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BUSY SIGNALS, ENDLESS RINGING & RELATED NEWS
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We have been working for the past several days to solve several connection
problems reported to the Help Desk by large numbers of users.  Here is
what has happened so far, and what remains to be done: 

BUSY SIGNALS ON 296-5500:  On Tuesday March 19 we added 48 more MultiTech
28.8 modems to the 295-5500 modem pool, raising the total to 158 (110
MultiTech & 48 U.S. Robotics).  This eases the busy signal problem
considerably.  As I type this (8:30 PM Wednesday, March 20) there are lots
of lines free, something we haven't seen at this time of night for several
months. 

ENDLESS RINGING ON 296-5500:  For several weeks we have been plagued with
a problem where some callers to the 296-5500 modem pool would hear endless
ringing on their modem speakers rather than the normal shrieking sounds of
two modems negotiating a connection.  After several hours of testing we
were able to determine that this was a Bell Atlantic problem, not a modem
problem.  We identified 16 lines that were without dial tone, indicating
that those lines were broken somewhere between us and the local Bell
Atlantic central office.  If you happened to land on one of those lines
you got a "ring - no answer".  Bell Atlantic was able to repair about half
of the broken lines today (Wednesday March 20) and will finish the repairs
tomorrow.  All defective lines will be kept "busied out" at the central
office until they are repaired.  This should prevent any further "ring -
no answer" problems. 
 
ANSWER WITH NO MODEM NEGOTIATION ON 296-5500:  Another problem reported by
many users involved modems answering calls, but dropping out before the
normal shrieking sound of two modems negotiating a connection occurred. 
We were able to pinpoint twelve of the U.S. Robotics "Quad Modems" in the
new Cisco AS5100 as the culprits (see System News, 1 March 1996 for more
about the AS5100) .  Any time a call hit one of those modems, the call
would be dropped before negotiation occurred.  Those 12 modems are
currently busied out to prevent them from answering calls pending
replacement or repair by Cisco.  We expect them to be back on line by the
end of the week. 

CONTINUING PROBLEMS ON THE 494-1199 MODEM POOL:  As long-time users know,
the 494-1199 modem pool (which is owned by the Sailor network, not by
BCPL) has been giving us fits for well over a year.  These modems are 
part of a unit called an "Ascend Pipeline Max", which also functions as a 
terminal server and a router.  The Ascend has four problems which 
severely limit its usefulness as a connection point for BCPL account 
holders:  (1) It resets itself frequently, disconnecting everyone in the 
process.  (2) It loses its connection to the Sailor network, which makes 
it impossible to connect to anything from its menu until the Sailor 
connection is re-established.  (3) Its modems are rated at 14,400 bps, 
but it is unusual to get a connection faster than a 9600 bps.  (4) It is 
very difficult to successfully transfer files through the Ascend using 
Zmodem, and tedious using Kermit.

These problems continue to exist despite the efforts of engineers and
technicians from Ascend and Sailor.  Now that we have more modems
available in BCPL's own pool (296-5500), we recommend that BCPL account 
holders use 494-1199 only if 296-5500 is busy or if reliable performance 
isn't important.

Problems with the 494-1199 number should be reported to the Sailor Help
Desk (396-4636), not to the BCPL Help Desk (887-3297).  We at BCPL have no
control over the performance of the Ascend box.