As you are no doubt aware, we have been experiencing severe problems
with the mail servers for the past two days. The problems included
extremely sluggish performance and dropped connections. In some cases,
people were unable to display the Z-Mail for Motif windows or print to
their usual printers. Most of the major problems have now been resolved
and we are working to identify and assist anyone still having
difficulties. Please contact the Help Desk if you encounter problems
connecting to the mail servers, starting Z-Mail, or printing.
 
We have been making a series of changes to the mail servers to
distribute the load more evenly across all of the servers. That is,
instead of more people on one and less on another, the objective was to
have nearly the same number of people using each server. The benefit
would be improved overall responsiveness. The final step towards this
was implemented three days ago. Unfortunately, it had some unanticipated side
effects which have now been corrected.
 
We sincerely regret the inconvenience and disruption this has caused
and we will continue to monitor the mail servers and make additional
corrections as needed to maintain a stable, reliable service.
 
---
Marshal Linfoot                            Phone: (416) 736-5257 x22691
Manager, UNIX Technical Support            FAX:   (416) 736-5701
CCS, York University                       E-mail: [log in to unmask]