home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
-
-
-
-
-
-
- Network Working Group Alex McKenzie
- RFC #374 BBN
- NIC 11099 19 July 1972
-
-
- There are two significant developments in the operation of the network
- which should be of interest to all sites:
-
- NEW IMP SYSTEM IS RELEASED !
- On Tuesday July 18, the new IMP software described in previous RFC's
- (#331,#343,#359) was apparently successfully released. We ran from
- 10:00am on that day until Wednesday afternoon with very few network
- problems attributable to the new system. We are quite pleased with
- this performance, and expect to leave the new system up permanently!!
-
- We are, of course, aware that in any system of this size, bugs may
- crop up at any time, and we solicit the help of the network community
- in finding them. We also believe that the new system may have a
- different "feel" to users, both terminal users and Hosts. We urge
- everyone to have a bit of patience while getting used to any change in
- the "feel" of the network. On the other hand, PLEASE REPORT ANY
- SUSPECTED NETWORK MALFUNCTION TO THE NCC AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.
- Evidence of bugs, guesses as to what went wrong, etc., are always
- useful in hunting bugs, but don't let the lack of positive proof delay
- the reporting of suspected system malfunction. The NCC telephone
- number is (617) 661-0100. Feel free to call collect!
-
- The one known shortcoming of the new software is the exacerbation of a
- long-standing TIP software problem. The TIP now often appears to
- neglect sending an Allocate control message for some active
- connection, with the effect that the Server-to-User path becomes
- blocked. We are giving the solution of this problem the highest
- priority! (Our current data seems to indicate that this problem is
- most likely to occur when there are several users and when the Server
- Host is a TENEX system. If you know of other situations where this
- problem has occurred, please let us know!)
-
- Now that the new system is up, all sites with Model 516 IMPs will be
- contacted by telephone and asked to reset the switches on their IMPs
- as follows:
-
- HALT INH - on
- W.D.T. - on
- AUTO RSTRT - on
- MEMORY PRTCT - on
-
-
-
-
-
-
- [Page 1]
-
- SITE POWER PROBLEMS
- The network has recently been experiencing serious difficulties
- related to the annual problem of more demand for electricity than is
- available during the summer months. For example:
-
- During the month of June, between 1/4 and 1/2 of the
- IMP down time was due to site power failure.
-
- During the weekend of July 15-16, two sites were down
- all weekend due to air-conditioning failure which was
- apparently related to power failures or brownouts.
- This left several sites connected to the rest of the
- net through only one path which, according to Murphy's
- law, eventually failed - leaving nine sites partitioned
- from the remainder.
-
- On July 18, an underground power transformer supplying
- power to the entire computer room at site 27 failed,
- putting IMP 27 out of action for several hours (anddit
- could easily have been several weeks.)
-
- Obviously in these cases there is little that either the NCC or the
- site can do to restore service. We expect these situations to
- continue or even get worse as the summer continues. Please try to
- restrain your annoyance when these situations arise; we don't like
- them either!
-
-
-
-
- [ This RFC was put into machine readable form for entry ]
- [ into the online RFC archives by BBN Corp. under the ]
- [ direction of Alex McKenzie. 1/97 ]
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- [Page 2]
-
-