*** Attention ***

  It's that time again!

  As many of you know, each year the Internet must be shut down for 
24 hours in order to allow us to clean it. The cleaning process, which
eliminates dead email and inactive ftp, www and gopher sites, allows 
for a better working and faster Internet.

  This year, the cleaning process will take place from 12:01 a.m.. GMT 
on April 30 until 12:01 a.m. GMT on April 31 (the time least 
likely to interfere with ongoing work). During that 24-hour period, five 
powerful Internet search engines situated around the world will search 
the Internet and delete any data that they find.

  In order to protect your valuable data from deletion we ask that you 
do the following:

  1.    Disconnect all terminals and local area networks from their
	Internet connections.

  2.    Shut down all Internet servers, or disconnect them from the
	Internet.

  3.    Disconnect all disks and hardrives from any connections to the
	Internet.

  4.    Refrain from connecting any computer to the Internet in any way.

  We understand the inconvenience that this may cause some Internet 
users, and we apologize. However, we are certain that any inconveniences 
will be more than made up for by the increased speed and efficiency of 
the Internet, once it has been cleared of electronic flotsam and jetsam.

  We thank you for your cooperation.

  Kim Dereksen
  Interconnected Network Maintenance staff,
  Main branch,
  Massachusetts Institute of Technology


SysAdmins and others: Since the last Internet cleaning, the number of
Internet users has grown dramatically. Please assist us in alerting
the public of the upcoming Internet cleaning by posting this message
where your users will be able to read it. Please pass this message
on to other Admins and Internet users as well.