| Technical Support | Policy, Security | SPAM | Blacklist | Definitions | Acronyms |

Products, Services - FAQ

Do you include email services with my dedicated service?
If I Don't Buy Equipment from SBCIS, what Do I need?
What network equipmentdo you recommend for customers?
Can you explain your ordering process/timeline?
Do you co-locate?
Do you offer news-reader or news browser access with my dedicated service?

We do not currently offer an included email service as a part of your dedicated service. As a dedicated customer, your business needs are our greatest concern. With our add-on business email services, we can customize an email solution that fits your business needs.

Typically, dedicated access customers are connecting a LAN-based configuration to the Internet. Customers need to provide the appropriate standard WAN equipment such as routers and CSU/DSUs. Because the Internet is a TCP/IP based network, customers need to have the TCP/IP protocol stack installed on each host or to translate any proprietary network traffic into TCP/IP through the use of a gateway.

Customers are also responsible for providing, configuring, and supporting any software tools required for accessing the Internet.

TOP OF PAGE

Regardless of the data transport service ordered, customers must ensure the network equipment they are using conforms to industry standards. SBCIS has tested and approved the standards compliant CSU/DSUs and routers from the following vendors:

• ADC Kentrox
• Cisco Systems
• Adtran
• Ascend Communications

SBCIS also offers Access Pack solutions which include customer equipment from Cisco and Ascend.

SBCIS provides extraordinary service through its Dedicated Provisioning Team. The Dedicated Provisioning Team is available to Dedicated Access customers throughout the service installation process. Each installation is assigned a Dedicated Provisioning Coordinator who is responsible for ensuring the customer's service is installed as requested. The Provisioning Coordinator is also available to answers any service-related questions during the implementation process. Each installation is also assigned a Dedicated Provisioning Engineer who is responsible for configuration of SBCIS hardware and software that will enable the customer to become part of SBCIS.

For each installation, the Dedicated Provisioning Coordinator will schedule a Customer Service Activation appointment. The purpose of this appointment is to verify installation and to ensure the customer is able to properly exchange routing information with SBCIS. Please note that SBCIS considers your site successfully connected to the Internet when we can exchange routing information with your site and your site can reach remote sites on the Internet by IP address (not host name).

TOP OF PAGE

If you are providing primary DNS and your site's Domain Name Service is not functioning at the time of the Service Activation appointment, but your site passes the Internet service installation verification tests, billing for the service will commence. If you are changing Internet Service Providers, we recommend you do not discontinue your current service until your site has passed the Internet service installation verification tests. Please notify the Dedicated Service Engineer during your Service Activation appointment of your existing Internet connection.

SBCIS configurations requiring only a new transport service are typically installed in 21 business days. Configurations requiring InterNIC domain name registration may take as long as 8 weeks or more depending on the domain involved. While ".COM" usually takes 2-3 weeks, “.ORG” or “.EDU” can take up to 8 weeks. SBCIS offers temporary registration under its domain during this registration period.

TOP OF PAGE

We do not allow co-location to non-affiliates, at this time, as a matter of SBCIS policy. In a co-location environment, customers are able to install their equipment in our space. We do not allow anyone unrestricted or unescorted access to office space due to security and reliability reasons.

Note for SBCIS customers: The following contains vital configuration information, please read the entire answer.

Before we can establish a feed to your site, we need the following information:

1. Whether you want a pull feed or a push feed. (A "pull" feed uses the NNTP NEXT method to pull articles from one of our servers in similar fashion to a news reader. Software like "DNEWS" implements this service. On the other hand, a "push" feed requires that you run a news server that uses the NNTP protocol such as NNTPD or INN on one of your servers, and one of our servers running Diablo or Cyclone sends you articles as they arrive here.)
2. The name of your news server. For a pull feed, this MUST be the fully qualified canonical domain name of the system. (Nor will multi-homing allow you to set up a sort of virtual alias.) For a push feed, this can be an alias.
3. The email address of a news administration contact at your site. (This can be an individual, but an alias you can redirect when staffing changes will make your life easier.)
4. If you want a push feed, we need a list of hierarchies you want our daemon to push out to your site.

Before we can establish the feed, your machine needs to be up and running an appropriate daemon on port 119. Both DNS lookups of your fully qualified domain name and reverse lookups of your machine's IP address need to be working.

Be warned that a full feed runs 38-50 gigabytes a day, 80% of which is in alt.binaries. There are also many different software choices for running news services. SBCIS does not endorse or support any particular news software package. However, for your convenience, listed below are several popular news packages that are currently available.

For UNIX systems, popular packages include INN, which is freeware supported by the Internet Software Consortium (ISC), Typhoon, which is a commercial package written and supported by bCandid Software, and DNEWS, a commercial package from NetWin Software. news server from www.nntpcache.org, Netscape Collabra, is offered as part of the SuiteSpot bundle from Netscape, and many others are avalible.

For Windows and Windows NT systems, popular packages include DNEWS, Microsoft Exchange, and Netscape Collabra. These are commercial packages and information about them is available from their respective vendors.

The internet also offers other options. Please visit Internet.Com's Serverwatch for an article covering available news server software: http://serverwatch.internet.com/newsservers.html

Should you need configuration assistance with the news software package of your choice, please consult the product's documentation, the software manufacturer, or other documentation sources. SBCIS cannot support news software packages; however, for your convenience, we have simple configuration examples for INN available on our FTP server: ftp://ftp.swbell.net/private/netnews/

All of the newsgroups that SBCIS carries are listed in our active file. Descriptions for most of these newsgroups can be found in our newsgroup file. While both of these files are updated constantly, a fairly recent version is available at our ftp sites. Follow the links below to our ftp server.

ftp://ftp.swbell.net/private/netnews/active ftp://ftp.swbell.net/private/netnews/newsgroups

These files are too large to be transmitted via e-mail so please do not request copies of these files via e-mail. You may also obtain a "Master" active file from the Internet Software Consortium. They maintain a master list for all groups in Usenet.

ftp://ftp.isc.org/usenet/CONFIG/active ftp://ftp.isc.org/usenet/CONFIG/newsgroups

Your newsfeed request must be submitted in all lowercase letters, with one entry per line. Do not use any commas or '.*'s after the group names. Remember that feeds are hierarchical: if you ask for 'comp', you will get everything in the comp hierarchy; similarly, asking for 'misc.jobs' would send all 'misc.jobs' groups. If you want a full newsfeed, ask for 'all'.

Do not itemize every single group you wish to receive, but send the shortest list possible with hierarchical feeding. If you want most of a hierarchy except for a few groups, you should request the entire hierarchy, then specify the groups you wish to exclude:

* hierarchy.foo

* !hierarchy.foo.bar

* !hierarchy.foo.misc

Do not list out each of the subgroups you wish to receive.

If you want to do a PULL feed, your server will be DNEWS.PBI.NET or DNEWS.SWBELL.NET, depending on your location. You will also need to feed back to these servers (again, depending on location)

NOTE FOR MS EXCHANGE USERS: At this time, we cannot provide pull feeds to MS Exchange sites. We recomend you configure your site for a push (full or partial) feed.

If you want a PUSH feed, you should allow the following to act as peer servers depending on location:

• cyclone-la.pbi.net
• cycloned.swbell.net
• cyclone-transit.snfc21.pbi.net

You will also need to feed back to the servers listed above (depending on location) We maintain several servers for feeding customers and peers. Customer's located in the Los Angeles/San Diego area (Southern California) will need to use cyclone-la.pbi.net, while customers in San Fransicso/Sacramento (Northern California and Nevada) will use cyclone-transit.snfc21.pbi.net. All other customers will feed from cyclond.swbell.net.

NOTE: The servers cyclone-transit, cyclone-la, and cycloned are for push feeds only. Pull feed customers should refer to the section of this document regarding to pull feeds.

All pacbell.net or pbi.net customers will receive feeds from a pbi.net system. All swbell.net customers will receive feeds from swbell.net servers. This method will allow the fastest, most direct route to your site.