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newsletter://mv.com
April 1997
Note: text copies of all issues of the monthly newsletter can be
found on mv in the public archive; look in /pub/mv/inews. They're
also in the online menu!
This bill
This is our first bill since the end of 1996. For most of you,
it covers the period from Sept 1 through Dec 31 1996 (or a part of
that period for any account that was not active during that entire
time). If you want to receive your bills and this newsletter by
email instead of by paper, please let us know by sending email to
mv-admin@mv.mv.com or calling our offices. Let us know the email
address you want us to use, too.
Web billing: with this billing, web accounts have been integrated
into our billing database and software. Prior to this, any web
charges were added to the invoice by a separate process.
New Web pricing: we mentioned last time that our pricing for web ser-
vices was changing. These changes took effect on December 1, 1996,
and you can find the new rates on our web page by going to
http://www.mv.com, selecting the Rates and Services entry and then
the Web pricing entry. Note that (as before) the web prices include
base allotments for storage and bandwidth used, plus charges for any
usage beyond those allotments. We're still working on getting the
web usage data collected and reported on the bill, and we expect that
it will appear on the next one. However, for the period covered by
this bill, the storage and bandwidth usage is not part of the report
or the charges.
New lines, new accounts
As most of you know, we stopped taking new accounts in most of
our locations about a year ago. We needed to devote our efforts in
getting our billing software written and our client database con-
verted, and we did not want to add new customers without adding new
resources. In other words, we'd rather keep our current users happy
than cause congestion by adding new users. As of about the beginning
of this year, however, we have been adding new access facilities in
all of our formerly-closed locations, and we we have opened up for
new accounts in most if not all of our areas. In addition, we have
created a new Nashua access POP (read on), and are about to open a
new Manchester location. If you've wanted to recommend MV to your
friends and acquaintances in the past, but could not because we were
not taking new accounts, feel free to do so now.
New backbone Internet connection
Also by way of providing more and better resources, we have com-
missioned a new backbone connection to the Internet in addition to
our Sprintlink feed. The new link will be through MCI, and will have
several benefits. It'll increase our bandwidth into the Internet;
it'll give us multiple paths in case there is trouble in one or
another of the backbone connections; and it will let us route traffic
to its destination more optimally. This order was placed in January
and the link is due to come up in early April.
Nashua POP
Also in January we established a new Point of Presence (POP) in
Nashua. Prior to this, we had had an access number in Nashua that
forwarded to our Litchfield office. Callers local to Nashua but not
local to Litchfield could call this number and reach Litchfield.
With the establishment of the new POP, we now have a facility with
modems in Nashua. Users in Nashua can call this number at 886-6688.
Note that for IP users, if you have a static IP address that is tied
to another location (e.g. to Litchfield or Salem) you can not use the
new Nashua number without converting to a dynamic IP address (prefer-
able) or to a static address that is tied to Nashua. (You can do
this by arranging it with our support staff.) If you already have a
dynamic IP address, you should be all set.
Addition of the Nashua number may give you a choice of several
locations to call, particularly if you have a dynamic IP address.
Depending on where you are calling from, due to the way your tele-
phone calls are carried you may get better connections dialing Litch-
field or Salem than Nashua. For instance, users served by the Merri-
mack telephone office (including Merrimack and Litchfield) will
almost certainly get better results calling Litchfield than Nashua.
Manchester POP
Similar to the Nashua POP, a new Manchester POP is scheduled to
come online soon. As of this writing, the equipment was on hand and
the lines were on order, but with no due date from NYNEX. It's
likely that by the time you receive this the due date will be on our
web page (go to the "access numbers" selection from the home page),
or the POP will be open.
All of the things mentioned about the Nashua POP can be said
about the Manchester POP. Currently we have a call-forwarding number
in Manchester for anyone who was local to Manchester but not to
Litchfield. (Note that both of these call-forwarding numbers are
likely to remain for some time, just as another backup.)
MV's new web page layout
If you've been to our web page recently, you've probably noticed
that we've changed it somewhat. Mostly, we've kept the same informa-
tion that was there before, but tried to lay it out a little dif-
ferently to make it easier to navigate. If you haven't looked
recently, you might want to go to http://www.mv.com and wander
around.
Some things that you should be sure to check on the web page
include:
* The user info area. This contains information for MV users:
things such as announcements, news of upcoming plans, outages,
etc.
* Usage policies. Here we are setting out some of the conditions
under which we provide our services. At present this is a work
in progress. We expect it to continually evolve, and you should
check this area periodically.
* Access numbers and locations. It can't hurt to have a copy of
the complete list of numbers in the POP that you call.
* ClariNet news. We've begun putting the ClariNet news articles
on our web server. In addition to the ClariNet articles on our
news server, which MV customers have had access to for years,
you may find it easier to browse this news source on the web.
It's certainly a more convenient way to read the comics and to
see the articles with photos.
You may also want to visit our rates and services section from time
to time in order to review our offerings and pricing.
MV Communications, Inc. (603) 429-2223