A temporary breakdown in communication between two irc servers that results in a single string of servers becoming two separate strings.

When netlag gets really bad, and delays between servers exceed a certain threshhold, the {IRC} network effectively becomes partitioned for a period of time, and large numbers of people seem to be signing off at the same time and then signing back on again when things get better. An instance of this is called a 'netburp' (or sometimes, netsplit).

When one group of servers turns into two groups of servers due to bad lag.