This message is going out to all Zipcon Subscribers.

  I'm close to making a new change to the regular dial-up accounts on
Zipcon.  Part of the change is the format of mailboxes on the mail server.
The change should be completely transparent, except for a very small
group of fairly advanced subscribers.  Instructions for people reading
mail from the shell or menu of the shell server are in the zipcon.local
newsgroup.  If you do not understand what I mean by reading mail from the
shell server, then you will not notice any change.

  There will be a period of about 30 minutes this Sunday morning, 8/9/98 at
about 12:30 AM where you will not be able to get your email while the change
is being made.  It shouldn't last more than 30 minutes.  After that,
everything will be back up.

  The mailbox format is changing from the traditional "Mailbox" format to
what is called Maildir format.  The reason for the change is because we
will start offering 3 email addresses with every dial-up account!  This
will allow me to set up 3 email addresses with every account, and not have
to actually set up three accounts.  The additional email addresses will
use a slight variation of the original accounts login name for the POP
username and the same password.  The 3 email accounts will have the format
of the login name, plus a dash ('-') followed by an extension.  So for
instance, if your login name is 'karen', you will have 3 accounts:

karen
karen-1
karen-2

Now each of these accounts can also have an alias that is 9 or more
characters long.  So if your last name is 'johnson', you might have it
set up like this:

karen		gets email for	karen@zipcon.net and karen.johnson@zipcon.net
karen-1		gets email for	bubba.johnson@zipcon.net
karen-2		gets email for	baseballlist@zipcon.net

There is one complication with this, when the mail software is configured,
the POP username has to be the name on the left you see above.  And everyone
shares the same password as the main account.  So the email address name
and the POP username do not have to be identical for the additional email
accounts.    However, if you like, you can just use karen-1@zipcon.net and
karen-2@zipcon.net (replacing 'karen' with your real login name and not
some alias.

  If this is confusing and you just like things the way they are, don't
worry, things will also remain as they are now.  The only thing that is
happening is every account gets two more email addresses.

  Shortly after the feature is added, I will be setting up a web page that
will allow you to request your additional email addresses and mailboxes.
It will be at http://www.zipcon.net/addemail.html

  On another note, I've had a couple of messages about busy signals on the
206-336-3235 number.  Starting today, if you ever get a busy signal on
that number, please let me know.  There are a ton of modems on that number,
and many of them have never been used yet.  I purchased enough for
projected expansion.  We will continue to add more modems as usage goes up.
Right now, if you ever get a busy signal there, its either because there
is a phone line problem or a modem problem.  I'd really like to hear about
it, because its something I'll have to get fixed right away.

  Actually, I have to make one exception.  Today, a little after noon, I
will be powering off the modems to install a new UPS.  All the 56K lines
will be down for about 3 minutes.  Sorry for the inconvenience.

  Please let me know if you have any questions or problems.  Thanks
for using Zipcon!

Daniel Pewzner  ------------------The Zip Connection-----------------
zip@zipcon.net        Need help? try http://www.zipcon.net/help.html
voice: 206-524-0612   
data:  206-336-3235 or 206-524-7696 ---------------------------------