----------------- MODEM NEWS UPDATE ----------------- As promised in System News several days ago, here is the latest news about our modem pools. Access to the ABSnet Usenet News server was enabled on the new 296-2771 modem pool on Thursday, September 19, so the new pool is now fully operational. Almost everyone who has used the new pool has reported excellent reliability. We encourage all callers to switch to the new number. The new modem pool is made up of four Cisco AS5200 Access Servers, each of which can handle 46 incoming calls. This gives us a total capacity of 184 callers, very slightly more than the capacity of the old modem pool. A fifth AS5200 has just arrived and will be brought on line as soon as Bell Atlantic installs the two PRI lines (multi-channel digital phone lines) it requires. This will give us a total capacity of 230 callers. As soon as we receive an installation date from Bell Atlantic for the PRI lines, we will post it in System News. The modems in the access servers are MicroComm Select 28.8 kbps models which are auto-configuring, remotely manageable, and flash-upgradable. In addition, each modem maintains a log of connection rates, successes, and failures. This will be a great troubleshooting aid. MicroComm has just released a flash upgrade to take these modems up to 33.6 kbps, and we will be performing that upgrade in the near future. The upgrade can be applied to all modems in each AS5200 at the same time, so it is a relatively quick and painless procedure compared to the one modem at a time upgrade procedure for the old modems. The access servers can also accept ISDN calls. We have them configured to allow 64 kbps (single B-channel) ISDN connections. They can also accept 128 kbps (dual B-channel) PPP Multilink connections, but we have disabled that feature. Every PPP Multilink connection uses up two incoming lines, reducing the total number of possible connections. We have ordered an ISDN adapter to experiment with, but it hasn't arrived yet. Those of you who already have ISDN capability are welcome to try it out on our system, but we will not be able to provide support to ISDN users until we have had a chance to gain ISDN experience ourselves. The 184 lines currently in the 297-2771 pool provide only marginal capacity for our current number of users. Therefore we will leave the old 296-5500 modem pool in service until the fifth access server comes on line. Those of you who are still able to get good connections to the 296-5500 modem pool may continue to use it if you want to, but with the following caveats: o PPP callers using news readers on their own computers can no longer access the ABSnet news server from the 298-5500 modem pool. If you use the 296-5500 pool and want to read Usenet News, you will have to do so using Pine from your UNIX shell account. If you want to read Usenet News with a news reader running on your own computer, then you will have to use the 296-2771 modem pool. o We will waste no more time trying to correct the persistant connection problems caused by the modems in the 296-5500 pool. If you continue to use the 296-5500 pool, it must be on an "as is, where is" basis. If you have trouble connecting to the 296-5500 pool, then you should use the new 296-2771 pool instead. The old modem pool will be retired from service as soon as the fifth access server is added to the new pool. Exactly when this will occur depends on when Bell Atlantic installs the two new PRI lines to support the fifth access server. As soon as we know the date, we will post it in System News. At that time Bell Atlantic will turn off the lines to the old modem pool and will reconfigure the 296-5500 number to forward to 296-2771. This will make the new pool reachable from both numbers. The official number will be 296-5500 because that number is on all of our printed material, but either number will work after the cutover. Also at that time, our standard three hour session limit will be reinstated on the new modem pool. Until then there will be no per-session limit on either modem pool, so now is your chance to FTP those really humongous files you've been wanting to download! Finally, also at that time, a small group of the old modems will be set up on a private number for BCPL staff to use. This will keep staff off of the main modem pool, leaving more lines available for our account holders. If you have questions about this or about anything else pertaining to your BCPL Internet account, please contact the BCPL Internet Help Desk by phone (887-3297) or by e-mail (oz@mail.bcpl.lib.md.us).