Rootsweb news update.... Please consider making a contribution this year! ...... the load on our servers jumped immediately after Christmas. For example, mailing list traffic we handle jumped from about 119 million deliveries in November to about 154 million pieces in January. That's almost a 30% leap. Although we haven't run the Web statistics for January yet, we suspect Web traffic jumped a similar amount. Since December, to handle the load, RootsWeb has brought online: o A new and much faster main Web server. o A new FTP server. o A new and much faster GenConnect server. o A new and much faster Surname Helper server. o A new and much faster RootsWeb Surname List (RSL) and Obituary Daily Times server. o A new server for the FreeBMD British records project. o A new server for providing personalized search engines for the Webmasters of genealogical sites. It has been a Herculean task to bring all those machines online in just a few weeks, and we aren't through yet. In the next few weeks we need to: o Upgrade the "lists2" listserver's processor and memory (costs $2,000). o Build a new "lists3" listserver (costs $4,000). o Build a faster server to carry most of the load currently being handled by the "searches" search engine server (costs $12,000). o Add a fast "RAID" disk array to the GenConnect server (costs $6,000). We mention the costs because these needed upgrades and new servers currently are not funded. By making a financial contribution to RootsWeb, you can help us provide more mailing lists, more searchable data files, and more GenConnect boards for the whole community to use. For details about support levels/benefits and payment options, visit: <http://www.rootsweb.com/rootsweb/how-to-subscribe.html> or send e-mail to: <[email protected]>. RootsWeb's address is: RootsWeb Genealogical Data Cooperative, P.O. Box 6798, Frazier Park, CA 93222-6798. (Please include your e-mail address on all correspondence and checks.) Virginia