Internet Downtime

Attention

It's that time again!

As many of you know, each year the Internet must be shut down for 24 hours in order to allow us to clean it.
The cleaning process, which eliminates dead Email and inactive FTP, WWW and Gopher sites, allows for a better-working and faster Internet.

This year, the cleaning process will take place from 12:01 a.m.. GMT on February 28 until 12:01 a.m. GMT on February 29 (the time least likely to interfere with ongoing work).
During that 24-hour period, five powerful Internet search engines situated around the world will search the Internet and delete any data that they find.

In order to protect your valuable data from deletion we ask that you do the following:

1. Disconnect all terminals and local area networks from their Internet connections.
2. Shut down all Internet servers, or disconnect them from the Internet.
3. Disconnect all disks and hardrives from any connections to the Internet.
4. Refrain from connecting any computer to the Internet in any way.

We understand the inconvenience that this may cause some Internet users, and we apologize. However, we are certain that any inconveniences will be more than made up for by the increased speed and efficiency of the Internet, once it has been cleared of electronic flotsam and jetsam.

We thank you for your cooperation.

Kim Dereksen
Interconnected Network Maintenance staff,
Main branch,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Sysops and others:
Since the last Internet cleaning, the number of Internet users has grown dramatically.
Please assist us in alerting the public of the upcoming Internet cleaning by posting this message where your users will be able to read it. Please pass this message on to other sysops and Internet users as well.
Thank you.

[All jokes are believed to be in the public domain. If you feel one of these belongs to you, please let us know the details and we will either remove the material or provide a link at your request.]

---