Fast, free modem connections to the Cornell Campus Network are coming June 30 through a new service called Express Lane. Intended for people who only need to hop online for a few minutes, Express Lane will offer faster speeds and improved accessibility compared with the current free service, EZ-Remote/low.
With a top connection speed of 56K bps (bits per second), Express Lane will offer the same speed as the fee-based EZ-Remote service. The underlying technology will be better, too, so your modem can attain speeds closer to its maximum, and you can cruise the Net and check e-mail faster. EZ-Remote/low has a top speed of just 28.8K bps.
Express Lane also will provide more equitable access than EZ-Remote/low. You will be able to connect to the campus network up to four times a day, with each connection limited to 15 minutes. CIT expects Express Lane to be as heavily used as EZ-Remote/low, but these limits will keep individuals from tying up modems for hours, which has been a big problem with EZ-Remote/low.
To use Express Lane, you'll need to dial in with PPP (Point-to-Point Protocol). EZ-Remote/low uses a different technology called SLIP. To use PPP instead, you'll have to change some software on your computer and possibly on your modem. See the web site http://www.cit.cornell.edu/ezremote/56k.html to find out how, or call the ATS HelpDesk at 255-8990 or visit 119 Computing and Communications Center.
At about the same time that Express Lane is launched, CIT will shut down EZ-Remote/low because its infrastructure is not Year 2000 compliant. The old, slower EZ-Remote/high modem pool (254-6000) has the same noncompliant infrastructure and will be discontinued Nov. 30. The 56K EZ-Remote (254-5600) service introduced this past fall is replacing that service.
Once EZ-Remote/low and the old EZ-Remote/high (254-6000) are discontinued, CIT no longer will have the ability to support SLIP (Serial Line IP) or the command-line interface (CLI), which enables use of terminal emulation software or a real terminal to dial in directly to a telnet prompt.
Comments about these changes in CIT's dial-in services may be e-mailed toez-remote-info@cornell.edu.
Have you received an e-mail attachment named HAPPY99.EXE? Please don't click on it. Just delete it. This Windows 95/98 computer worm has been spreading around the Internet and is being seen throughout Cornell.
At first glance, HAPPY99.EXE looks like fun. Running it reveals a colorful fireworks display and New Year's greeting. The problem is what you don't see --the worm infecting your computer and then attaching itself to your outgoing e-mail messages and newsgroup articles. It can even send e-mail and articles by itself. If your computer is already infected, see the web site http://www.cit.cornell.edu/cit-pubs/news/briefs.html#happy99 for details on what to do.
EXE (executable) files are an excellent way to transmit computer viruses among Windows computers. Be suspicious about EXE files that you receive in e-mail, even if they're sent by friends. (With a worm like HAPPY99.EXE, your friends might not even know they've sent it.)
Better yet, set up your antivirus software to automatically scan attachments.
No antivirus software? Get some --Cornell has excellent pricing on Symantec software for departments (see http://www.cbs.cornell.edu/tc/sw.html).
The "@cornell.edu" column is edited by Beth Goelzer Lyons of CIT. Please send suggestions to <citnews@ cornell.edu>. For more technology news, see the CIT News web site http://www.cit.cornell.edu/citpubs/news/ or newsgroup cornell.announce.cit.
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