copied this from another board:
Dear Trader:
Yesterday afternoon at 3:17PM ET your trading facility with IB was temporarily
interrupted along with 460 other users. This interruption lasted between 2 minutes
and for some as long as 30 minutes.
We have traced the cause of this problem and took measures to forego an other
event triggered by the same conditions.
We would like to assume more of the burden of this interruption and demonstrate to
you our long term commitment to error free service. To this end, in early September,
we will credit your account (one account per user) with the first $1,000. - of your
commission expenses for the month of August.
Sincerely yours,
Thomas Peterffy