Cruzio Newsletter - Number 4, March 1 1996
Table of Contents
1. About this newsletter
2. Larger free web space and lower commercial web rates!
3. BBS menu changes
4. New disk usage checking
5. Expanded Cruzio Online Support Center
6. Games and MUD
7. News news
8. IRC news
9. Status on modems
10. Part-time modems reset after 6 hours continuous use
11. System downtime -- Sunday mornings before 8am
12. How to reach Cruzio (dial-in or tech support)
1. About this Newsletter
Cruzio doesn't like to waste bandwidth with extra email, but
we sometimes have events and announcements that users need
to know about. This seems like the most efficient way to let
people know what's happening. Hope it's helpful. Please email
support@cruzio.com with any comments or questions.
2. Larger free web space and Lower commercial web rates
Cruzio now offers 1 megabyte free web space to all access users!
Put your personal or commercial home page on the Cruzio
web server, no extra charge beyond your basic connection account.
Graphics and other files can be included, as long as it's within
the 1 MB limit. Note: a megabyte is quite a lot -- dozens of
graphics and several pages can be fit into that space.
Instructions for free pages are in the online doc library
at:
http://www.cruzio.com/
If you have purchased commercial web space on Cruzio's server,
you will be glad to hear that you are about to get more for your money.
As of March 1, 1996, the $10 per month commercial web account will
include 40 megabytes of disc space, up from just 10 megabytes.
Remember that there are limits on bandwidth usage (that no one has
reached yet -- and many of our users get thousands of hits per day)
and that if your page becomes wildly popular you will be contacted
with our slightly higher but very reasonable usage rates.
Enjoy the extra elbow room, everyone!
3. BBS menu changes
MUD access is now located in the Chat Menu
The Archives Menu has been changed to provide disk usage reports,
and access to the personal web pages and saved files areas on the BBS.
The Archives Menu no longer provides access to Cruzio Online Library
files, which are now accessed only via Lynx (or ftp).
4. New disk usage checking
Disk usage is now checked three times daily for all users
and recorded in a database. Within the next few months, users will be
charged for keeping more than an average of 3 megabytes on the system.
This is necessary because some users leave huge mail files or files
acquired from the network on Cruzio hard disks instead of remembering
to download and delete them. We have had to increase our disk space
numerous times to meet the needs of a small minority of users, and we
must ask users to pay some attention to this.
BBS users may check their current disk usage via the new item in
the Archives Menu. PPP users may check their disk usage using their
management menu when they telnet to bbs.cruzio.com and log in with
their email login and password.
5. Expanded Cruzio Online Support Center
We have instructions for all sorts of things in the Cruzio
Online Support Center. Please come in and browse. You'll
find directions for setting up a connection on various machines
(Mac, Windows) with different software (Netscape, Trumpet...)
and on how to use CGI scripts available for your Web pages
(image maps, forms, counters...).
Get to the support center by starting at the Cruzio home page:
http://www.cruzio.com
from there, go to the Cruzio Information Center, where you will
see the link to the Cruzio Support Center.
Send comments to: webmaster@cruzio.com
6. Games and MUD
Cruzio is running an experimental Netrek server. Netrek is
a multiplayer, graphical space conquest and shoot 'em up game.
At this time, there appears to only be Windows client support.
Check the Cruzio Online Library at:
http://www.cruzio.com/
for more information. NOTE: this game is _unsupported_ by Cruzio
Support, although we are interested in your feedback. If you need
assistance, do _not_ call Cruzio Support. Post queries to cruzio.help.
For those of you who have been enjoying our online multi-user
chat and fantasy game, or "MUD", or for those who'd like to try it,
there have been some changes made. The old MUD was so large that it
caused a "memory leak" in the server, and had to be retired. The new
MUD is now up, the wizard is volunteer Mel Premo (thank you very
much). For more information on the MUD, check the Cruzio
Online Library at:
http://www.cruzio.com/
7. News news
Our news provider, scruznet, is working on stabilizing their news feed
to their customers. We've noticed a steady increase in news volume and
a decrease in glitches. We'll be monitoring the situation, and will
continue our plans to upgrade our news server hardware and seek a
secondary news feed.
8. IRC news
The new IRC server and ident service are a hit. Regular IRC
users report that Cruzio is no longer automatically banned by
server sites that require ident support. If you have a list of
servers available using the /SERVER command, please post them to
cruzio.general and cruzio.help so others may use them!
9. Status on modems
The struggle with lines and modems goes on. We are constantly
striving to keep to a no-busy-signal level. More modems are
being added this week to the 28.8 lines. Please let us know
if you get more than a minute or two of busies when you try
to connect -- and let us know the speed modem you are using
and the time of day. We appreciate your help in this.
10. Part-time modems reset after 6 hours continuous use
Although there is no limit to the time you can be on line with
Cruzio each month, our $18/month PPP accounts are considered
part-time accounts and we do not expect you to be on line for
more than 6 continuous hours. We do not mind if you disconnect
and get right back on again, but we do reset connections that
have been on for 6 hours or more. If you are interested in
full-time accounts, we do offer those. Please send email to
office@cruzio.com if you'd like to inquire.
11. System downtime -- Sunday mornings before 8am
Just a reminder that Cruzio is down early every Sunday morning
for system maintenance. Downtime is from about 4 am to 6 am most
Sundays, but occasionally we have the system down until 8am.
12. How to reach Cruzio (dial-in or tech support)
To dial in to Cruzio, check what modem speed you are
using and dial one of the following numbers:
2400 bps.................423-9995
9600 bps.................423-1987
14.4 kbps................459-6200
28.8 kbps................459-6230
To call Cruzio, use one of these numbers:
423-1162.................Our main number, to leave a message
423-7529.................Our status line, to report or check on
system problems
423-7635.................Our "human line", from 12-6 Monday through
Friday. Talk to a human being.
To send email to Cruzio, use one of these addresses:
support@cruzio.com.......for technical support
office@cruzio.com........for billing and ordering information
webmaster@cruzio.com.....for questions about Cruzio's World Wide
Web service
To reach the Cruzio Information Center, for online technical and
sales information:
http://www.cruzio.com/
Thanks very much from Cruzio:
Chris, Peggy, John, Deana, Judy, JJ,
Jake and Annika, the Cruzio Baby (1 year old and walking.
No, make that running.)
