'Net Service Slated to Be Sped Up

The Harvard Arts and Sciences Computer Services (HASCS) expects to increase the performance of the "fas" computer system by as much as 40 percent and implement an improved service for newsgroups next week, according to Director Franklin Steen.

The moves should improve services that students have been complaining about since last year.

Students had complained this fall that the new fas system was too slow. Harvard purchased the system during the summer to alleviate the strain on its overloaded computer system.

Logging on, calling up mail and logging off the fas system can each take up to two minutes, students last month.

"We are not completely satisfied with the performance of fas," Steen wrote in a post on the newsgroup "harvard general."

HASCS ordered a two-processor upgrade and more memory from Sun, the manufacturers of the fas machine, a Sun Spare 1000 with four processors.

The parts are scheduled to arrive next week, and, according to Steen, they should "improve performance of fas by as much as 40 percent."

But according to Eugene F. Kim '96, the president of the Harvard Computer Society, "fas is perfectly capable of handling the current load."

The reason why fas was slow was because "it was a new machine and HASCS really needed some time to configure it correctly so that it worked efficiently," Kim said.

But he lauded the move to increase the performance of fas, saying "HASCS is taking a very proactive step investing in these processors and more memory in order to handle the higher load that's expected for the rest of the year."

HASCS has also constructed a new news service which Steen called "our highest priority." The server, which Steen hopes will improve the quality of newsgroup service, is in the final testing stage and should be up next week.

The current news service is handled by two machines, "a Unix machine that serves the HASCS community and a VMS machine that is connected to the world outside of HASCS," Steen said in the post.

But "the Unix machine crashes frequently and the VMS machine is very heavily loaded," he wrote.

As a result, HASCS will replace both computers with a "single, much more powerful and reliable Unix machine," Steen wrote.

The change is "absolutely necessary," said Jeff C. Tarr '96, co-president of Digitas, a student computer group.

"The news system is about one week behind in articles," he said, "so currently this is problematic for students trying to read news about their classes and about other things and this system must be improved for everyone's sake."

Students appreciated the fact that Steen posted his announcement for all to read.

"One problem I always felt HASCS has had [is] they never let the users know what is going on," Tarr said. "[The post was] definitely appreciated."

In an e-mail message to The Crimson, Steen wrote: "I posted to give a clear picture of the current state of our network and systems. I want to keep our users up-to-date.

The current news service is handled by two machines, "a Unix machine that serves the HASCS community and a VMS machine that is connected to the world outside of HASCS," Steen said in the post.

But "the Unix machine crashes frequently and the VMS machine is very heavily loaded," he wrote.

As a result, HASCS will replace both computers with a "single, much more powerful and reliable Unix machine," Steen wrote.

The change is "absolutely necessary," said Jeff C. Tarr '96, co-president of Digitas, a student computer group.

"The news system is about one week behind in articles," he said, "so currently this is problematic for students trying to read news about their classes and about other things and this system must be improved for everyone's sake."

Students appreciated the fact that Steen posted his announcement for all to read.

"One problem I always felt HASCS has had [is] they never let the users know what is going on," Tarr said. "[The post was] definitely appreciated."

In an e-mail message to The Crimson, Steen wrote: "I posted to give a clear picture of the current state of our network and systems. I want to keep our users up-to-date.