Month: September 2001

Tue Sep 18 15:55:17 PDT 2001 — W32.Nimda.A@mm virus/worm. We’re currently seeing no impact from this virus/worm that end users will notice, but it is busy attempting to spread itself on the Internet. Currently, almost 70% of the hits on our web server are by infected hosts attempting to spread the infection. Our load balanced array of web servers is holding up well.

We recommend firewall software for all Internet connected systems. We recommend the award winning “Zone Alarm” software firewall product. To purchase, visit the following URL:

click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/stat?id=4C5jZbAZBys&offerid=26986&type=3&subid=0

This new worm/virus is unique because it uses many methods to attempt to spread itself. Like “Code Red”, it spreads to un-patched Microsoft IIS servers. Sonic.net does not use Microsoft operating systems, and is currently working to notify our customers if they become infected. Note that the vulnerability in IIS which the new “Nimda” worm uses was patched in October of 2000, almost a year ago, so any customers hosting IIS machines which are up to date have not been infected.

Nimda also uses email to spread, taking the form of a “readme.exe” or “readme.eml” file. Sonic.net is filtering for emails containing these viruses, so it should never end up in your mailbox. If you do receive a suspicious attachment, please do NOT open it, instead forward it over to support@sonic.net. It’s possible for viruses to change over time, and we may need to update our filters.

The virus also uses shared Windows filesystems to spread itself – you should not share your filesystems with any systems you do not trust and which you do not know are secure.

Please post to news:sonic.net if you have any questions or comments about this new virus/worm.

-Dane, Kelsey, Eli, Russ, Scott, Steve, Chris and Matt

Mon Sep 17 17:29:31 PDT 2001 — Quota changes. Effective October 1st, we’re making some changes to disk and bandwidth quotas.

The disk quota is being upgraded to 80 megabytes per account or hosting service. This means that a basic account includes 80 megabytes, and each multihomed “virtual server” website hosted on that account increases the quota by 80 megabytes. You may also purchase additional blocks of 80 megabytes of storage for $10 per month if you need more space. The disk space quota includes all data housed at Sonic.net, including web, ftp, mail and home directory space. It does not apply to data you download to your PC.

The bandwidth quota is being changed to one gigabyte per month per account or hosting service. As above, each hosting service on an account increases this quota by one gigabyte. Usage during the month that is trending above the quota (that is, is projected to exceed the quota by the end of the month based upon the current portion of the month which has passed) will generate a warning email, and additional usage beyond the quota will be billed at $15 per gigabyte. The bandwidth quota includes bandwidth used for content you host here at Sonic.net, including web, ftp and multimedia. It does not apply to content you download to your PC.

Both of these quotas are applied across all of your sites as a group, so you receive significant benefit if you have multiple sites hosted on your Sonic.net account. For example, if you hosted two multihomed sites here, your disk quota would be 240 megabytes, and your bandwidth quota three gigabytes per month, but it’s not required that either of these resources be used equally by the sites. This means that if you have one site that’s more popular or larger, it receives the benefit of the leftover quota for the smaller or less popular sites.

If you have any questions about the changes to the quota structure, please post to news:sonic.help.www or email support@sonic.net -Dane

Wed Sep 12 12:46:06 PDT 2001 — Sonic.net New York customers affected. Customers using Sonic.net MegaPOP dial-up numbers in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Syracuse and Buffalo are experiencing busy signals and operator error messages as a result of Tuesdays tragedy.

The POP experienced a power failure and because of the close proximity to the current events in New York no maintenance personnel are allowed access to the building to perform the repairs. We will post updates as we receive them. -Matt

Tue Sep 11 14:20:21 PDT 2001 — In response to the tragedy in New York, Washington DC and Pittsburgh, Sonic.net’s offices will be closing at 3pm today, and technical support will be closing at 6pm. We’d like to allow our staff to return home, and we appreciate your understanding. We would like to extend our condolences to the victims and their families. -Dane and Scott

Mon Sep 10 19:15:48 PDT 2001 — Sonic.net has launched a new domain registration tool, and new lower prices.

The first in a series of newly updated Sonic.net member tools, our domain registration software offers new registration for .com, .net and .org domains. New lower pricing is available – for example, instead of paying $35 per year for a .com name, it’s now only $25. Discounts are offered for multi-year registrations.

Please do take a look at the new tool and let us know what you think. We’ll be updating many of our member tools with new features and a new look and feel, and we appreciate your feedback.

Take a look at the software at the URL:

sonic.sonic.net/members/domain_tool.php

This tool is the first written by our new programmer, Chuck Clayton. It was a pretty large project, so if you like the look and features, email support@sonic.net and let him know! -Dane and Chuck

Mon Sep 10 15:10:33 PDT 2001 — Mailbox.sonic.net has exhibited continuing problems with mailbox corruption due to our procmail spam filters. We have shutdown pop3 services temporarily to fix the corrupt mailboxes and are in the process of upgrading procmail on all of our mail servers to prevent this problem from occurring again. -Russ, Kelsey and Nathan

UPDATE: Procmail has on tsunami has been upgraded to the latest stable release. It appears to be functioning normally. POP3 services have also been restored.

Mon Sep 10 14:34:01 PDT 2001 — Our RedBack SMS 1800 has rebooted and is currently dumping core. The SMS terminates all PacBell and Broadlink DSL as well as FRATM customers. It should be back up and online in a few minutes at which time all DSL service will be restored. -The Sonic Ops Staff

Fri Sep 7 16:53:18 PDT 2001 — Due to an ongoing network attack, we’re blocking inbound POP checking from SplitRock dialup services. If you’re a Sonic.net customer who is using another ISP’s dialup resources, and if those dialup resources are actually provided by SplitRock, you will not be able to check email via POP until SplitRock security completes their work. -Kelsey, Nathan, Eli and Dane

Wed Sep 5 12:12:31 PDT 2001 — Sonic.net is now providing additional simple addresses for websites. All basic Sonic.net accounts include the ability to publish your own home page, and now it’s easier to publish the address for your pages.

Where previously we provided customers with an address with the “tilde” format, (non-working sample below):

www.sonic.net/~username/

We now also provide the following options:

www.sonic.net/users/username/ www.username.home.sonic.net/ www.username.users.sonic.net/ www.username.members.sonic.net/

You can choose to use and publish any of these addresses when you promote your own website; just replace “username” with your own Sonic.net login name.

Of course, for a business, identity is important, and multihomed “Virtual Server” hosting for your own company domain is a great option. For more information on obtaining your own domain and multihomed hosting, please see the sales page at www.sonic.net/sales/. Note also that we’ll be releasing a new domain name registration tool in the next few days, so if you’re interested in that, wait a little to save some money!

-Kelsey and Dane

Wed Sep 5 11:06:55 PDT 2001 — Tsunami slowdown. Our mailbox server tsunami suffered an NFS bottleneck this morning. Ape’s port configuration for tsunami negotiated a 10Mbps connection rather than 100Mbps when tsunami was rebooted last night. This caused some customers to receive errors when checking email. Tsunami is now cruising along at 100Mbps. -Russ, Kelsey, Eli, Dane and Matt