----------------------------- BCPL.NET SYSTEM NEWS CATCH-UP ----------------------------- A lot has been happening that I haven't had a chance to tell you about, so this is a catch-up edition of System News. It covers a variety of topics and is likely to be VERY long, so get comfortable. -------------------- MODEM POOL EXPANSION -------------------- We have ordered another Cisco AS5200 access server (46 modems), which will increase the 410-296-5500 modem pool to 414 modems. If past deliveries are any indication it should be here by about the second week of April. Another access server has been budgeted for June, which will increase the pool to 460 modems. --------------- DUAL T1 UPGRADE --------------- The connection between us and our "upstream provider" (UUNET Technologies) is currently a T1 line capable of providing 1.54 megabits per second worth of bandwidth. Until recently this has been more than adequate. Average usage was only about half the available bandwidth, with only occasional spikes up to full bandwidth. In recent months our average usage has climbed rapidly and we have been spiking to the full bandwidth of the T1 line more and more often. Contributing factors are increased use of 56K modems by our customers, steadily increasing e-mail volume to and from our system, and a steadily increasing number of hits on the Library's and customers' Web pages. The situation hasn't reached crisis stage yet, but it is clear that we will need a larger pipeline out to the Internet in the very near future. To address this we have accepted a very attractive "Dual T" upgrade offer from UUNET, which will increase the available bandwidth between BCPL and UUNET to 3 megabits per second. Installation should occur some time in April. ---------- STATISTICS ---------- As mentioned above, the flow of e-mail and Web traffic through our system has been increasing. Our e-mail system now handles 25,000 to 30,000 incoming messages and 20,000 to 25,000 outgoing messages per day. Our Web server now handles an average of 225,00 0 hits per day from people browsing our site, serving out an average of 2.4 gigabytes worth of Web documents per day in the process. We have no statistics on traffic generated by BCPL users browsing non-BCPL Web sites. ------------------------- E-MAIL MESSAGE SIZE LIMIT ------------------------- During December our e-mail system was swamped by huge graphical "season's greetings" file attachments, causing the "mail spool" area of our disk space to fill up several times. To prevent the mail system from grinding to a halt for lack of space, we imposed a limit on the maximum message size our mail system will accept. The intention was to remove the limit once we were past the holiday season, and I have removed the limit experimentally several times since then. Unfortunately, each time the result has been mail spool overflow. For better or worse, the sending of huge "recreational" file attachments seems to have become a permanent fixture in modern Internet culture. The per-message size limit is currently set to three megabytes. Any message larger than that, whether inbound or outbound, will be rejected by the mail system. Even with the 3 MB limit there have been times when the mail spool has become dangerously full. To alleviate this and other disk space problems, we have budgeted money for additional hard disks to be ordered near the end of our fiscal year (June). The 3 MB per message limit will have to stay in effect until the new disks are installed. ------------------- DOMAIN NAME CHANGES ------------------- As some of you already know, we are in the process of splitting the existing "bcpl.lib.md.us" Internet domain into several new domains: BCPL.LIB.MD.US Our original domain name will be retained for use by the Library itself, primarily to identify computers and other resources on the Library's internal wide area network. BCPLONLINE.ORG This new domain name will be used for the Library's own Web site, and will give it a more recognizable and more easily remembered URL. The official URL for the Library's home page is now http://www.bcplonline.org. The old URL (http://www.bcpl.lib.md.us) will continue to work well into the future, but we urge you to use the new URL from now on. The new bcplonline.org domain may be expanded in future to include other Library projects. BCPL.NET This new domain name will be used for everything associated with BCPL Internet Services. This will provide several benefits for our customers: o E-mail addresses will be shorter and easier to remember. For example, "John Doe's" address will change from "jdoe@mail.bcpl.lib.md.us" to "jdoe@bcpl.net". This phase of the project has been partly implemented. Mail addressed to "jdoe@bcpl.net" will be delivered correctly to John Doe's mailbox even though the switchover is not complete. Instructions on how to reconfigure your mail programs to send mail using your new e-mail address will be posted soon. A dry run using the members of our BCPL-PPP mailing list as guinea pigs demonstrated that detailed instructions are needed in order to prevent confusion. I'm working on it... This will not affect delivery of e-mail sent to your old address! Mail addressed the old way will still be delivered correctly to your mailbox, but please use the new format from now on when you give out your e-mail address. o If you have Web pages on our server, your URL will be shorter and easier to remember. Instead of "http://www.bcpl.lib.md.us/~jdoe/home.html", "John Doe's" URL is now "http://www.bcpl.net/~jdoe/home.html". This phase of the project has already been implemented. Requests sent to the old URL are now redirected by the Web server to the new URL. This will not affect access to your Web pages bt browsers browsers using your old URL. Requests to your old URL will still work, but please use the new format from now on when you give out your URL. o If you use a PPP connection, as most customers do these days, your computer will be seen by the outside world as a member of the bcpl.net domain instead of the bcpl.lib.md.us domain. This phase of the project has already been fully implemented. One beneficial side effect is that you will no longer be rejected by remote sites that don't recognize the ".US" root domain as being in the United States, but allow downloading of export-restricted files only if you are in the United States. Watch for updates on this project in future editions of System News. ---------------------------- LAST WEEKEND'S WEB WEIRDNESS ---------------------------- On a related topic, last weekend (March 7 & 8) I did some experimenting with new Web server configurations to support the new multiple domain names. Due to a minor configuration glitch, at one point all requests for customers' Web pages were bringing up the Library's home page instead. The mistake was corrected quickly so the problem existed for only a short period of time, but a lot of you noticed and sent e-mail about it. Sorry about the confusion! --------------- WEB SERVER LOGS --------------- Some of you who have personal Web pages here extract statistics from the Web server's logs, which are located in the /carl/httpd/logs directory. Each log is "rotated" on a weekly basis, which means the log is stopped at the end of the week and a new log is started for the new week. The rotation schedule has remained the same for a long time, but due to disk space considerations we sometimes have to deviate from the schedule. Lately this has been necessary more often than not. o access_log, error_log, and referer_log are renamed access_log.0, error_log.0, and referer_log.0 at 12:00 AM Sunday morning. At the same time new access_log, error_log, and referer_log files are started for the new week. o error_log.0 and referer_log.0 are deleted at 12:00 AM Tuesday morning unless the hard disk containing /carl/httpd/logs becomes dangerously full. If that happens I delete error_log.0 and referer_log.0 ahead of time. This hasn't been necessary so far, but may be if the logs become any larger. o access_log.0 stays in place until the next weekly rotation (12:00 AM Sunday morning) unless the hard disk containing /carl/httpd/logs becomes dangerously full. If that happens I delete access_log.0 ahead of time, usually late Friday or early Saturday. The new hard disks mentioned earlier will allow us to leave the Web server logs in place longer, but that won't happen until early Summer. Until then, if you need to extract statistics from access_log.0 it will be best to do so early in the week. I'll leave access_log.0 in place as long as possible, but don't count on it being there for you at the end of the week. ------------------------------ GETTING HELP WITH YOUR ACCOUNT ------------------------------ An increasing number of you are sending e-mail to our "webmaster" address when you need help with your accounts. Please don't! The library's Webmasters are not involved in the running of BCPL Internet Services, so they are not able to answer most of your questions. If you need help with anything related to your account, please contact the BCPL Internet Help Desk at 410-887-3297 or help@bcpl.net. ------------------ BCPL MAILING LISTS ------------------ Speaking of getting help, BCPL offers several mailing lists (e-mail discussion groups) that are excellent sources of technical help and advice. This is a good time to remind our users about the lists and how to subscribe to and unsubscribe from them. BCPL-PPP: Support for issues related to PPP connections and for software that requires a PPP connection. WEBWRITERS: Support for users interested in authoring and publishing on the World Wide Web. PCUSERS: Support for users of PC and PC compatible computers. MACUSERS: Support for users of Macintosh and MacOS compatible computers. UNIXUSERS: Support for people who use UNIX shell access to their BCPL accounts. To Join or Leave a BCPL Mailing List: ------------------------------------ o Address an e-mail message to majordomo@bcpl.net o The Subject line is ignored by Majordomo, so you can leave it blank. o In the body of the message write only "subscribe" (to join a list) or "unsubscribe" (to leave a list) followed by the name of the list you want to join or leave. For example, the following will subscribe you to the MACUSERS mailing list: subscribe macusers And the following will remove you from the PCUSERS list: unsubscribe pcusers o If your mail program automatically adds a "signature" to the ends of your messages, write "end" on the line below the subscribe or unsubscribe command, like this: subscribe unixusers end o You may join or leave more than one list with a single message. For example, the following will remove you from the UNIXUSERS and PCUSERS lists and add you to the BCPL-PPP, WEBWRITERS, and MACUSERS lists: unsubscribe unixusers unsubscribe pcusers subscribe bcpl-ppp subscribe webwriters subscribe macusers end When Majordomo receives a subscription request it sends an automated confirmation message containing important information about the list you have joined. Please save it for future reference! ------------------ THAT'S ALL FOR NOW ------------------ My typing finger (singular intended) is tired and your eyes are probably going blurry on you, so I'll stop now. Tune in next time... --------------------------------------------------------------------- Please contact the BCPL Help Desk if you have questions about the contents of this System News message or about anything else related to your account. Phone: 410-887-3297 FAX: 410-887-2091 E-Mail: help@bcpl.net Help Pages: http://www.bcpl.net/help.html (or enter "help" at the UNIX shell prompt) System News Archives: http://www.bcpl.net/sysnews.html (or enter "sysnews" at the UNIX shell prompt)