See an unfamiliar term? Check the newsletter glossary.
newsletter://mv.com
December 1997
* * Happy Holidays from MV * *
K56flex access status
As mentioned in previous newsletters and on our newsgroups and web
page, we have been working on adding K56flex access to our services.
K56flex is one of two competing technologies that take advantage of cer-
tain telephone company switch characteristics to give you a higher down-
load rate than you get with normal 33.6Kb modems. K56flex is the technol-
ogy developed by Rockwell and Lucent; the other, X2, was developed by US
Robotics. MV will not be supporting X2, however both protocols are
expected to be merged into an ITU standard that will supersede both, and
that we will support when it becomes available from our vendors.
Both K56flex and X2 are asymmetric protocols, in that they can give
you a higher incoming data rate than standard 33.6Kb modems, but do not
give you a higher outgoing rate. This is perfect for most users, who
retrieve information from the Web or who receive mail and news in larger
quantities than they send. Note that your actual connection rates will
depend on your connection into the telephone system.
In November we added K56flex access to our Nashua hub via a separate
number (886-7124). In December the K56flex access in Dover came online,
also via a separate number (740-9262). An order has been placed for Man-
chester access, but Bell Atlantic will not have the necessarily facilities
until late January. We expect to continue adding K56flex access to other
locations and will post status and dates on our web page and on the
mv.forum.general newsgroup as we get more concrete information.
New usenet news server
Also as a followup to an item in our last newsletter: the new news
server has been up and running in test mode for about a month now. Users
(both IP and shell) have been invited to try it out during this period;
all of our main news peers and most of the smaller ones have been switched
over to the new server. The new server offers about 24.5 GB of disk space
dedicated just to news articles, which will allow us to have a healthy
retention time on most groups.
This server should be moved to a production role around the time you
receive this note. As we mentioned last time, make sure you are using the
proper system name (e.g., news.mv.net) when accessing news, rather than an
underlying matching name (e.g., quartz.mv.com) or an IP address. When the
new server is put into place, the article numbers will be different than
they were on the old servers; unfortunately this may cause some initial
extra effort when you start using it. However, the benefits of the new
server should be worth it. In addition to the extra space for articles,
the new server is much faster and more responsive: you should see new
articles sooner, and articles you post will be sent out to the world much
quicker.
As always, when using this or any other server, be sure to use proper
netiquette and abide by MV usage policies (which you can find by going to
our web page, www.mv.com, and clicking on Usage Policies).
Staff
We'd like to welcome Stephen Guerra to our Customer Service staff.
Besides being an experienced customer support representative, Steve also
has a background in jazz performance and composition.
Email Billing
If you're currently receiving paper invoices from us, do you want to
receive them via email? Email invoicing is easier on us, not to mention
saving paper and postage. (You'll still need to send us a payment by pos-
tal mail, of course.) If you want to switch to email billing, just let us
know: either call us at 629-0000, or send us email at mv-admin@mv.mv.com
and let us know the email address to send your invoice to.
Year in Review
Since it's the end of 1997, we'll revive an old habit of recapping
some of the things that have happened at MV over the past year.
Early in 1997 we ended our moratorium on new accounts that had been
in effect for nearly 10 months. We had made a decision in 1996 that
rapidly growing our subscriber base would not be in the best interests of
our current users; one of the main sticking points was a billing system
that was not up to the task - in fact we were nearly 8 months behind in
billing in mid-1996. In 1997 we were finishing the conversion to a new
unified account tracking and charging system, and at that time were able
to open up for new accounts again. During 1997 we nearly doubled the
number of dial-in ports available to MV users, and have effectively caught
up on the invoicing.
In January, a new Nashua POP came online. Although we'd offered
Nashua access for years via a special arrangement where we had a local
Nashua number that forwarded to Litchfield, the new Nashua POP put facili-
ties in the city itself, without the need for the call forwarding arrange-
ment. During the year, the Nashua POP has shown our most rapid growth.
Also in January, we revamped our web page and added the capability of
accessing ClariNet news directly off of the web server (in addition to
already getting ClariNet on our news server, which continues).
In April we opened up a new POP in Manchester; the story is the same
as with the Nashua POP: we had offered access in Manchester via a special
forwarding arrangement, but by adding facilities in the city itself, we
improved access for callers in and around Manchester.
In June we left our Litchfield office of 6 years and moved to a new
office suite in downtown Manchester. The new offices provide a more com-
fortable and flexible environment for our staff and have been serving us
well for the past 6 months. Also in June we celebrated our 6th anniver-
sary: we incorporated in 1991 to offer Internet-based network access, mak-
ing us the first ISP in New Hampshire by several years, and among the
first ISPs anywhere.
Over the summer we began offering dedicated and dialup ISDN access in
Nashua (dedicated ISDN is also available in certain other locations).
In the fall of 1997 we replaced our mail server with a larger and
faster system, providing relief for the previous system. We also
announced the availability of our proxy web server and of the secure web
server for all users of the www.mv.com web tree.
In the fall we began the process of adding K56flex access, and worked
on a significant upgrade to the usenet news server which should replace
the other two servers by the end of the year.
We'd like to thank you for making this another good year at MV, and
express our wishes for a good holiday season.
MV Communications PO Box 4963, Manchester, NH 03108 (603) 629-0000