Tue Oct 2 06:33:36 PDT 2001 — The UUNet T3 upgrade went smoothly this morning. We are now running at a full 45 megabits on our link to UUNet. -Steve

Tue Oct 2 18:23:10 PDT 2001 — Update on .info registrations. From our upstream, OpenSRS:

Real-time .info registration update: We have been advised by the .info registry operator (Afilias) that the emergency maintenance window will continue longer than originally anticipated. This means that no-one will be able to register or manage .info names until further notice. We have been informed that an announcement regarding resumption of normal registry operations will be made at around 09:00 EST (13:00 UTC) October 3rd. We will announce any further information as it becomes available.

We apologize for any inconveniences this may cause you.

Scott Allan, Director, OpenSRS

Update from OpenSRS: We have just been advised that an announcement regarding resumption of normal registry operations will now be made at around 13:00 UTC (09:00 EDT) October 4th. We will announce further information as it becomes available. The expectation is the registry will go real-time live at 14:00 UTC (10:00 EDT) on October 4th.

Charles Daminato, Tucows/OpenSRS Product Manager

Sonic.net’s tools are showing that .info is open, but I’m finding that in most cases, requests are timing out. It does not appear that they have resolved their technical problems yet, but do keep trying if you’ve got .info names that you want. Some Sonic.net customers have managed to get .info domains registered during times the registry has been up. -Dane

Tue Oct 2 16:58:10 PDT 2001 — While testing new URL filtering to block Nimda/Code Red requests, we partly broke our Alteon load balancing switch configuration. Our site at www.sonic.net was unavailable and users were unable to send and receive email for a few minutes. Multihomed sites were not affected, and no email was affected during this brief interruption. -Dane and staff

Tue Oct 2 15:05:20 PDT 2001 — This morning, we upgraded our backbone Internet connectivity speed by almost 60%. While our average link usage was well below the capacity of our links, we were noticing some intermittent latency during peak utilization times. The cost for a three to six megabit bandwidth upgrade was pretty close to that for a full 21 megabits, so we opted for the extra speed. Enjoy!

Statistics for routers and backbones links are available in our Cricket stats at www.sonic.net/stats/.

-Dane, Steve and staff

Tue Oct 2 15:04:13 PDT 2001 — We’ve had to reboot ape, one of our core switches. It was still switching, but would not route, which caused problems for colocated and DSL customers. Downtime was about five minutes. Our vendor recently released a new operating system for this switch which promises greater stability and additional features, and we’re planning an upgrade for the near future. -Staff

Mon Oct 1 22:50:58 PDT 2001 — The .info registry is now online, and new registrations are being processed. This new name-space is likely to get crowded quickly, so if you’ve got a good name you are interested in, act quickly to secure it.

We’re seeing some occasional errors, but most registrations are going smoothly. If you receive an error, please wait a minute and try again. The URL for new registrations is:

sonic.sonic.net/members/domain_tool/

-Dane and Chuck

Mon Oct 1 16:32:23 PDT 2001 — Problems with new .info registrations. Due to the huge demand, the registry is having problems processing new registrations. They have closed the availability until they are able to smoothly process registrations so that everyone has an equal chance to get the .info domains that they want. We will keep you updated as we receive new information. -Dane and Chuck

Mon Oct 1 15:51:44 PDT 2001 — At 6:00am tomorrow, we will be taking our UUNet T3 offline briefly for a speed upgrade. During this time, our redundant Cable & Wireless T3 link will take on additional load and some Internet resources may respond more slowly than usual. The work is expected to take less than fifteen minutes. -Steve

Sun Sep 30 20:54:23 PDT 2001 — New .info domains should be available at 9:00 PM tonight. We’re offering two years free domain registration when you purchase multihomed hosting. For details, see:

sonic.sonic.net/members/domain_tool/

Update: Per the .info registrar, it appears that the opening of the .info name space has been delayed until 20:00 UTC on October 1st, or 1:00 PM Pacific time.

-Chuck and Dane

Fri Sep 28 15:08:10 PDT 2001 — We have implemented a new email anti-SPAM system and additional features to replace the rule-checking we were previously using.

The new features allow us to accept mail from our users who are accessing the net from other providers and, in the near future, to to provide SPAM blocking tailored to individual preferences.

The “POP before SMTP” (or “check before send”) feature allows sonic customers who are traveling or connecting from another ISP to send mail through Sonic.net after checking for new mail. Just check mail (at pop.sonic.net) using your Sonic.net account prior to sending mail (at mail.sonic.net).

The SPAM blocking system will allow users to select the level of SPAM blocking they desire, ranging from none to very strict blocking. Currently Sonic.net provides a moderate level blocking required to protect our customers, but individual control will give you much more flexibility.

Users who wish to opt out of the blocking entirely may do so by emailing support@sonic.net.

An interface will be provided soon to allow for user selectable levels of blocking, strict blocking, content blocking white-lists and black-lists and full opt-out. -Russ