Date: Fri, 14 Feb 2003 23:23:17 -0500 (EST) From: BCPL.NET SysAdmin To: BCPL.NET News Subject: BCPL.NET NEWS: Presidents' Day, Zinc Whiskers, & Login Change ------------------------------------------------------- PRESIDENTS' DAY, ZINC WHISKERS, & LOGIN CHANGE REMINDER ------------------------------------------------------- Closed Presidents' Day ---------------------- All Baltimore County Public Library branches and offices, including the BCPL.NET offices and Help Desk, will be closed on Monday, February 17, in observation of Presidents' Day. Any voice mail or e-mail left for BCPL.NET staff while we are closed will be answered as quickly as possible when we reopen on Tuesday, February 18. Zinc Whiskers Decontamination Project ------------------------------------- In a BCPL.NET News message dated February 9th describing our zinc whiskers decontamination project I wrote: > Dialup access to BCPL.NET will not be available from about 11:00 PM on > Wednesday February 12th through about 3:00 AM on Thursday February 13th. It didn't quite work out that way. I had to shut down at 10:00 PM, an hour earlier than planned. Preliminary work in the computer room apparently stirred up zinc whiskers that got into and fried the power supply in one of our access servers. Rather than risk losing more equipment, I shut everything down early. Then the contractor responsible for replacing the raised floor ran into unexpected difficulties, so we couldn't begin reinstalling equipment until about 3:00 AM. Consequently we didn't get back up and running until about 6:30 AM. On the bright side, the computer room and all the equipment in it are now sparkling clean and certified free of zinc whiskers. That should put an end to the long string of power supply failures we've been experiencing. A replacement for the power supply that died Wednesday night should arrive on Tuesday. Until then our modem pool is down to "only" 920 modems (normally 1012), so you may experience occasional busy signals if everyone stays home and on line during the weekend snowstorm. Login Change Reminder --------------------- Don't forget that beginning March 3rd everyone must use the new-style login method. If you don't know what I'm talking about, refer to BCPL.NET News of September 8 (http://www.bcpl.net/news/news.20020908a.login), December 26 (http://www.bcpl.net/news/news.20021226a.login) and January 26 (http://www.bcpl.net/news/news.2003012600.login). If you need help making the switch, call the Help Desk at 410-887-3297 from a phone within reach of your computer. They can talk you through it very quickly. -- BCPL.NET INTERNET SERVICES 320 York Road Towson, MD 21204-5179 U.S.A. CONTACTS: -------- Web Site: http://www.bcpl.net Administration & Policy: ispadmin@bcpl.net 410-887-6180 Sales, Renewals, Account Status: accounts@bcpl.net 410-887-4172 Technical Support (Help Desk): help@bcpl.net 410-887-3297 Usenet News Newsgroup Requests news-admin@bcpl.net 410-887-6180 E-Mail & Newsgroup Abuse Reports: abuse@bcpl.net 410-887-6180 Domain Name Service Issues: dnsadmin@bcpl.net 410-887-6180 FAX: 410-887-2091