On 3.31.98 SoVerNet switched to a single outsourced news delivery service, ISPNews . The switch was made after extensive research and, since March 31st, there has been only one instance of downtime. This, due to extensive electrical storms which disabled a good portion of the midwest.

ISPNews is currently ranked 12th in the news outsourcing hierarchy. In order to guarantee (as much as can be done Internet-wise) news access, ISPNews uses a technology called "server chaining." This allows a local server with small capacity to advertise the union of the contents of remote servers. Using "chaining," the benefits of a Terabyte (1,000 + gigabytes) News store can be made available to a geographically distibuted collection of machines. Coupling the software which drives "Server Chaining" with ISPNews' distributed, redundant server farm yields a great result: High Availability, Great Performance and Exceptional Capacity.

It is SoVerNet's intent to provide its customers with the best possible access to Usenet news...ISPNews appears to be able to consistently provide that gateway.

Should you ever encounter a newsgroup that is not carried by ISPNews, send a request for us to carry that newsgroup to Staff and we'll get you fixed right up.

April, 1998