A steady stream of new members has been responsible for the growth in numbers, mostly from the closing of Dalhousie University's in-house Premium Dial-Up Service, but increasingly from the local community as well. The increase in numbers is not enough to put any extra strain on any Chebucto services and there are plans in place to expand services as the demand increases.

Alert: New worm hits unpatched Windows computers!

As always we also strongly advise all of our users with computers running Microsoft Windows (all versions but especially Windows XP and Windows 2000) to keep updated with the latest security updates from Microsoft's own Windows Update site. There are major security holes in the Microsoft Windows Operating System, Microsoft's Internet Explorer web browser and Microsoft's Outlook Express email program which can be fixed with these software patches. Microsoft Office users should also check with Microsoft for patches for recent vulnerabilities.

Unpatched versions of these Microsoft products are vulnerable to many viruses, worms, trojan programs and exploits where hostile users can get access to your computer and files. Users are strongly advised to keep current with Service Packs and Critical Updates for Microsoft products, which are released on a regular basis. Since the beginning of September there have been several new Critical level updates released.

Chebucto Services update

Chebucto's main server, halifax, handles mail to Chebucto users including the actual filtering of the spam tagged by our mail filtering servers as well as being a file and web server and handling the text service phone lines. One strategy tried was to move the text service phone lines to another server to help reduce the load on halifax. While this succeeded, it was discovered that the new setup could not be accessed by text dialup users with 1200 and 2400 baud modems and several text service users reported download problems on the text service. The phone lines are presently back on halifax and are once again working at full capacity. The Chebucto Plus 56 K dialup service was not affected by this issue.

August new membership records broken!

Chebucto Commmunity Net membership figures set new records in August, according to the Chebucto office. There were 21 new Chebucto Plus accounts, beating the previous record set in August 1999. This year to date there have been 312 new Chebucto accounts, as compared to 205 new Chebucto accounts for all of 2002. Chebucto Plus has set new high records for seven of the eight months this year so far since the upgrade to 56 K service.

Webcam moved to East side of Fenwick Place

The new view also shows where cruise ships coming to Halifax dock and this has turned out to be popular for the families of the cruise ship passengers, who have been writing in to thank us. At its peak during the Tall Ships 2000 event, there were several million visitors a day but since then the webcam site has stabilized at around 3,000 - 8,000 visitors a day.

Cool new Chebucto hats available!

We now have available excellent quality Chebucto Community Net hats. Click on photo to see larger version. These fashionable stone coloured washed cotton Chino twill hats are low fitting with adjustable strap and antique silver ring buckle for a perfect fit and are embroidered with the Chebucto Community Net logo and web address. Machine washable and drip dry with a pre curved peak, this hat will provide years of comfortable wear as well as showing your support for Halifax's own one-of-a-kind independent Community Net.

You can get your very own Chebucto Community Net hat from the Chebucto office for $20 or we can mail it out to you for an additional $10.

Chebucto Newspaper Column Give-aways!

Chebucto mousepads may be purchased from the Chebucto Office for $10 each or mailed out for $15 each. Contact office@chebucto.ns.ca to order.

Chebucto Users still tops in *.NS.CA SETI processing

Of all the computer domains ending in the letters NS.CA, denoting Nova Scotia, chebucto.ns.ca now ranks number one, producing more than double the results of both the government of Nova Scotia and the vast resources of EdNet, the schools network combined. Current stats here. Chebucto users have sent in more than 23,000 results, representing more than 46 years of CPU time that would otherwise have been wasted.

SETI is about to complete a new observation phase, targetting the top 200 candidate signals for direct observation using the full resources of the world's largest radio telescope at Arecibo, Puerto Rico.

Outlook user email advisory

Windows Users can find a selection of email programs available for download here and Macintosh users can find a selection of email programs here.

Go to the Services page