----------------------------- BCPL.NET SYSTEM NEWS CATCH-UP ----------------------------- This is a catch-up edition of System News so it will be very long. If you can't read it in one sitting, you can read it later in our System News archives at http://www.bcpl.net/sysnews.html. I apologize for my lack of communication recently, but several library projects unrelated to BCPL.NET Internet Services have been occupying most of my time in recent weeks so I haven't posted System News or been active in our mailing lists for quite a while. Apologies also to customers who have been trying to reach me by phone. I quite literally have been phoneless for the past week, so I expect to have a LOT of messages waiting for me on Monday July 6. I'll return your calls as quickly as possible, but if you need immediate help with your BCPL.NET account you should call the Help Desk at 410-887-3297. Topics: Employment Opportunities ABSnet News Server Problems Domain Name Change Update Private Domain Hosting Dual-T Service Implemented V.90 Modem Upgrade ------------------------ EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES ------------------------ Baltimore County Public Library has two computer-related employment opportunities that may be of interest to BCPL.NET customers: An Internal (not Internet!) Help Desk Coordinator, and a Database Specialist. For details point your Web browser at http://www.bcplonline.org/jobads. --------------------------- ABSNET NEWS SERVER PROBLEMS --------------------------- Several days ago the news server at ABSnet (news.abs.net) suffered a disk array failure, causing the server to hang frequently. For the past 24 hours or so it has been completely down, so we have no access to Usenet News. The folks at ABSnet have ordered new drives which (hopefully) will have arrived by the time you read this. ABSnet will also add more RAM and upgrade to a faster CPU when they install the new drives. I will let you know via System News when the news server is back on line. STOP THE PRESSES! According to my network monitoring software, news.abs.net came back up at 7:07 PM this evening (July 4). Newsgroup junkies, start your newsreaders! ------------------------- DOMAIN NAME CHANGE UPDATE ------------------------- As announced in System News on May 3, the official Internet domain name for our ISP operation is now BCPL.NET and you may now use "jdoe@bcpl.net" as your e-mail address instead of the old "jdoe@mail.bcpl.lib.md.us". If you missed that System News message, please read it in our System News archives at http://www.bcpl.net/sysnews.html and read the instructions that begin at http://www.bcpl.net/help/newdom.html. For most customers the change went smoothly. If you haven't yet made the change, the following questions frequently received by the Help Desk point out some things to watch out for: Q: When I changed to "jdoe@bcpl.net" the system no longer recognized my password. Why? A: If you use a PC or Mac based mail program and have it configured to remember your password, you may have to tell it to remember your password all over again. This is because changing the mail server addresses from "mail.bcpl.lib.md.us" to "mail.bcpl.net" makes some mail programs think you are changing to an entirely different service. The software assumes your password is different on the "new" service, so it forgets the "old" password. The solution varies from one mail program to another, but usually involves turning off the "Remember Password" option, quitting and restarting the mail program, and turning the "Remember Password" option back on. The next time you collect your mail you should be prompted to enter your password, and your mail program will remember it from then on. Q: Since I changed my e-mail address to "jdoe@bcpl.net" my messages posted to mailing lists never appear on the lists, or else they appear with a "non-member submission" tag added. I really am a member of those lists, so what's going on? A: This happens because mailing lists identify you by your e-mail address, not by your real name, and almost all mailing lists reject posts from non-members. If you subscribed to a list as "jdoe@mail.bcpl.lib.md.us", then start posting as "jdoe@bcpl.net", your messages will be rejected. As far as the list management software is concerned "jdoe@bcpl.net" is not a list member. The solution is described in the instructions we put on the Web back in May (starting at http://www.bcpl.net/help/newdom.html), but apparently a lot of folks didn't bother to read that far. If you belong to any e-mail mailing lists and have not yet changed your e-mail address, please read the instructions completely before you change anything in your mail program. The specific instructions pertaining to mailing lists are at http://www.bcpl.net/help/techsupport/maillists.html. If you have already changed your address and are having trouble posting to your mailing lists, for most lists you will have to change back to your old address, unsubscribe from all your mailing lists, change back to your new address, and resubscribe to all your lists. Q: I use Pine in my UNIX shell account for e-mail and have changed its setup to use "bcpl.net" in my address instead of "mail.bcpl.lib.md.us". Most of my correspondents see my mail as coming from "jdoe@bcpl.net", but some still see it as coming from "jdoe@mail.bcpl.lib.md.us". Why is that? A: Although our official domain name is now "bcpl.net", our UNIX host still advertises itself to the world as "mail.bcpl.lib.md.us". The reasons are too convoluted to explain here, but hopefully within the next month or so we will be able to change the official name of the UNIX host to "mail.bcpl.net". The problem you described is purely cosmetic and has no affect on your ability to send and receive mail. The "From:" line in the headers of your outgoing mail shows the correct "jdoe@bcpl.net", and that is what most mail programs will see as your address. However a few mail programs out there determine the sender's e-mail address from other lines in the header, which may show the UNIX host's old "mail.bcpl.lib.md.us" address. Q: I have changed to "jdoe@bcpl.net" per your instructions but my mail program says "DNS Error: Unable to locate mail server 'bcpl.net'". What gives? A: This is caused by a minor configuration error on your part. Although our domain name is now "bcpl.net" and your e-mail address is now "jdoe@bcpl.net", our POP3 server (incoming mail) and SMTP server (outgoing mail) are both "mail.bcpl.net". If you entered just "bcpl.net" as the server name, it won't work. Q: I changed my address to "jdoe@bcpl.net" according to instructions, but when my correspondents reply to my messages the replies are returned to them with a "jdoe: user unknown" error. Why? A: Ummmmm. Did you by any chance change your e-mail address to literally "jdoe@bcpl.net"? In our instructions we often use a fictitious user "jdoe" (John Doe) as an example, but that does not mean you should change your own address to "jdoe@bcpl.net". Your e-mail address is made up of your username (login name), followed by an "@" sign, followed by our domain name (bcpl.net). If your username is "ziggie" and your old address was "ziggie@mail.bcpl.lib.md.us", then your new e-mail address is "ziggie@bcpl.net". Q: This is too much trouble. Why can't I just keep on using my old "jdoe@mail.bcpl.lib.md.us" address? A: You can if you really want to. For most purposes the "@bcpl.net" and "@mail.bcpl.lib.md.us" formats are interchangeable, and will remain so for the forseeable future. However the forseeable future is not forever. At some time in the future circumstances may force us to drop the old format completely. If that happens you will have to switch, so why not do it now? ---------------------- PRIVATE DOMAIN HOSTING ---------------------- Fairly frequently we are asked by customers to host private domains for them, usually because they want a Web page URL something like "http://www.jdoe.com" instead of "http://www.bcpl.net/~jdoe", or because they want their e-mail address to be "jdoe@jdoe.com" instead of "jdoe@bcpl.net". Domain hosting is not a service currently offered by BCPL.NET. This does not mean it will never be offered, but we don't offer it now and cannot predict when or if we will offer it so please don't pester the Help Desk with "When can I have my own domain" questions. If we do begin offering domain hosting as an extra service, details will be posted in System News. -------------------------- DUAL-T SERVICE IMPLEMENTED -------------------------- In the March 15 edition of System News I mentioned that we had contracted with UUNET Technologies (our upstream Internet provider) to upgrade the connection between our network and theirs to a "Dual-T" pipe. The new service has been in place for a little over a month now, and seems to be working well. The total bandwidth available on the new connection is 3 megabits per second as opposed to the old 1.5 megabits per second. This eliminates the peak period slowdowns we occasionally experienced, caused by congestion on the line between BCPL.NET and UUNET. However it does not necessarily mean that your Web page and file downloads will be any faster than they were before. The line to UUNET is only one short link in the connection between your computer and the remote source of the Web page or file you are trying to download. Other factors, most of which are outside our control, can still cause slowdowns out on the Internet. ------------------ V.90 MODEM UPGRADE ------------------ Many of you have contacted the Help Desk to ask when we are going to upgrade our modems to the new V.90 56K standard. This will be done as soon as the manufacturer of our access servers (Cisco Systems) makes the upgrade available, but they have not yet announced a release date. I do know that the code for the V.90 upgrade is undergoing beta testing at several sites, and a few days ago I was told unofficially that the upgrade should be available to non-beta customers by late July or early August. We shall see. In the mean time, here are answers to some frequently asked questions about V.90: Q: I currently have a K56FLEX modem. When BCPL.NET upgrades to V.90, will I have to upgrade too? A: You can, but you don't have to. ISP-grade 56K modems (like ours) that began life as K56FLEX models and are upgraded to V.90 can automatically sense whether your modem is K56FLEX or V.90, and can negotiate the connection accordingly. Unless something goes wrong with Cisco's upgrade plans, once our modems are upgraded they will be able to accept both K56FLEX connections and V.90 connections. Q: I am disappointed in the connection speeds I'm getting with my K56FLEX modem. Will V.90 improve things? A: Probably not. If you are getting slow connections with K56FLEX you will probably get slow connections with V.90. Connection speed between 56K modems is mainly a function of line quality, your distance from the local Bell Atlantic switching office, how many analog/digital conversions there are between you and BCPL.NET, and other telco issues that neither you nor we can control. Switching from K56FLEX to V.90 won't change any of that. The main advantage of the new V.90 standard is that it replaces the competing 56K standards we have had to put up with so far (K56FLEX and X2) by providing a common standard for all modem manufacturers to follow. In its present form, V.90 does not provide a performance increase over either K56FLEX or X2. It will probably be more helpful to make sure you are using the latest K56FLEX firmware version available for your modem. The K56FLEX standard has undergone several revisions in the year since it was introduced. BCPL.NET's modems are using the latest version of the K56FLEX standard. If your K56FLEX modem is using an older version, that could be part of your problem. Don't assume that you have the latest version just because you bought the modem very recently. We have seen many cases where modems are running outdated firmware straight off the dealer's shelf. See your modem manual to find out how to determine your current firmware version and how to get and install the latest version. Q: I currently have an X2 modem. Should I upgrade to V.90? A: It isn't mandatory, but you will probably want to. Currently your X2 modem can't connect to BCPL.NET's K56FLEX modems at speeds any faster than 33.6K. If you don't upgrade to V.90 when we do, your maximum speed will still be 33.6K. If you do upgrade your modem will be able to make V.90 connections, raising your theoretical maximum connection speed to 53K. Q: Should I upgrade to V.90 right now, before BCPL.NET upgrades? A: Probably not, but it really depends on how your modem and its V.90 upgrade are designed. You should contact the manufacturer for specifics regarding your modem, but the following applies to most existing 56K modems: Most consumer-grade K56FLEX modems that are upgraded to V.90 cannot switch back and forth automatically between V.90 and K56FLEX to match the modem at the ISP's end. Instead, you must reflash the modem with the V.90 or K56FLEX firmware code, depending on which type of modem you plan to connect to. If you upgrade to V.90 before we do, and if your upgraded modem can't autoswitch back to K56FLEX, then your maximum possible connection speed will be 33.6K. The only way to attain higher speeds will be to reflash your modem back to K56FLEX. Therefore it makes sense to hold off on your V.90 upgrade until BCPL.NET's modems have been upgraded to V.90. Most consumer-grade X2 modems that are upgraded to V.90 should be able to switch back and forth between V.90 and X2 to match the ISP's modem. However until BCPL.NET's modems are upgraded to V.90 you will get no advantage from upgrading. Your maximum possible connection speed will still be 33.6K. You will not be able to achieve higher speeds until both your modem and ours are upgraded to V.90, so you might as well wait until ours are upgraded. When in doubt, don't upgrade until BCPL.NET does. Q: I am about to buy a new 56K modem. Which type should I buy: X2, K56FLEX, or V.90? A: If you simply must have 56K connections right now, before BCPL.NET has upgraded to V.90, then the only logical choice is a K56FLEX modem. Preferably it should be one that is already V.90 capable, but that isn't terribly important because our modems will still be able to accept K56FLEX connections after they are upgraded to V.90. If you're willing to wait until BCPL.NET's modems are upgraded to V.90, then any reputable brand will do as long as it is already V.90 capable or upgradable to V.90. That includes virtually every 56K modem on the market so it gives you a wide range of choices. Don't make the mistake of buying based only on price. As with anything else, you get what you pay for. Do some research before you buy. You'll find links to reviews of most 56K modems on the Web at http://www.56k.com. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Please contact the BCPL.NET 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)