Midcoast Internet Solutions
System
News & Notices
October 1997
- October 30, 1997 MIS has upgraded its bank of UPSs
(Uninteruptable Power Supplies or Battery Backups) from 3600VA to 4600VA
in Owls Head. We will be upgrading Rockland from 1600VA to 2600VA Friday.
For those familiar with battery backups, these are huge amounts of
power backups that will help us take any electrical punishment (surges
and power failures) Mother Nature gives out this winter.
- October 29, 1997 Bell Atlantic replaced some equipment on the T1 to Wiscasset. This was done in an attempt to
isolate the trouble we have been having with the circuit. Test equipment will remain in place for the next week to try and
catch any bad behavior in action.
- October 28, 1997 We have setup a search engine for the midcoast.com
server here for searching all 4700 pages hosted
on www.midcoast.com. This is a local search only.
- October 27, 1997 We have update our help pages (Exploring the
World Wide Web section specifically) to include instructions on
downloading Netscape Communicator 4. We have also updated information in
the help pages "Unsorted Wisdom" section on changing your password.
- October 27, 1997 The Wiscasset T1 went down this morning for about 90 minutes, starting at 9 am sharp and ending
at 10:30am. Bell Altlantic was called at about 9:15. The circuit appeared to come back up on its own just as we were
about to dive in and start up the backup circuit. Bell Atlantic will be testing the circuit over the course of today and
tomorrow. It is abnormal for data circuits of this type to malfunction. Nonetheless, we will hook the 56k circuit up in a
permanent backup role by the end of the week until such time as this T1 proves itself to be reliable.
- October 26, 1997 Washington is running on 5 lines out of 8
temporarily, which can cause no-answers at some times. Some of the
equipment was replaced, and the rest of it will be replaced within 48
hours to correct this problem. (We are awaiting a Fedex package)
- October 23, 1997 5 more lines and a modem server
(espresso) were hooked up in Rockland this afternoon, and, this evening,
Washington was upgraded to a Livingston Portmaster modem server (jolt)
like the rest of system for increased speed and reliability.
- October 22, 1997 8pm Additional equipment will be hooked up
Thursday (tomorrow) to increase availability of lines in Rockland, Thomaston,
and Washington.
- October 20, 1997 5pm The Wiscasset T1 was tested by BA today
and no errors were found in the time tested. It was put back in
service this evening. A short disruption occured for Wiscasset users
only. We will continue to closely monitor the circuit.
- October 20, 1997 1pm We have set up some anti-spam modifications
to the mail system on midcoast.com. These steps will disallow invalid
MAIL FROM: addresses as well as blacklisted hosts, (we're working on the
blacklist) It might be a few days before spam decreases, as this was a very
conservative change.
- October 18, 1997 7pm We have moved the Wiscasset conection back to
the 56k circuit. We have arranged for Bell Atlantic to do extensive testing on
the T circuit on Monday.
- October 18, 1997 Noon The T1 to Wisc continues to act up in a
sporadic manner. We have verified the operation of the MIS equipment on
the circuit. We will be re-activating the 56K circuit as an alternate
route or as a replacement. This action will only cause momentary
disruption of service, and will affect the Wisc POP only.
- October 17, 1997 10pm The T1 to Wisc has been tested
by BA and found to be stable. No errors were were detected by their test
equipment during the 90 minutes of off and on testing. We will continue to
monitor this connection very closely. If you use the WIscasset POP, please
be persistant in your attempts to connect and remember it may not be your
settings so don't change them!.. :^)
- October 17, 1997 7pm T1 problems in Wiscasset The new
T1 circuit to Wiscasset is having serious error problems. This situation
MIS customers dialing into the 882 POP. Authentication, Web Site and mail
availablility will be affected on and off this evening as a result. A
"Trouble Ticket" has been called into Bell/Atlantic (Nynex). We will
switch back to the 56k this evening if necessary.
- October 17, 1997 4pm More good news Bell Atlantic has
completed their work on our ring-no-answer trouble. A day late, and a clue
short, but it should be taken care of.
- October 16, 1997 Good News Flash! Regarding the
ring-no-answer trouble: We found 5 different dead (which were
supposed to be functioning) phone lines. We've reported them to Bell
Atlantic (Nynex) and they will be fixing them today. We also found 2 lines
with transposed labels, and transposed blocks of lines (another Nynex
problem) which we fixed. We also found 3 or 4 bad modem ports which we
took care of. Phone line death count: MIS 4, BA/Nynex 15+. We've fixed our
problems and some of BA/Nynex's. The remaining 5 dead phone lines are
scheduled to be fixed today "before 4:30". Thanks for your patience, (we
understand and share your disgust; now you perhaps have a better
understanding of the familiar photo above.)
- October 15, 1997 Investigation of new problems with ring-no-answer
have been done, and problems which were found will be corrected Thursday
morning, and throught the day Thursday. It will not affect connectivity
while that work takes place.
- October 15, 1997 The Wiscasset POP was out of service this
morning for 30 minutes to affect an upgrade to the server, add more modem
ports and prepare for the T1 line. It was also down in the afternoon on
and off from 2pm to 5pm while the T1 was patched into our network. The new
T1 to Wiscasset is in and it is FAST!
- October 12, 1997 We updated the "Who's on the modems" page for
more speed and easier use.
- October 11, 1997 Agate seems to have completed work (and associated
disruption) this evening and things are OK now. We are not pleased at their
choice of scheduling for this work. If we were in charge of what goes on
in the big cities, we'd only allow 10 minutes of disruption or would find
another way to do whatever they got done. (Grrrrr!!!!)
- October 11, 1997 Agate, one of our upstream providers, is
doing some work which will affect connectivity at times today. Thanks for
your patience. At 10am, we switched more traffic to Cybertours, our other
provider, which should provide *some* backup.
Email will not be affected, nor will access to customers' hosted websites.
Browsing will be unreliable. This situation is beyond our control, so
our recommendation is that you seek the ourdoors and enjoy this wonderful
Saturday.
A copy of the AIS message to MIS
- October 9, 1997 the new Liberty POP is up and
working. The number there is 589-3380.
- October 8, 1997 This afternoon, we changed some DIP switches
and other equipment which, we are confident, will clear up the no-answer
problems at peak use. Tommorow Morning (the 9th) Jason will be in Liberty
completing the new POP.
- October 7, 1997 This afternoon, a new MP16 (box full
of modems) replaced a suspected troublesome MP16, which should aleviate
no-answer problems at peak use.
- October 3, 1997 We rebooted Baklava this afternoon, as some
people were getting a No-Answer when calling in.
What's been happening recently:
Past Months
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Last Modification Date: Sunday, 02-Nov-1997 16:12:05 GMT-4