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Daily Service Bulletin (M.O.T.D.) Chebucto News Archive Permalink

Updated: 2 May 2011

Annual General Meeting News

[Photo: CCN AGM 2011] Despite a last minute change of venue due to an overbooked room, around forty members turned out for Chebucto Community Net's 2011 Annual General Meeting.

Members heard about Chebucto Community Net's progress over the past year and plans for the new year which include a faster mail server and some work on the long-awaited Chebucto Wireless service. They also heard how Chebucto had slashed expenses by 25% over the previous year and saw users both leaving Chebucto for high speed Internet and arriving due to not being able to afford the high costs of high speed Internet.

Long-time Chebucto volunteer and one of its founders, Bernie Hart, was recognized for his contributions. The meeting was opened with a presentation on Internet radio by Dan Robichaud, Executive Director of the Halifax Regional Community Access Program (HRC@P) and members received a free DVD copy of the excellent HRC@P documentary Reconnecting With C@P, about the struggles to bring connectivity to Nova Scotia.


Chebucto gets IPv6 addresses

Thanks to its membership in ACORN-NS, Chebucto Community Net has been given its own range of IPv6 addresses to work with. Chebucto's range is 2001:410:a002::/48 a block containing over 35 trillion network addresses. By comparison, Chebucto's previous IPv4 block contained about 250 available addresses.

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.


Chebucto now on Twitter

As you can see from the top of the live News page, Chebucto has joined Twitter and entered the age of Social Media. The Twitter feed is a way to communicate news and points of interest to a wide audience in a timely fashion as well as giving Chebucto a way to reach members at those very rare times when Chebucto web services aren't available.

The Twitter feed to bookmark is:

http://twitter.com/ChebuctoCommNet


Wireless service news

Logo: Chebucto Wireless
At the present time the Chebucto Wireless service is offline. The new transmitter location on the roof of Dalhousie residence Gerard Hall has been set, worker insurance has been purchased, and worker fall safety training has been completed. Additional worker certification is still required at this time. Additional equipment including a new wireless spectrum analyzer and wireless nodes has been purchased and is being tested.

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.

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.


Scam Alert!

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.


Help promote Chebucto!

We need your help. We invite our members and supporters to help promote the Chebucto Community Net in the community by printing off and distributing Chebucto brochures and posters from our website.


Chebucto Community Net RSS how-to guide

Chebucto Community Net has posted a guide on how to use our RSS news feed here: chebucto.ca/rss/

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.


Updated - Recommended software list

With the recent interest in Internet security and the rise in various exploits meant to take over user machines, the Chebucto Office has compiled this list of recommended software for user computers running Microsoft Windows.

Web browser: Mozilla Firefox free from Mozilla.com
Current version: 4.0.1.

Email client: Mozilla Thunderbird free from Mozilla.com
Current version: 3.1.10.

All-in-one web browser, email client,
web page editor: Mozilla SeaMonkey
free from Seamonkey-project.org
Current version: 2.0.14.

Free anti-virus programs for home users

  • Microsoft Security Essentials: available for free from Microsoft.com
    For Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7.
    (Requires Windows Validation, i.e. legal copy of Windows)

(Note that both of the following free anti-virus programs also have paid versions which offer additional features):

Anti-Spyware Software:

  • Malwarebytes Anti-Malware free and paid versions from Malwarebytes.org
  • Microsoft Windows Defender free for Windows XP from Microsoft.com
    (Requires Windows Validation, i.e. legal copy of Windows XP)
  • Spybot: Search & Destroy free from Safer-networking.org

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:

  • Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer (MBSA) free from Microsoft.com
  • Microsoft Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit (EMET)
    free from Microsoft.com
  • Microsoft Sysinternals free suite of tools from Microsoft.com
  • Secunia Personal Software Inspector (PSI) free from Secunia

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.


Cool Chebucto hats available!

[Photo: Cool Chebucto hat - click to see larger photo]   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.



 

 

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