The magazine of the Melbourne PC User Group Internet Newsletter 21 George Skarbek gskarbek@melbpc.org.au |
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More Bandwidth
At the start of August 2002 we increased the Internet bandwidth from 2.5 Mbit/s to 4 Mbit/s. The result has been improved performance, especially over the peak periods, and for the first time in years the Internet links should never be saturated. This is a part of the ongoing improvements.
New Computers
We have ordered two rack-mounted dual processor Dell servers with dual fast SCSI drives. They will be used to replace some of the older computers that have run 24 hours/day for several years; the new machines should be operational shortly after you read this article. They will be used both to improve performance and run some new projects including the $20,000 ISYS search engine that Odyssey Development Pty Ltd has donated to our group. See the President's column in this issue for more details.
Co-location News
To further improve services, we will be moving most of the Internet equipment to another location within a few months. Our Internet gear will be housed in a data centre that has 24 x 7 x 52 monitored facilities with all safety and backup features including dual electricity input from two substations, a massive battery backup, diesel generators for longer outages, air conditioning that can operate without external water, spectrographs to constantly analyse the air for the presence of smoke, telemetry, etc. Data protection is provided with duplicate external fibre cabling, and everything is powered from duplicate UPS, etc.
This means that response will be better, as we will be connected directly onto a huge backbone, and the probability of outages will be greatly reduced.
As well as all this we will be ordering more phone lines which should mean that you will almost never encounter busy signals. The co-location also means that we will be able to provide connection at a local call cost to members in the Mornington Peninsula as well some other outlying parts of Melbourne. This will enable more members to use the group's service.
So what else does this mean to members? As well as better response and no busy lines, in the future we may be able to extend the service to a wider area and perhaps also give additional online time.
We hope to be able to move all our equipment to the new site without any interruption to service by using redundant computers and other duplicated equipment. We will be able to give more details in a month or two when detailed planning has progressed further.
At this point I cannot state who will be contracted to perform this work, but we have narrowed it down to two organisations and some more work is needed to arrive at the final decision.
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What Are the Drawbacks?
Possibly the only difference users will experience is that the phone number for dialling into the new service will change and everyone will have to alter their dialler. A new version of the configuration kit will be made available and an explanatory article in PC Update should make this fairly painless.
It may also mean some changes to the limited browsing access for Associate subscribers, however this is still being investigated. Mail and News will not be affected.
Finally I would like to make a statement that the reason we are co-locating the equipment is to provide an even better service to members. Melb PC is not handing its Internet operation to some commercial organisation. We have been voted the best ISP in the country and we intend to maintain the high standard.
Despite these improvements there is no plan to increase the Internet fees in the foreseeable future.
Reprinted from the September 2002 issue of PC Update, the magazine of Melbourne PC User Group, Australia
