Posted on

27-Jul-2011

Speed-up of connection
Having a fiber connection for TV and radio, next phase is Internet. The basic offering is 50Mb – symmetrical, meaning a 6-fold increase of download, but far more interesting for the reader and user: a 50-fold increment of upload speed. It means I had to change DNS settings, as I learned that the address I got from the new ISP is functionally static. That has been tested by connecting my laptop directly to the moden, and afterwards my router – after keeping the connection open for about one hour. I got the right address! The router I use has two WAN ports, so it’s an easy transfer: connecting the fiber into the second WAN port, and supply the ‘old’ address as an alias.
Today I got the acknowledgement of the change – indeed, when accessing the websites I got the new address, but no answer…Luckily, I could access the router and found out I had to disable the first WAN port since that would supply the now obsolete default route; Second, I needed to add a set of open pofrts to the second WAN port. Actually, I made the first set available on the second WAN port and copied it to be used on the first. Now I can access the webs (therefore I cab write this post!), mail gets in and I can access the server.
The difference is speed is noticable, so say the least. Even on a Wifi connection with poor signal 🙂

it will take some time for this DNS-changes to be exported over the web. So if you cannot access the site for some time, you now knwo why.

Posted on

18-Jul-2011

Wiki Spam
These last weeks I was notified that new user acounts were created on the OpenVMS wiki. Looking at these users, I had my suspicion but I gave them the benefit of doubt. It meant I had to watch activity on the wiki, on a daily basis. But my thoughts proved to be right: two of three had created pages that have nothing to do with the subject – merely hawking stuff. So I deleted the pages – and the users. So these won’t be accessable anym more, still have to move them off the Python environment.

Posted on

06-Jul-2011

Mail stats
As a result of this month’s maintenance:
PMAS statistics for June
Total messages    :   9931 = 100.0 o/o
DNS Blacklisted   :    404 =   4.0 o/o (Files: 30)
Relay attempts    :   8865 =  89.2 o/o (Files: 30)
Accepted by PMAS  :    662 =   6.6 o/o (Files: 30)
 Handled by explicit rule
        Rejected :    103 =  15.5 o/o (processed),   1.0 o/o (all)
        Accepted :    250 =  37.7 o/o (processed),   2.5 o/o (all)
 Handled by content
       Discarded :    104 =  15.7 o/o (processed),   1.0 o/o (all)
    Quarantained :    180 =  27.1 o/o (processed),   1.8 o/o (all)
       Delivered :     25 =   3.7 o/o (processed),    .2 o/o (all)
The vast majority of relay attemps have been on then 18th and 19th, in a somewhat lesser extent there have been attemps on the 8th and 27th, and even less (but still substantial) on the 25th.

There are over 125.000 blocks of router messages that have been archived – just for last month….

For the rest – there’s nothing weird.
Accounts deleted
As I learned that new, and possibly fake accounts have been created on the Trips, Tracks and Travels blog – no reason why – I have deleted the ones that seem to be faky ones. There is no real need to subscribe, I don’t expect comments on it’s content, and RSS can be requested without registration. I also disabled “free” accounts on that blog. If anyone seems to need an account, it can be requested. I still have to update the “about” page, but it’s getting more and more troublesome to login as site administrator. So it’s time to really do something on the PHP business. A new version has just been released (Mark Berryman made the announcement on the vms.os.comp list – paraphrased at www.openvms.org. This kit also contains the PHPWASD runtime environment as Mark Daniel has posted on the WASD mailing list, so it’s a good idea to download and test it – combined with the new WASD environment. Just setting up an environment – both on a real Alpha, and a virtual one – the problem with last is how to create an .ISO file of all patches that are required, so I can – finally – set things up on my laptop…..
New ammo…
Also on the openVMS.org site: the summary of Eddy Orcutt’s article on the cost of openVMS versus the cost of Windows and Linux.; I’ve read the article (courtersy of MamaVMS herself) but alas, the entry on OpenVMS.org lacks a link to the original article. The nicest thing on the original article is: it contains pictures, required to impress management….I’m not sure whether this article is generally available, so I cannot mention it here. If it is, the openVMS.org should contain the link – as well as the openVMS-pages at HP.com!!
Fiber – oh well…
The only service delivered so far is TV and radio – both the analogue signal and the digital DVB-C one – as I have requested only these. Internet access must be ordered by mail, but it’s easy and fast to enable it. So this week I’ll send it out; the cabling is almost ready – the only thing missing is the connetors to link the whole thing together….When done,I’ll configure my router to use both WAN ports, one to my current provider (mainy incoming traffic) and one to the new one (outrgoing traffic first). When I get my new fixed IP address, this will be used in DNS; that would enable a smooth transition. And when all is ready, the ‘old’ connection will be shut down. But since my new provider doesn’t offer DNS or mail failover, I’ll keep my account at my current provider. I’ve been there since 1994….