![[Photo: CCN 17th Birthday Party 2011]](http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/Newsletter/Beacon/Content-2011/party-17.jpg "CCN 17th Birthday Party 2011")
Chebucto Community Net, the oldest running Internet Service Provider in
Nova Scotia and the second oldest Community Net in Canada, turned 17 on
June 24th. A party was held at the Spencer House Seniors Centre and a
diverse crowd of members and volunteers came out for the fun.
![[Photo: CCN 17th Birthday Party 2011 cake]](http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/Newsletter/Beacon/Content-2011/cake-17.jpg "CCN 17th Birthday Party 2011 cake")
With refreshments generously donated and prepared by members of Chebucto
Community Net's Board of Directors, guests attending represented
Chebucto's origins, our kind hosts at the Dalhousie University Department
of
Mathematics and Statistics, individual users, long time Information
Providers, long time volunteers, and assorted well-wishers from Halifax's
networking community so conversation was everywhere and a good time was
had by all.
Maintaining a community net in today's cut-throat commercial Internet Provider climate is no easy task; in 1997 there were enough community nets in Nova Scotia to hold a conference with representatives from all regions of the province. Today, Chebucto Community Net is the sole survivor, one of only a dozen or so community nets left in Canada.
Chebucto Community Net has helped tens of thousands of people and their families get online, provided web access to hundreds of community groups and small businesses and was the first online home for most of Halifax's major institutions including the City of Halifax, the Public Library System and Metro Transit, where a volunteer-built database provided accurate route information years in advance of Go-Time.
A lot of people both in public view and behind the scenes have kept
Chebucto Community Net working to provide access to those people left
behind by the ever-growing Digital Divide over the years. We celebrate
their - and all of our - achievements and look forward to the future.
![[Photo: Twin motherboards for mail servers]](http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/Newsletter/Beacon/Content-2011/twin-mobos.jpg "Twin motherboards for mail servers")
Presenting what will soon be Chebucto's new twin mail servers. With
powerful Intel Core i7 CPUs and a whopping 24 GB of highspeed RAM each
and 12 two terabyte hard drives between them, these mail servers will be
armed for bear. Now awaiting cases and power supplies, these servers when
put in place will replace Chebucto's now aging mail server and offer hot
fail-over so should one server lock up or become unavailable, the other
will seamlessly take over serving user mail with no interruptions in
service. Mail service will also get a significant bump in speed as each of
these mail servers have a lot more system resources than the present mail
system.
The traditional Internet uses the IPv4 protocol for all computers to communicate. In recent years the number of available IPv4 addresses has dropped as more and more computers have connected to the Internet. The solution is called IPv6, which has many, many more addresses. As time goes by, more and more of the Internet will move to the IPv6 protocol.
Chebucto plans to start using the IPv6 addresses in the near future, a
change that should be completely transparent to end users.
The Twitter feed to bookmark is:
http://twitter.com/ChebuctoCommNet
Signal tests done recently show a large increase in wireless access points in the immediate vicinity of Gerard Hall, with more than 79 access points visible using the 11 available wireless channels. With such strong frequency contention, the range of any individual wireless access point is very limited and our testing is showing us that we are going to have to look at using different equipment than we have been testing up to now. Also, the six year old Chebucto laptop computer burst into flames during our onsite wireless testing and needs to be replaced when available funds allow.
Late in 2009 members of the Chebucto Board made a presentation on the wireless service to the residents of Joe Howe Manor, a residence for fixed-income seniors. Since then Chebucto has been repeatedly turned down for grant applications to help fund the project and suffered setback after setback during equipment testing.
There has been zero development money from any outside source. All work
on the wireless project has been in addition to the regular technical
maintenance that Chebucto requires to keep operating.
Chebucto users are warned that there are email scams where users are asked
for their passwords and other personal information. No matter whom the
email says it is from or why they say they need the information, these
emails are always a lie. Real organizations do not require you to send
them confidential personal information over email. For more information on
these sorts of scams, tips to help you recognize these scams and resources
to help you find out more, see this Mousepad
column about spear-phishing, yet another in a long line of
scams through email designed to snag the unwary.
Our RSS feed is our way of letting people know fast about important software updates and security alerts as well as new developments at Chebucto. Stay informed with the news as soon as we have it ourselves with our RSS news feed.
Web browser: Mozilla Firefox free from Mozilla.com
Current version: 5.0.1.
Email client: Mozilla Thunderbird free from Mozilla.com
Current version: 5.0.
All-in-one web browser, email client,
web page editor: Mozilla
SeaMonkey free from
Seamonkey-project.org
Current version: 2.2.
Free anti-virus programs for home users
(Note that both of the following free anti-virus programs also have paid versions which offer additional features):
Anti-Spyware Software:
FTP and SFTP Software: FileZilla free Client Version from Filezilla-project.org
RSS Newsfeed Reader: RSSOwl free from RSSOwl.Org
SSH Client: Putty free from Simon Tatham
Security Tools and Software:
The Chebucto Office does not recommend using the Internet Explorer web browser for any use except for accessing Microsoft's own Windows Update page. The popular web browser has been repeatedly successfully targetted by virus writers in particular seeking to break into home computers to use them for criminal purposes such as sending out spam, sending out viruses to break into other computers and being used to disrupt services on other computer systems.
After many reports about vulnerabilities for Microsoft Outlook and Outlook Express email programs, and the constant stream of user complaints about randomly altered program settings and difficulty using the program, the Chebucto Community Net Office and the Chebucto Technical Committee recommend our users do not use either Outlook or Outlook Express as their email program.
Keeping Microsoft Windows up to date is also very important. Windows XP users should have Service Pack 3 installed and Windows Vista users should have Service Pack 2 installed. All Microsoft Windows users should make a point of using Internet Explorer to visit the Microsoft Windows Update site at least once a month and download all critical updates.
![[Photo: Cool Chebucto hat - click to see larger photo]](http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/Newsletter/Beacon/img/hat-big.jpg)
We have available these 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.
Go to the Beacon
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