Month: February 2002

Sun Feb 10 10:24:54 PST 2002 — We are aware of the ‘All circuits are busy’ message on 707-522-1003 and we are working to resolve these issues as quickly as possible. – Steve

Fri Feb 8 16:33:01 PST 2002 — Tin has been rebuilt to include support for ispell, which was lost during shell.sonic.net’s last upgrade. -Ian

Welcome back, Ian! -Dane

Thu Feb 7 10:04:32 PST 2002 — A bug in our automated user management tools encountered a grievous error while running last night. It decided that while removing a user that it should, while it was at it, delete the entire ‘/home/l’ directory tree, removing all home directories for users starting with ‘l’. The bug has been squashed and all of the removed files and directories have been restored from our most recent backups. We are deeply sorry for any trouble that this has caused and have taken steps to assure that it does not happen again. -Kelsey

Update: This removal and recreation of the /home/l directory has caused problems with the server that handles ftp.sonic.net that can only be resolved by rebooting the server. ftp.sonic.net is being rebooted now and should be back up shortly. -Kelsey and Nathan

Thu Feb 7 18:04:08 PST 2002 — We have temporarily disabled telnet access to shell.sonic.net due to a vulnerability in the server. Patches are available and will be applied shortly. Once we are patched telnet service will be restored. SSH access is not affected. -Kelsey, Dane and Nathan.

Update: The telnet server on bolt has been patched and is now back online. -Kelsey

Tue Feb 5 08:29:19 PST 2002 — A circuit failure on 707-522-1003 caused the dreaded ‘All Circuits Are Busy’ message to raise its head this morning. A quick reboot of nas21.sonic.net brought back the circuit and all is well. We will be working with our hardware vendor to find a solution to these intermittent failures. -Steve

Tue Feb 5 18:54:53 PST 2002 — A second failure on 707-522-1003 briefly caused ‘All Circuits Are Busy’ messages again this evening. We are continuing to work with our hardware vendor to find a solution. -Russ

Tue Feb 5 03:03:03 PST 2002 — We have upgraded tsunami.sonic.net, the server which handles mailbox accounts, to a dual PIII 1. This should resolve the loading and delayed email deliver problems for mailbox accounts until mailbox accounts are migrated to the main load balanced server pool later this month. -Kelsey and Nathan.

Fri Feb 1 18:05:27 PST 2002 — Sonic.net posts first phase of SBC-ASI DSL pass through billings.

SBC-ASI (formerly Pacific Bell) has changed the billing relationship for DSL customers.

Where previously SBC-ASI charges for DSL services appeared on your telephone bill, Sonic.net will now begin passing through billing for these charges to your Sonic.net bill. The first of these charges have been applied to the accounts of Sonic.net customers who ordered DSL after the middle of October, 2001. ASI-SBC DSL charges will begin appearing on the remaining DSL accounts in the coming weeks.

Please note that Sonic.net must pay in full all amounts to SBC when we are presented with the consolidated bill, so your prompt payment is appreciated. Additionally, Sonic.net now bears bank and credit card processing and collections costs for handling these payments, which creates an additional burden for us of about $3 per customer. These costs will not be added to your fees, but will be absorbed by Sonic.net.

There are some positive elements included in these changes:

We do believe that having a single point of contact for all of your Internet billing is likely to mean easier resolution of DSL billing issues, as Sonic.net will be able to coordinate with SBC-ASI to resolve questions for you. This eliminates lengthy telephone calls to Pacific Bell billing, and could be a big time savings for you.

Additionally, if you are a home worker and are receiving reimbursement from your employer for home office expenses, having a single invoice from Sonic.net to present may simplify this for you.

A few other notes:

Currently, Sonic.net offers term discounts of 10% for yearly pre-payment of Internet service fees. However, since Sonic.net is simply passing through the SBC-ASI DSL charges we are billed for, no discounting can be applied to these fees. Sonic.net will post charges on a monthly basis for all SBC-ASI DSL fees. These charges will include monthly service fees, equipment charges for new installations and repair technician time as billed.

DSL customers must remain paid and in good standing, as delinquent accounts will still be billed to us by SBC-ASI. If your account becomes unreasonably delinquent, we may be forced to disconnect your DSL service. Please keep a current credit card on file with Sonic.net, or send check payments in promptly to avoid any problems.

We are working to make the most of this change, and to attempt to use the benefits to our mutual advantage. If you have any comments about the changes, please feel free to join discussions on:

news://news.sonic.net/sonic.dsl — Dane, Chuckc