DO NOT CONNECT TO THE INTERNET THIS MORNING

It's that time again! As many of you know, each year the internet must be shut down  in order to allow us to clean it. The cleaning process, which eliminates dead email addresses and inactive ftp, www and gopher sites, allows for a better-working and faster connections.

As usual the cleaning process will take place during the last week of the financial year from 23:59:59 (GMT) on March 31st 2005 until 00:00 the next day. During this period eleven powerful internet-crawling robots 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 during the above period you:
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 hard drives 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 inexperienced internet users, and we apologise. However, we are certain that any inconveniences will be more than made up for by the increased speed and efficiency of your web experience, once it has been cleared of electronic flotsam and jetsam. We thank you for your cooperation.

Interconnected Network Maintenance Staff Main Branch, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Sysops and others: Since the last internet cleaning, the number of on line 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.

To save delays please do NOT pass this warning on to other sysops and internet users as those who are experienced  should already be aware of the significance of this message.