Fri Dec 6 16:26:34 PST 2002 — DB replacing NIS. We have begun deploying Berkeley DB hashes across systems that normally use NIS for their system databases. Currently the mail servers and the spamassassin servers are using DB, with NIS as a backup. This change means improved performance for services like popmail and sendmail, as well as more robust performance when the servers are under high load. -Scott and Kelsey

Thu Dec 5 22:01:44 PST 2002 — Broadlink tower down. It appears we have a tower down at Broadlink. We have contacted them, and hopefully we will have a speedy resolution. -Scott and Dane

Update: Power was lost to the top three floors of the tower’s building. ETR is 9am this morning. -Scott, and Tim from Broadlink

Update: Power was restored at 9am, but the Broadlink equipment didn’t come back up. After a few hours of troubleshooting, the tower is back up. Scott, Dane, and Tim and Jason from Broadlink

Thu Dec 5 08:36:23 PST 2002 — Intermittent problems with mail servers. Our mail server cluster was occasionally returning “connection refused”. Two senior engineers are working on the problem. We have implemented a solution and the mail servers seem to have calmed down. We are still evaluating the cause of the trouble. -Scott and Russ

Tue Dec 3 19:04:37 PST 2002 — 707-522-1003 was giving intermittent busy signals this evening due to the failure of a modem card. The card was rebooted and is now working correctly.

We are implementing a system to monitor the modems and automatically reboot them if needed in order to avoid giving busy signals. -Russ

Mon Dec 2 00:10:39 PST 2002 — Shell Server Downtime: Our shell server mysteriously ‘turned off’ 11:11 PM tonight. This is the second time that we’ve seen this happen and, although it has an excellent dual hot swap power supply, we believe that it may be faulty and need replacing. We’ll be keeping a close eye on the server and if it fails again, we’ll swap out the power supply with a spare unit. -Kelsey

Sun Dec 1 09:25:07 PST 2002 — Sebastopol POP trouble. We are experiencing problems with our Sebastopol POP. It appears to be a Pac Bell outage as T1’s and PRI in the area are down. If you use a dial-up number ending in 8812, please try an alternate number. We provide multiple dial-up numbers in most areas and they can be found at www.sonic.net/cgi-bin/pops.pl -Matt

Update: Sun Dec 1 10:31:09 PST 2002 — Connectivity restored. Pac Bell traced the trouble to a power outage in one of their facilities and fixed the problem. All service has been restored. -Matt

Mon Nov 25 12:19:44 PST 2002 — “Friend Greeting” Trojan/virus spreading again. A company called “Permissioned Media”, apparently in Panama, is sending bogus greeting card emails which invite Internet users to come pick up a message from a friend.

The card is actually a software program, which the Internet user is asked to approve installation of. The license agreement, which also must be accepted, allows the software to automatically send a similar greeting to everyone in your Outlook address book.

For more information, see: vil.nai.com/vil/content/v_99799.htm

Sonic.net is working to block emails of this nature, as well as access to the site where the Trojan is picked up. -Dane

Mon Nov 25 13:49:21 PST 2002 — Denial of service attack. Sonic.net’s mail servers are currently under attack from spammers. A spam run is being mounted from multiple IP addresses which is aggressive enough that it is causing our mail servers to have intermittent authentication problems as they attempt to keep up with the increased load. We are working on blocking the spammers and on identifying them if possible. -Russ, Scott, John, Eli, Matt and the rest of the Ops team

Update, Mon Nov 25 15:29:00 2002: We have successfully blocked 90% of the incoming problem traffic, and the situation has been under control for about 45 minutes. The addl. load caused our Spam processing servers to become unavailable for some time, so some spam mail made it through the Spamassassin filters during the attack. We continue to monitor the situation. – Ops.

Fri Nov 22 17:54:06 PST 2002 — Sonic.net is offering a promotion on new orders for SBC-ASI DSL service. This promotion begins at 5pm on Friday November 22nd and ends when we run out of free equipment, so order ASAP if you’re interested.

www.sonic.net/sales/dsl/pacbell/

We’re now offering free refurbished DSL equipment while supplies last, a free self-installation kit, free activation, yup, it’s all free. Some restrictions apply (you have to keep the service for 12 months), offer void where prohibited, your actual mileage may vary, etc. =)

We are also introducing a new entry level DSL product at a total delivered price point of $49.95 monthly, just $31.00 more than a basic Sonic.net account. This is the lowest monthly price for DSL that we have ever offered!

Also new are a “plus” product which offers a higher upload speed, and a symmetric speed product. Here are the new product tiers and price points. Note that these prices are “total delivered monthly cost”, and include the $18.95 basic Internet service fee that you pay currently. For example, the Basic product is actually $18.95 for Sonic.net and $39 for SBC-ASI pass-through billing, for the total of $57.95.

Primary 192-384kbps/128kbps $49.95/mo 4 IPs Basic 384kbps-1.5Mbps/128kbps $57.95/mo 4 IPs Basic+ 768kbps-1.5Mbps/256kbps $69.85/mo 8 IPs Symmetric 384kbps/384kbps $149.95/mo 8 IPs Enhanced 1.5Mbps-6.0Mbps/384kbps $197.95/mo 8 IPs Enhanced Routed 1.5Mbps-6.0Mbps/384kbps $297.95/mo 32 IPs

With the exception of Enhanced Routed, free equipment is included while supplies last. A one year term commitment is required if you take advantage of the free equipment offer – this isn’t required if you supply your own compatible gear.

Let us know if you have any questions – email support@sonic.net. Place your order at:

www.sonic.net/sales/dsl/pacbell/

Sonic.net hosts a local discussion group for questions and answers about DSL. You can find information and discussion about sharing DSL with multiple computers in your home or office, or ask questions about the service and read user feedback. To access the newsgroup, see the following URL:

news://news.sonic.net/sonic.dsl

Wed Nov 20 08:53:31 PST 2002 — We are seeing some DSL customer outages in the higher PVC ranges, in the wake of our OC3 work early this morning. This only affects a small part of our DSL customer base. Our operations staff is working on the problem and we will update via the MOTD when we have more information. – Chris, Matt, Kelsey UPDATE: We are still working hard to restore service to all of our DSL customers. We believe that we have identified the source of the problem and are in the process of acquiring what is needed to resolve the issue. At this time we do not have an accurate ETR. -Kelsey, Nathan, John, Matt and Eli.