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NEWS ABOUT THE NEWS SERVER
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ABSnet, the provider from whom we get our Usenet News service, has made
some interesting and potentially useful changes:

o A series of Web pages now provides information about how the server is
  currently running, how much news is being received and transmitted, what
  are the most popular groups, and announcements of scheduled maintenance.
  Point your Web browser at http://news.abs.net and take a look.

o At times the response is slow when you are reading news articles.  One
  cause is the fact that the same NNTP port (port 119) on the news server
  handles all incoming/outgoing news feeds as well as read/post connections
  from news readers.  A second NNTP port (120) has been configured to
  handle only read/post connections.  This divides the connection load,
  and should result in faster response time when you are reading and
  posting news articles.

  To take advantage of this you must make a minor change in your news
  reader's configuration.  Where you now have "news.abs.net" as the news
  server (NNTP server) address, change it to one of the following

  news.abs.net 120          Most news readers will accept all three of
  news.abs.net:120          these formats.  Check your manual if you
  news.abs.net,120          are not sure about yours.

  This change is optional.  You will still be able to read and post news
  articles if you don't make the change, but the revised server address
  may provide a performance boost.

o In the not too distant future ABSnet will bring up a second news server
  dedicated to processing news feeds.  The current server will then handle
  only connections from news readers.  This will dramatically increase the
  performance of the entire news subsystem.  If all goes according to
  plan, the new server should be up and running by late December.

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Please do not reply to this message!  If you have questions about this or
about anything else related to your BCPL Internet Account, please contact
the BCPL Help Desk. 

 Phone:   410-887-3297
 FAX:     410-887-2091
 E-Mail:  help@mail.bcpl.lib.md.us

 Help Pages:            http://www.bcpl.lib.md.us/help.html
                        (or enter "help" at the UNIX shell prompt)

 System News Archives:  http://www.bcpl.lib.md.us/sysnews.html
                        (or enter "sysnews" at the UNIX shell prompt)