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E-mail change for Cox Subscribers

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The popular local broadband ISP, Cox, has made recent changes to how it handles electronic mail. These measures were taken to prevent malicious users from exploiting Cox for Spam or e-mail based network attacks.

Technically speaking, they have blocked port 25 (SMTP) except for Cox subscribers sending mail through Cox’s mail server. This will not have an impact for most subscribers. If you have not already followed Cox’s recommendations for outbound mail, you must reconfigure your mail application to use their server.

This will also affect users who use a laptop both with the Cox service and UCInet and have been able to use the same mail configuration in both places, which is no longer possible.

Cox provides detailed information at: http://www.broadbandreports.com/forum/remark,7081800~root=cable,ath~mode=flat

NETCOM TERMINATES UCI CONTRACT

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In April of 1996, NACS announced the Netcom Campuswide PPP program, which made Netcom’s Internet dial-in service available to UCI at an academic discount. Recently Netcom changed their business model, and in a letter to UCI NACS exercised their option to terminate the pricing agreement.

As a result, Netcom is no longer accepting new accounts at the discounted rate and is no longer on NACS’ list of suggested Internet Service Providers. Existing UCI Netcom customers may continue to use their accounts under the existing pricing and other terms and conditions. Netcom advises us that they will notify users at least one month before any future change in pricing.

Watch NACS-News and/or the Home-Access@UCI.EDU Mailing List for future announcements of replacements for Netcom in NACS’ suggested ISP list.

Alternatives for Modem Users

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ALTERNATIVES FOR MODEM USERS

As a member of the UCI community, you have unlimited use of NACS'”free” modem pool. However, for many people, sharing 300 modems that serve a community of approximately 20,000 faculty, staff, and students is inconvenient and, at times, frustrating. The free modem pool is designed as a default service to ensure that everyone at UCI has at least some remote access. There are alternatives to this basic service.

Dedicated Modem Service

NACS offers “Dedicated Dial-up Modem Services” to faculty, work-groups, and departments. These services provide dedicated modems and unlimited connection time to UCInet and the Internet. The cost is $45 a month plus a one-time, $90 set-up charge (waived now through June 1997 – see below).

$45 a month is relatively expensive for a single user, but if shared by several individuals, the cost becomes comparable to the least expensive Internet Service Providers. For example, a department or group with 45 people might share a bank of 10 modems — the resulting monthly cost is only $10 per person. A small group of 4 people can share one modem at a cost of $11.25 per individual per month.

More information about Dedicated Modems can be found at: http://www.nacs.uci.edu/communication/dedicated.dial-up.html

To order this service, please call NACS Electronic Communication Services at extension 5123 or send an e-mail message to NACS@UCI.EDU with “Request for Dedicated Modem Service” in the subject line. To help departments ease current modem access issues, NACS will waive the $90 setup fee now through June 1997 for dedicated modem commitments of at least 6 months.

Internet Service Providers

A second remote access alternative is using an Internet Service Provider (ISP), such as Netcom, Pacific Bell or a variety of others. Information concerning ISPs can be found at: http://www.nacs.uci.edu/support/antaccess/isp.html

A disadvantage of using ISPs is that certain services (such as Britannica On-Line) are not available due to access being restricted to users from the uci.edu network domain.

NACS welcomes your comments and suggestions concerning remote access to UCInet; you may direct them to ourNACS@UCI.EDU address or to any NACS manager.