o Upcoming iiNet Events
	o 8M Link Commissioned
	o New Diverter Numbers
	o Mandurah Upgrade
	o Reducing Load on Opera
o Support Special - Modem Dropouts
o Finger on the Pulse - iiNet Netstatus
o Emailing iiNet
o Credits

Upcoming iiNet Events

The first half of this year is looking like being a very eventful and exciting time for iiNet. We have a number of projects ready to roll out in the next few months, which will improve the services we provide to our customers. Some of these are:

8M Link Commissioned

iiNet is proud to announce the addition of a further eight megabits of bandwidth, direct from the US to Perth. This is in addition to the existing 4 megabits to Telstra Internet and 2M to connect.com.au, both Australian providers, taking us to a total of 14M of incoming bandwidth, split across three providers for redundancy.

We're hoping that this doubling of our capacity will also result in significant quality improvements since it is direct from uuNet, one of the world's oldest and largest backbone providers, straight into iiNet's network.

New Diverter Numbers

To improve our services to our Northern and Eastern clients, we've installed new diverter numbers. It should be noted that there will be an additional charge of 25c per call added to your iiNet bill when you use these numbers. These numbers are:

Yanchep/Bullsbrook East Clients 08 9307 5220

Mt Helena/Gidgegannup Clients (Mt Helena, Gidgegannup, Toodyay, Bakers Hill) 08 9293 0348

These numbers divert directly to our main digital rotary in Perth, so our Northern and Eastern clients should experience the same quality service as the metropolitan area, effectively for the cost of two local calls instead of one long-distance one.

It may be worthwhile checking to make sure that these numbers ARE a local call for you - you can call Telstra to find out, on:

14111222

Please note - clients currently using other numbers in these areas should change over to these new ones, as the old numbers will be disconnected over time. To summarise, our complete list of numbers is now:

Perth (Perth, Wanneroo, Herne Hill, Kalamunda, Armadale, Spearwood, Rottnest, Fremantle) 08 9278 0999 (digital) 08 9461-4000 (analogue) 08 9322-4449 (15 min)

Mandurah (Mandurah, Byford, Rockingham) 08 9586 1866

Bunbury 08 9780 6000

Busselton Clients 08 9727 2929 (diverts to Bunbury 08 9780 6000)

Yanchep/Bullsbrook East Clients 08 9307 5220 (diverts to Perth 08 9278 0999)

Mt Helena/Gidgegannup Clients (Mt Helena, Gidgegannup, Toodyay, Bakers Hill) 08 9293 0348 (diverts to Perth 08 9278 0999)

Mandurah Upgrade

We are aware that the service to Mandurah clients is not of the same standard as many of our other services. The problem has been that Telstra charges very high rates for links from Perth to Mandurah, even though it really is now part of suburbia.

We have spent several months investigating options, including microwave and spread spectrum wireless solutions. In the end, the best option appears to be to move the Mandurah service to Rockingham. This will still be a local call for Mandurah clients, but Telstra accepts that Rockingham is part of Perth, so we can afford to upgrade the "tail" back to Perth.

In lay terms, there will be more modems and faster Internet access for Mandurah and Rockingham clients by mid April. Thanks to the many people down there who have given us suggestions, and we sincerely hope you can hang on just a little longer!

Reducing Load on Opera

As many of you are aware, "opera.iinet.net.au" is our mail and shell server for our clients. Until recently, it's also been our web and news server, as well as many other functions. However, we found that the server was simply not able to cope with the amount of work we were giving it, as our userbase continues to rapidly grow, and so we've implemented some changes which will greatly improve the performance of this server.

Firstly, we moved our news server to a server called "motown". This change will be invisible to all but a very small few, as "news.m.iinet.net.au" WILL continue to work. But the result is that performance on both servers has been greatly improved thanks to splitting the load between them.

Secondly, we found that shell users running faulty scripts or CPU-intensive processes on opera were also causing problems. To combat this, we've now introduced ulimits on opera. Clients will not be able to run more than 20 processes (you will get a "fork again" error on the 21st process). Also no process can take up more than 120 seconds of CPU time, or it will be killed. This will apply to very few shell users; most scripts and programs use surprisingly little CPU time, as opposed to actual time taken to run the program or script. We feel that these limits will greatly reduce the load on opera, thus improving performance for all our clients, without impacting on the shell services already available.

Support Special - Modem Dropouts

From this issue onwards, we will include an article in the iiNet Newsletters which addresses a specific support issue, one which we feel is widespread enough to deserve a special mention. In this issue, we'll be discussing modem dropouts, and how to reduce or even prevent them.

Many of our clients contact us wanting to know why we are disconnecting them after only a matter of minutes, rather than the full two hour minimum that we've boasted. Put simply, we do NOT disconnect anyone before their two hours is up, unless someone else attempts to log in under the same username and password. If you're experiencing disconnection or slowdowns, it is almost always due to one of these factors:

TELSTRA TOUCHFONE OR SIMILAR -- these phones, recognisable by the memory buttons down the bottom of them, recharge their memories every 10-20 minutes by drawing a small amount of current off the phone line. This in undetectable by the human ear, but modems are much more sensitive than we are, and this can cause slowdowns, freezes and even disconnections. If you have any of these kinds of phones on the same line as the modem, please try disconnecting them from the wall before logging on. Some other phones, answering machines and faxes can also have a similar effect.

EASYCALL CALL WAITING -- a wonderful invention for when you're talking on the phone, but modems aren't clever enough to recognise the beeping that occurs when someone else is trying to phone you. Telstra added this to all its phone lines last year, so it's possible that it may be switched on. Even if no-one is trying to contact you, Easycall and similar services (diversion, etc) can cause telecommunication disruptions. Easycall can be turned off by dialling #43#, and turned back on again by dialling *43#.

INCORRECTLY CONFIGURED MODEM -- the correct setup for a modem can be the difference between mediocre and wildly varying connection quality and a good solid connection. If none of the above solves the early disconnection problem, you should write to support@iinet.net.au, or phone support on 9322-7773, and let us know what make and model of modem you have, and what operating system (Win95, Windows 3.11, Macintosh, etc) you use, and what phone number you're dialling to connect to us, and we'll be able to advise you on the best way to set up your modem for our system. A comprehensive list of modem initialisation strings is available on our web pages, at:

There are many other factors that can cause premature disconnections - problems with the phone line, problems at the telephone exchange, faulty cables, other household electrical equipment, high temperatures, electrical storms, sunspot activity (I wish I was joking!) - but the three listed above are the most common and the easiest to do something about. As always, please don't hesitate to contact our support staff if you're experiencing problems - our support telephone number is 9322-7773, and the email address is:

support@iinet.net.au

If you feel there is a support issue that should be addressed in the next newsletter, please let us know and we'll look at including it next time.

Finger on the Pulse - iiNet Netstatus

iiNet maintains a mailing list and newsgroup called iiNet Netstatus. This allows us to alert our clients to any problems that have occurred or are occurring, and keep you up-to-date with any network changes that are taking place. You can subscribe to this mailing list by visiting this web page and filling in the appropriate section:

http://listmaster.iinet.net.au

It's also available as a newsgroup, the name of which is:

news:iinet.netstatus

Emailing iiNet

There are a number of different email addresses here at iiNet, each for different functions. It's very important that the right email address is used, as emailing the wrong address can result in delays in responding. Some of the most useful email addresses for our clients to use to contact us are:

support@iinet.net.au -- If you are an iiNet client, and would like help on any facet of your service, use this email address to contact our customer service area. They can help you with everything from setting up Internet software on your system, to helping you upload your web pages, and advising the best strategy to make the fastest connections with your modem. Please do bear in mind that email to this address can sometimes take around 24 to 48 hours to be answered; please telephone our support staff for any urgent support matters.

accounts@iinet.net.au -- Our accounts staff are ready to handle any enquiries you have regarding billing. If you would like to change your payment options, or would like to query an invoice, don't hesitate to speak to them.

abuse@iinet.net.au -- Spam is the most despicable act known to man that you can perform over the net. If an iiNet client is 'abusing' you with spam or similar, or if you are receiving spam yourself - forward it complete with ALL headers to this address for action.

webmaster@iinet.net.au -- This is probably the most misunderstood and misused email address at iiNet. Webmaster is for comments, corrections and suggestions about iiNet's website. Also, if you have found an excellent website you think our clients might enjoy for our "site of the day", you can mail the address to webmaster. As this goes to our web design team, not our customer support section, you should email support@iinet.net.au if you want help with your own web pages.

By getting the email address right first time, you'll ensure that the response time is absolutely optimal. This will help us to help you as quickly as we can.

Credits

Thanks to all contributors to this newsletter - Kim Davies, Brian Hoover, Martin Livings, Matt "Kakamunda" Price, Paul Raj Khangure and Michael Malone.