Month: September 2016

Chico area Legacy DSL Outage

Update 2:34am: Service has been restored.

 

We are currently experiencing an outage affecting legacy DSL users in the Chico area. The issue is still being investigated and we will update this message once we have an ETR.

  • Michael

Usenet service ended

Usenet access was one of the very first things that Sonoma Interconnect (SONIC) provided when Scott and I launched the service in 1994. Back then, “Sonic.net” provided dialup Linux shell access, with access to email, FTP, telnet, Gopher, and Usenet discussion groups. The Usenet feed was delivered to a single dedicated Linux server via a satellite downlink at 19.2kbps, and the content was stored on a RAID array of a couple full-height 5.25″ hard disk drives. We were able to retain text content for months, and binary content for a few weeks.

Today a Usenet full feed is over 24TB (terabytes) of content per day, requiring a significant amount of equipment, bandwidth, power and staff to manage a complete Usenet service. Sonic’s current platform simply cannot keep up, and has a significant cost to maintain as older hardware fails. And today, only about 300 Sonic members use Usenet, so it is not viable to make a significant investment in a new Usenet platform, when far better commercial Usenet services are available elsewhere. (Put another way: it is better to put our limited financial and staff resources into building more last-mile fiber infrastructure, rather than replicating a free or commercial Usenet service which can be found elsewhere online. Binary access can be purchased from a variety of online Usenet service providers.)

Sonic members can find free text-only Usenet access at:
http://groups.google.com/
http://www.eternal-september.org/

(Never heard of Usenet? You’re not alone! Most Internet users see “the Internet” as simply websites, email, and apps. To learn about the Usenet, see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usenet)

-Dane

FTTN – Voice Maintenance

Tonight at midnight, we will be implementing a change to the config for the ATAs for FTTN customers. The only downtime associated with this maintenance is when the ATA pulls its new configuration on the hour.  This process will take somewhere around 5 minutes.

Network Engineering

Update: 12:40am – Maintenance is now complete

Santa Rosa Airport – Business Park Fiber Maintenance

On Wednesday, September 7th at midnight, we will be conducting on maintenance to equipment serving Business Park Fiber customers in the Santa Rosa Airport business park.  Expected maintenance window is around 2 hours. Customers will experience downtime for the full extent of the maintenance period while work is being conducted.

Network Engineering

Update: 12:40pm – Maintenance is now complete