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Hi John,
On Fri, 26 Sep 2014, John Dennis Elliott wrote:
> I live in Truro, so hypothetical for me, but is using the mesh approach
> feasible for Chebucto at least in the campus/downtown area? No idea
> really how you are providing local wi-fi; did I read you have an antenna
> on a campus building?
Currently, we are providing hi-speed wifi to three seniors' residences
(large buildings) and the area between them (several blocks). As the mesh
area grows larger, more neighbourhoods fall within signal range. Users
can use their regular accounts via a VPN setup. Visit our homepage and
you can read our Twitter blog postings which explain a lot of this.
> For many years I accessed you by c64 and phoning long distance to your
> number. Too bad there is not an accessible 800 number, or I would still do
> it. Costs I understand would be prohibitive. But in the days of fidonet, I
> used to access K-12 net via an 800 number in Debert; I imagine payed for by
> the Maritime educational agreement.
We once thought of providing 800 service, but the cost was huge
compared to regular phone lines. We have several members from the U.S.
who have unlimited long distance dial-up packages for $30. a month
through their local phone providers. A couple of others use that 1010-710
(or something like that) service in the U.S. and pay pennies a minute. I
think Telus was planning unlimited packages awhile back but never went
through with it.
> i have been with you from the beginning, and you are being payed volunteers'
> wages, but I am puzzled by almost daily difficulty of accessing web mail.
> The problems started for me a very few years ago when I think you upgraded
> most of you equipment.
Only one volunteer is paid a half salary and donates much more of
his time to help keep CCN's costs down. Everyone else is an unpaid
volunteer. The reason we exist is to provide a low cost/free alternative
to the commercial services for those who have little or no money to have
internet service.
I don't work with the mail server, so I can't offer an explanation as
to why it is so wonky but we volunteers who work from our home suffer the
same problems as you do. I think a lot of it simply has to do with the
fact that CCN filters millions of pieces of mail daily and much of it is
is spam (something to the order of 90% or higher, compared to legit mail).
This clogs the mail server constantly and, if it occurs in the middle of
the night, when there is no one in the office, the server will stay stuck
until the office staff come in the next day. Sometimes they may check, if
they're up late and online. Lately, there have been deliberate denial of
service attacks on us by spammers.
> Just some rambling thoughts. I sometimes think we would be almost as
> advanced today if we had stuck with the Vic-20. :)
I still use my legacy computers everyday on CCN; sometimes logging in
with my Vic-20, my C64/128, Apple IIc & GS, my TI99/4A, my TRS-80, my
Color Computer, my Timex Sinclair, my Atari XL/XE/ST, my Amiga 1200 etc.
I like to, constantly, use them to ensure our legacy users (and there are
14 of them) can still connect with the internet at large, using legacy
systems. That way, they can upload/download files to/from their
respective ftp and web sites, in their native file system formats.
Tony @ CCN Help
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