lizard Squad previously took down PSN with similar denial of service attacks in August and September.

The hacking group has since moved on to attacking the Tor network, free software that enables anonymous connections to the Internet and bypasses censorship efforts. Tor has been criticized for enabling access to child pornography and not actually protecting the identity of its users.

The FBI said it would investigate the attack but offered few details. FBI spokeswoman Jenny Shearer told Reuters the agency was “aware of the reports and ... investigating the Sony PlayStation matter.”

The Sony Corporation has been the target of a number of high-profile cyberattacks in the past, including a devastating attack on its film division that allowed hackers access to private data, internal emails and unreleased films that they then distributed to the public.