Updated: 4 September 2013
Chebucto turned 19!
Chebucto Community Net, the oldest running Internet Service Provider in
Nova Scotia and the second oldest Community Net in Canada, turned 19 on
June 24th.
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 eight 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.
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
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
Email client: Mozilla Thunderbird free from Mozilla.com
All-in-one web browser, email client,
web page editor: Mozilla
SeaMonkey free from
Seamonkey-project.org
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.
Go to the Beacon
Go to the Services
page
![[PayPal]](https://www.chebucto.ns.ca/Icons/paypal2.gif){kind=icon}
