Subject: NRAO.BITNET is fading away

From: dwells at fits.cx.nrao.edu (Don Wells)
Date: Wed, 18 Dec 1991 19:57:32 GMT

NRAO.BITNET is fading away

The NRAO Computer Division announced in the October issue of the NRAO
Newsletter that direct BITnet service to NRAO would be discontinued
when host "CVAX" is removed in Charlottesville at the end of December.
In fact the BITnet routing tables update on the 15th of each month,
and so the order to logically disconnect had to be issued early in the
month. It was issued several weeks ago. It has taken effect, and NRAO
is now mostly unreachable via BITnet. A login message on CVAX today
says:

18 Dec 91:
    *   Our request to be dropped from Bitnet is beginning to take
        effect. CUNYVM no longer knows the Bitnet node NRAO.  As other
        Bitnet nodes update their tables, incoming Bitnet mail will
        fail more often.  Outbound Bitnet mail can still be sent
        through the CVAX Bitnet facility until Dec 31.  After that,
        all CVAX Bitnet service will be ended.
 
Ruth Milner, system manager at the AOC, says:

"I had a phone call Monday from someone trying to reach [an AOC user
via BITnet].  After telling him what address to use instead, I asked
whether he had received the October Newsletter. He had, but admitted
he hadn't read it. So I told him about the article describing the
networking changes and suggested (very politely, of course) that he
might want to read it over to see whether anything else affected him..
[The termination order] definitely appears to be taking effect."

BITnet has served NRAO and its user community well for the past five
years, but that era has ended. Long live the Internet!

Donald C. Wells             Associate Scientist        dwells at nrao.edu
National Radio Astronomy Observatory                   +1-804-296-0277
520 Edgemont Road                                 Fax= +1-804-296-0278
Charlottesville, Virginia 22903-2475 USA            78:31.1W, 38:02.2N