Chebucto Community Net Society
Annual General Meeting
April 29, 2009

Report of the Technical Committee

Webmail Upgraded, and other Security Services

In an ongoing attempt to make the Internet experience as safe as possible, CCN has introduced a number of secure services. Upgrades to our Chebucto Webmail service now allow for the use of S/MIME, providing users with the ability to securely send and receive email. SFTP allows users to upload files to their home directory or website without needing to expose their password to potentially hostile networks. Most notably, the Secure Renewal page on the CCN website is now protected by an EV SSL security certificate, guaranteeing the highest level of security available for web page transactions.

New Wireless Transmitter for Fenwick Place

In efforts to bring stability and reliability to the Chebucto Wireless network, Fenwick Place tower was outfitted with a new, higher power wireless transmitter (Ubiquiti Network's PowerStation2). The previous transmitter was a refurbished personal computer which simply could not provide us with the stability required for our wireless network. The new transmitter uses a Managed mode of wireless networking (versus Ad-Hoc mode) which has added speed and reliability to the wireless network. The new PowerStation2 unit will also allow for wireless coverage of Joseph Howe Manor.

Hard Disc Problems Plague Main Server

Purchased in 2003, the hard discs used by CCN's main server are starting to show their age. Infrequent yet critical errors forced the system to restart, requiring verification of the file systems, which sometimes takes several of hours to complete. Replacement hard drives have been purchased, and are in partial use by the system. A scheduled downtime is required to make full use of the new hard drives. This downtime is planned for the near future.

Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Internet Vigilantes, and Spam

Spam volumes are always on the rise, but last October CCN, along with the rest of the world, had a momentary reprise from this ever-growing problem. A group of Internet Security specialists traced the source of much of the Internet's spam email, all the way back to a co-location company based in the US. Upon contacting the ISPs who provided the co-location company with their Internet access the company was taken offline, and the result was dramatic. CCN saw a 75% drop in the amount of spam received, but it was only a matter of a few weeks before the spammers were back in business, full force.

More Power to the People

With the donation of several battery backup units, CCN is now able to stay online even during a power outage spanning several hours. The UPS units were installed during a scheduled power outage.

Chebucto's Oldest Server Retired

After 13 years of dedicated service, Chebucto's oldest server was retired last November. Once known simply as 'chebucto' this hard worker was at the core of all CCN services; email, websites, and text service logins, etc. In later years it was rebranded as 'phoenix' and its duties were scaled back to Chebucto Plus login authentication, DNS, and some mailing list archives. After suffering from a critical hard disc failure the decision was made to decommission the old system and move services to a faster server with a much more recent operation system.

 

Johnathan Thibodeau

Chair, Technical Committee

Chebucto Community Net Society