Executive Director's Report June 1999 =========================== July 16, 1999 By Christopher L. Cope (execdir@freenet.carleton.ca) Contents: 1. Administration & Funding 2. Member Services and Future Initiatives 3. System Administration 1. Administration & Funding =========================== a) Donation Data - New Registrations ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The number of new registrations in June was approximately half the Budgeted amount. The percentage of new members donating was also quite low at 44.4%, but the average donation was higher than usual at $44.78 and the total amount donated also ended up at approximately half the Budgeted amount. Year-to-date, we have collected $14,706 from new registrations, which is $3,294 or 18% under our projection. No. No. % Of Avg. Regist New Budget Regist Memb $ Budget Regist Donat'n Memb. (No.) Var Donate Donate Amount ($) Var Donat'n All New ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ YTD'98 3,488 7,224 -52% 1,499 43.0% $35,668 $46,225 -23% $23.79 $10.23 Avg'98 291 602 -52% 125 43.0% $ 2,972 $ 3,852 -23% $23.79 $10.23 Jan. 205 300 -32% 133 64.9% $ 3,297 $ 3,000 -10% $24.79 $16.08 Feb 230 300 -23% 127 55.2% $ 2,704 $ 3,000 -10% $23.62 $13.04 Mar. 213* 300 -29% 114 53.5% $ 2,875 $ 3,000 -4% $26.32 $14.08 Apr. 203 300 -32% 95 46.8% $ 2,437 $ 3,000 -19% $31.58 $14.78 May 141 300 -53% 91 64.5% $ 2,002 $ 3,000 -33% $32.97 $21.28 Jun. 151 300 -50% 67 44.4% $ 1,391 $ 3,000 -54% $44.78 $19.87 Jul. 400 $ 4,000 Aug. 400 $ 4,000 Sep. 400 $ 4,000 Oct. 400 $ 4,000 Nov. 400 $ 4,000 Dec. 400 $ 4,000 ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~ YTD'99 1,143 1,800 -37% 627 54.9% $14,706 $18,000 -18% $23.45 $12.87 Avg'99 191 300 -37% 105 54.9% $ 2,451 $ 3,000 -18% $23.45 $12.87 b) Donation Data - Renewals ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Much like registrations, the number of members renewing was only half what our Budget projection at 410 new accounts. The percentage of donors was high at 97.6% and the average donation was also quite string at $25.13, so from a financial perspective, our month was under Budget by 44% at $10,051. Year-to-date, we have collected $108,741 from renewals, which is $4,810 or 21% under our projection. No. % Of Avg. Renwl No. Budget Renwl Renwl $ Budget Renwl Donate Renwl (No.) Var Donate Donate Amount ($) Var Donatn All Ren ~~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ YTD'98 9,697 10,012 -3% 6,465 66.7% $156,819 $228,388 -31% $24.26 $16.17 AVG'98 808 834 -3% 539 66.7% $ 13,068 $ 19,032 -31% $24.26 $16.17 Jan. 906 1,020 3% 880 97.1% $ 20,844 $ 20,800 0% $23.69 $23.01 Feb. 826 1,279 -35% 781 94.6% $ 23,316 $ 26,100 -11% $29.85 $28.23 Mar. 1,151 1,162 -1% 818 71.1% $ 23,422 $ 23,700 -1% $28.63 $20.35 Apr. 717 1,235 -42% 576 80.3% $ 15,586 $ 25,200 -38% $27.06 $21.74 May 663 1,176 -44% 572 86.3% $ 15,522 $ 24,000 -35% $27.14 $23.41 Jun. 410 873 -53% 400 97.6% $ 10.051 $ 17,800 -44% $25.13 $24.51 Jul. 510 $ 10,400 Aug. 358 $ 7,300 Sep. 270 $ 5,500 Oct. 309 $ 6,300 Nov. 314 $ 6,400 Dec. 387 $ 7,900 ~~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~ ~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~ ~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~ YTD'98 4,673 6,745 -31% 4,027 86% $108,741 $137,600 -21% $27.00 $23.27 AVG'98 779 1,124 -31% 671 86% $ 18,124 $ 22,933 -21% $27.00 $23.27 c) Unassigned Donations ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Donations not associated with registration or renewals: Period Donors Donation Average ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ 1998 Total 1,103 $34,033 $30.85 1999 Jan. 41 $ 1,268 $30.93 Feb. 33 $ 1,057 $32.03 Mar. 07 $ 186 $26.57 Apr. 19 $ 431 $22.68 May. 2 $ 49 $24.50 Jun. 11 $ 389 $35.35 ~~~ ~~~~~~~ Total 113 $ 3,380 $29.91 d) Membership Activity: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ As at June 30th, NCF membership stands at 13,071 (70,461 registered since inception). This represents a decline of 1.7% during the month and a loss of 3,620 (21.7%) since the beginning of the year. The rate of decline appears to slow down this month, but only because we have now passed through the large renewal months. |Member | Current |To line| Actual |Ratio |Number Forecast Number Forecast Number Number # of % inc. | |Of New No. of Members No. of Members Members Members -dec. |Lns :1 |Members New Memb Renewed Renewed Un-arch Archvd ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~ |~~~~~~~|~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ Jan. 16,691 -1.5% |213 76| 205 300 906 1,020 0 0 Feb. 13,461 4.7% |213 80| 230 300 826 1,279 1 4,739 Mar. 14,517 7.8% |213 80| 213 300 1,151 1,162 4 252 Apr. 14,115 -2.8% |213 67| 203 300 717 1,235 2 607 May 13,299 -5.8% |213 62| 141 300 663 1,176 7 964 Jun. 13,071 -1.7% |213 61| 151 311 410 873 4 887 e) Sponsorship, Homepage Data and Information Providers: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Two organizations paid NCF for an "Org" account this month: MESH (Chronic Fatigue) and Stride Wheelchairs, bringing our total to 56. The number of member homepages decreased to 974, and now represents 7.5% of our members compared to 7.6% last month. The number of IP homepages increases by 6.1% to 105. Org. Org. | Line Line | New Total Free -Dec. | Home of Accts Accts | Spons Spons | IPs IPs Pages % | Page Memb ~~~~~ ~~~~~ | ~~~~~ ~~~~~ | ~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ | ~~~~~ ~~~~ Jan. 1 41| 0 8 | 1 300 92 7.0% |1,051 9.9% Feb. 5 46| 0 8 | 5 305 94 2.2% |1,094 8.1% Mar. 2 48| 0 8 | -5 300 99 5.3% |1,078 7.4% Apr. 4 52| 0 8 | -2 298 101 2.0% |1,051 7.4% May 2 54| 0 8 | -6 292 99 -2.0% |1,007 7.6% June 2 56| 0 8 | 1 293 105 6.1% | 974 7.5% f) Modem Usage Data ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ (i) Weekly Sessions The total number of weekly sessions remains stable at 75,440, up 4% from last month. The percentage of PPP sessions continues to rise with PPP users counting for 57% of the weekly sessions. PPP Users PPP Users Text Users Total Increase Main Pool Mitel Pool Total PPP (Main Pool) Sessions Decrease ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~ Jan 7,656 14% 52,953 Feb 7,068 17% 42,381 -20% Mar 29,635 44% 8,125 12% 37,769 55% 30,320 45% 68,080 61% Apr 25,350 38% 8,885 13% 34,235 51% 33,017 49% 67,252 -1% May 30,565 42% 8,444 12% 39,009 54% 33,757 46% 72,766 8% Jun 35,280 47% 7,455 10% 42,735 57% 32,705 43% 75,440 4% (ii) Unique users in a one week period The number of unique users in a week declined slightly to 7,492 (-5%), mirroring the reduction in membership. The percentage of users on PPP continues to increase however, with PPP users now representing 49% of the total. PPP Users PPP Users Text Users Total Increase Main Pool Mitel Pool Total PPP (Main Pool) Sessions Decrease ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~ Jan 1,178 16% 7,187 Feb 1,127 17% 6,508 -9% Mar 2,510 30% 1,095 13% 3,605 43% 4,711 57% 8,316 28% Apr 2,419 31% 1,163 15% 3,582 46% 4,243 54% 7,825 -6% May 2,599 33% 1,168 15% 3,767 48% 4,130 52% 7,897 1% Jun 2,600 35% 1,103 15% 3,703 49% 3,789 51% 7,492 -5% f) Modem Availability ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The modem monitoring software was used to make 3,372 attempts: 11/06/99 [15:38] to 11/06/99 [15:43]: 6 attempts 11/06/99 [15:47] to 11/06/99 [23:40]: 474 attempts 16/06/99 [17:12] to 06/16/99 [23:58]: 1,428 attempts 18/06/99 [16:24] to 06/18/99 [23:46]: 1,464 attempts With the exception of the Extended Access pool (271-9768), the results are encouraging with modem availability quite high except during expected peak periods. 271-9768 520-1135 520-9013 Hr:Min Samp Aval Fail Samp Aval Fail Samp Aval Fail ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 00:00 2 100% 0% 0 0% 0% 0 0% 0% 07:00 40 40% 60% 40 95% 5% 40 47% 52% 08:00 40 47% 52% 40 90% 10% 40 57% 42% 09:00 40 32% 67% 40 90% 10% 40 55% 30% 10:00 40 27% 72% 40 77% 22% 40 55% 22% 11:00 40 30% 70% 40 75% 25% 40 47% 45% 12:00 40 20% 77% 40 90% 10% 40 52% 27% 13:00 40 27% 65% 40 80% 20% 40 62% 17% 14:00 40 27% 62% 40 85% 15% 40 57% 42% 15:00 47 23% 72% 46 89% 10% 46 45% 34% 16:00 72 30% 66% 72 68% 31% 72 33% 47% 17:00 96 25% 63% 96 85% 14% 96 43% 34% 18:00 100 30% 68% 100 80% 20% 100 40% 43% 19:00 100 24% 76% 100 82% 17% 100 35% 42% 21:00 100 17% 77% 100 50% 30% 100 31% 30% 22:00 100 12% 82% 100 55% 32% 100 18% 26% 23:00 89 15% 78% 90 61% 32% 88 17% 27% ~~~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~ ~~~ 1,026 31% 65% 1,024 74% 18% 1,022 41% 33% The following table, illustrates the frequencies of actual error messages produced by the modem tracking software. The high unavailable percentage on the Extended Access pool is clearly related to server failure as the server failed to deliver the service menu nearly 70% of the time. Plans to replace this terminal server are discussed later in this report. The main modem pool (520-1135) looks good, with successful connections accounting for 74% of the attempts. The high speed pool (520-9013) continued to give us problems, particularly with a failure to deliver a Service Menu. We have made several changes to correct this, including modem, cabling and annex load changes, which we believe will help to correct this. 271-9768 520-1135 520-9013 ALL ~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Busy 48 4.3% 51 4.5% 302 26.9% 401 11.9% DialTimeout 0.0% 0.0% 2 0.2% 2 0.1% ModemInitTimeout 4 0.4% 0.0% 3 0.3% 7 0.2% NoCarrier 15 1.3% 184 16.4% 19 1.7% 218 6.5% NoDialTone 0.0% 1 0.1% 0.0% 1 0.0% NoLoginPrompt 0.0% 4 0.4% 5 0.4% 9 0.3% NoServiceMenu 775 68.8% 46 4.1% 360 32.1% 1,181 35.0% OtherFailure 2 0.2% 4 0.4% 3 0.3% 9 0.3% Success 282 25.0% 834 74.2% 428 38.1% 1,544 45.8% ~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~ 1,126 100.0% 1,124 100.0% 1,122 100.0% 3,372 100.0% 2. Member Services and Future Initiatives ========================================== a) Projects ~~~~~~~~ (i) Industry Canada - Urban CAP Ottawa steering committee: Representatives of nine organizations, inclucding the Cities of Ottawa and Nepean, Libraries from both cities, OCRI, HRDC, Ottawa2000, Carleton University and NCF met on June 29 in the Ottawa Public Library, 1999 to discuss formation of an Urban CAP steering committee. It was agreed that considerable opportunity exists for a project which encompassed organizations within these two cities and the City of Gloucester and that further discussion would be useful. The next meeting is scheduled for August 12, 1999. (ii) Industry Canada - VolNet: The assessment phase is complete and we are about to begin the delivery phase. Some 130 Volunteer agencies will receive service packages in te first wave. Sona Computers has been awarded the national contract to sell new computers and we will be working with Retro for recycled computers. (iii) HRDC (Office of Learning Technology): Work is underway on the business plan for a "Thin Client" project. (iv) HRDC Student Employment Program - CapitalFind: Jamie Oastler (ek109) began work on June 21st, 1999 and will continue until August 27th, 1999. Mr Oastler has already completed about a dozen sections of Capital Find and is making excellent progress. (v) Carleton University Research Project: On Friday June 25th 1999 at 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm, Professor Shields convened a "mini-symposium at Carleton University. to examine the possibilities for Community Networks and Freenets in the context of Globalization and to deliver preliminary results of their recent online survey. b) Public Relations Update ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Gordon Pearson's July FREEbytes column in Monitor Magazine this month focuses (in a light-hearted way) on the 2nd annual Throop Photographic Harvest Ride, our fall cycling event, jointly organized by NCF and the Citizens for safe cycling. http://www.ncf.ca/ip/freenet/announce/monitor/1999-07 or "go freebytes" In addition to our usual ad in Monitor magazine, which has recently appeared prominently on the page which lists BBS and Internet service providers, Monitor inserted a terrific colour ad featuring the Harvest Ride. The July 10 edition of Silicon Valley North carried a story entitled "Nation cheers as CRTC leaves Net alone" on page 13, which included a two paragraph reference to the National Capital Freenet and quotes me. c) Picnic ~~~~~~ The annual FreeNet Picnic will be held on Saturday, July 17, 1999 (no rain date). It should start around 10am and end around 5pm. Location: BRITANNIA PARK and BEACH. There will be lots of new stuff, fun activities and food to eat! Details are available on the Picnic Web page at: http://www.ncf.ca/ncf/public-relations/picnic.html or at "go picnic" d) Throop Photographic Harvest Ride Planning for the 2nd Annual "Throop Photographic" Harvest Ride, a joint fundraiser in support of the NCF and Citizens for Safe Cycling is well underway. The event features three cycling tours and a Kids-can-bike Fest. The "Kids-can-bike Fest" is a FREE fun-and-safety event for kids 7-12 years of age conducted by CfSC instructors and members of the Ottawa-Carleton Regional Police Services. Children will be introduced to the fundamental skills needed to become good cyclists and learn the rules of cycling in traffic. The Ottawa Carleton School Board has already delivered flyers to kids in the Kanata area and will repeat the distibution in September. In addition, flyers have been (and will be) distributed at many other cycle events in and around Ottawa, at all Bike shops, libraries and sporting goods shops in the region, as well as through several other organizations. Details about the Harvest Ride, and a "rogues gallery" from last year can be seen at: http://www.ncf.carleton.ca/ride/ f) Top Five Priorities - ED ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ (1) System reliability - Replace terminal server at Mitel - Continue to monitor and modify modem/annex arrangement at Carleton (2) Projects - Extended Access II (RMOC) - Urban CAP - VolNet - Summer student employment on CapitalFind (3) Making NCF membership easy - New auto-install software for Win98 (4) Membership Building - Distribution of flyer and reproduction of accompanying Auto-install software to computer stores. - Email for students (5) Y2K Issues - Monitor and facilitate progress. 3. System Administration ======================== a) Reliability Concerns ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ We continue to make adjustments and changes to our Carleton modem pool, whereby our Sysadmin is replacing modems, cables, and if necessary power sources as well. We have had several serial cables go bad and have now swapped about 30 modems. New challenges arise, even as this new hardware is put in the racks, and it will continue to be a struggle to keep our aging hardware running. Fresher terminal servers and cables may help. We have been told that we will be given a further donation of USR 33.6 modems from Mitel. The same series of equipment changes that will free up digital lines for NCF use will also eliminate at least one existing analog dial-up pool which Mitel provides for its employees. b) New equipment ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ We have received a Cisco AS5200 terminal server http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/cc/cisco/mkt/access/accserv/as5200/index.shtml for use at Mitel and are currently in the configuration stages (see below). c) Extended Access - Modem concerns ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The status of the analog systems at Mitel seems to continueto result in poor performance. The tables above illustrate the problem graphically. The Sysadmin is working on configuring a Cisco AS5200 terminal server, recently donated by Cisco Systems with the support of Cisco technical people to set it up properly. Beyond being required to improve reliability, it is neccesary for us to have a server which can accommodate digital (PRI) telephone connections. Digital ervices are simpler to setup and maintain than existing analog services and we expect considerably improved reliability. Activation of the new server supporting 46 channels is planned for August. It may be possible however to "kickstart" this work by defaulting to T1 input lines rather than PRI, and investigations are underway to determine the feasibility of this alternative, but it is probable that we will have to wait for PRI lines as originally determined. d) Internal Bandwidth - Newbridge-donated switches ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Network troubleshooting by John Stewart and our Sysadmin has discovered and solved a bottleneck in our internal server-segment. The fix has increased peak throughput six-fold. We can now say with confidence that we are making good use of the donated switches. e) Y2K ~~~ Ian! Allen has begun initial stages of porting and testing the FreePort system to the Solaris operating environment. Initial results seem promising, Ian's knowledge of FreePort in combination with his experience with both SunOS and Solaris are a great boon to this project. f) SPAM filtering ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ John Stewart has upgraded our main mail server to make use of the MAPS RBL and MAPS DUL block-lists. These are black-lists of confirmed untrustworthy sites; NCF will no longer accept mail from these sites. The mail bounce will contain information on why the message was bounced. More information can be found at http://www.vix.com/. g) Technical Review team ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A group if technical volunteers met on Thursday, June 24, 1999 to discuss technical issues and challenges facing NCF, particularly reliability concerns. This group, replaces the now defunct "hardware/software" committee, and expects to meet monthly. The next meeting is scheduled for July 21'st. Minutes of the meeting have been posted to ncf.sub.hardware-software, but in brief, the committee dealt with and formulated preliminary direction in the following broad categories: Modems/server at Mitel, Modems/servers at Carleton, Planned Downtime, Y2K, Team makeup and meetings, and Sysadmin staffing. h) Sysadmin Priorities ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ (1) Resolve problems on Carleton servers/modems and balance server load (2) Install AS5200 NAS at Mitel and configure (3) Remove f7 from service; relocate POP services (4) Begin adding web services to f9 (5) Fix archiving/renewal -- *** Christopher L. Cope, Executive Director *** National Capital Freenet / Libertel de la Capitale nationale tel. (613) 520-2600 ext. 8024 -or- fax (613) 520-3524