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| Author |
Message |
mary
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Dial-in Lines
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Apr 12 22:34 UTC 2010 |
The Board is considering dropping our last two dial-in lines. Staff
looked at usage recently and found a total of 30 minutes of connect time
over a one month period. The treasurer could tell us exactly what our
AT&T bill comes to each month but I suspect it's something over $50.
Would anyone object to this service being discontinued?
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| 115 responses total. |
kentn
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response 1 of 115:
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Apr 13 00:20 UTC 2010 |
To add to this, there is at least one free alternative to dialing in to
Grex if we were to remove the phone lines. For example, freedialup.org.
In the March 2010 Board meeting minutes, it is noted that (via a script
we used to use a long time ago which was run during the meeting to see
how much usage there was) there was 24 minutes of modem use in February.
This is practically nothing of all the hours of modem time available
that month (roughly 40,000 minutes in 28 days for one modem and twice
that for two modems--about 0.03 percent usage recorded). We should be
able to run that script again and see what the usage was in March. I
don't know if we can go back in time, say 6 months to see if there is
any pattern to the usage. Staff can tell us more about that.
If we do stop modem service to Grex, we should do at least a couple
things. One is to warn people in advance so they can investigate the
alternatives and try them out. Another is to publicize at least one
viable alternative for those who still use modems. If we can give good
instructions on how to use that alternative, so much the better.
If we know who the modem users are, perhaps an e-mail could be sent
to them with this information, but at the very least, having the
information about the impending end of modem connections and the
alternative(s) should be in the MOTD and an agora conference item
in advance of the shutoff date.
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kentn
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response 2 of 115:
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Apr 13 02:45 UTC 2010 |
www.dialinfree.net is another free dial-in service, which has numbers
in Michigan. There are others around the country, often limited to
regional area codes (such as freedialup.org).
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tonster
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response 3 of 115:
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Apr 13 21:30 UTC 2010 |
It's really a waste of money to keep them going for one or two users,
unless those users want to pay the bill. :) Even if the bill is as low
as $50/mo, for 24 minutes that's over $2/minute we're paying for someone
to connect to grex. :)
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kentn
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response 4 of 115:
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Apr 13 23:22 UTC 2010 |
At one point, I'm sure we had enough people using them and enough
membership money coming in to cover the cost. But this is obviously no
longer the case. Since we have practically no money coming in right
now, it would make good sense to reduce expenses where we can reasonably
do so. And of course, we'd like to do as little harm to meeting our
mission as possible while reducing expenses.
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tonster
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response 5 of 115:
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Apr 14 02:36 UTC 2010 |
At one time having just 2 lines would have produced 100% busy signals
too, but that time was about 15 years ago. :)
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tsty
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response 6 of 115:
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Apr 14 05:29 UTC 2010 |
please LINK t o agora !!
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tsty
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response 7 of 115:
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Apr 14 05:32 UTC 2010 |
keepoing one line, 'just because' would be a decent idea, imo,
i might be luddite-ish to do so, but, teh learning curve starts ther.e
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kentn
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response 8 of 115:
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Apr 14 15:24 UTC 2010 |
I suspect that dialing in via a modem is a learning curve very very few
undertake any more.
The Board has a responsibility to not waste money if we can reasonably
avoid it. 'Just because' doesn't sound to me like a good rationale
for spending money in this case, especially when there are dial-in
alternatives for people. They can get on the learning curve that way if
they desire to do so.
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mary
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response 9 of 115:
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Apr 14 17:39 UTC 2010 |
I agree and would support their being discontinued as soon as fair warning
has been issued. I put a pointer to this item in the MOTD this morning.
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kentn
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response 10 of 115:
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Apr 14 17:46 UTC 2010 |
Thanks for the MOTD update, Mary. Do we also want to link this to agora
since not everyone reads coop?
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mary
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response 11 of 115:
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Apr 14 19:42 UTC 2010 |
Yes, Katie has to do that. I'll send her email.
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mary
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response 12 of 115:
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Apr 15 00:52 UTC 2010 |
Thanks, Katie!
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keesan
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response 13 of 115:
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Apr 15 01:17 UTC 2010 |
I am one of the last modem users. It is quicker to boot into DOS and use
kermit to access grex, and it responds faster than if I go via dialinfree,
but I vote to drop the lines. I can't use DOS with a PCI modem anyway and
I have a whole bunch of computers without ISA slots now.
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slynne
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response 14 of 115:
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Apr 15 02:49 UTC 2010 |
I say if Sindi Keesan says drop the lines, the lines should be dropped!
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rcurl
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response 15 of 115:
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Apr 15 04:17 UTC 2010 |
I saw my modem the other day. I don't think it will work with any computer
I now use....and I'm not going to waste my time trying to make it work.
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lar
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response 16 of 115:
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Apr 15 04:58 UTC 2010 |
It might be wise to keep one line.
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keesan
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response 17 of 115:
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Apr 15 13:57 UTC 2010 |
My external modems work with all my computers but there are some newer models
without serial ports now.
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tsty
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response 18 of 115:
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Apr 16 14:22 UTC 2010 |
ok, dump both.
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mary
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response 19 of 115:
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Apr 16 15:11 UTC 2010 |
I agree.
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jadecat
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response 20 of 115:
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Apr 16 15:39 UTC 2010 |
resp:14 Yeah, that was my thought too. ;)
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zulu
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response 21 of 115:
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Apr 16 16:39 UTC 2010 |
Keep the phone lines. Dump Grex.
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keesan
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response 22 of 115:
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Apr 16 16:55 UTC 2010 |
Keep grex, dump twits.
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richard
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response 23 of 115:
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Apr 16 18:26 UTC 2010 |
What if grex's 'net server goes down and it is off the internet for a
time. it happens. If the 'net is down and there are no phone lines,
grex would be totally inaccessible.
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bellstar
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response 24 of 115:
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Apr 16 18:34 UTC 2010 |
The probabiliy of Grex's connection to the Internet going down is extremely
small compared to the probability of Grex itself going down (which happens
every once in a while). When Grex itself is down phone lines can't do much,
unless they are used to remotely power cycle or debug for which I doubt Grex
has the required hardware. Just saying from the technical point of view. I
don't think I get a say in keeping or ditching the phone lines in question.
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