Executive Director's Report May 1999 =========================== June 11, 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 May was 141, 53% under our budgeted number of 300. The average donation was however, $32,97, resulting in revenue of $2002 or under Budget by 33%. On a year-to-date basis, while we are under Budget by 508 accounts (-34%) our revenue from new registrations is under Budget by just $1,685 (-11%), because of higher than anticipated percentage of donors. 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. 300 $ 3,000 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'99 992 1,500 -34% 560 56.5% $13,315 $15,000 -11% $23.78 $13.42 Avg'99 198 300 -34% 112 56.5% $ 2,663 $ 3,000 -11% $23.78 $13.42 b) Donation Data - Renewals ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The number of renewals in May was 663, or 44% below the forecast. Revenue from renewals was $15,522, 35% lower than Budget. On a year-to-date basis, our total is $98,690, which is 18% less than our Budget of $119,800 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. 873 $ 17,800 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 4,263 5,873 -27% 3,627 85% $ 98,690 $119,800 -18% $27.21 $23.15 AVG'98 853 1,175 -27% 725 85% $ 19,783 $ 23,960 -18% $27.21 $23.15 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 ~~~ ~~~~~~~ Total 102 $ 2,991 $29.32 d) Membership Activity: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Because of a high number of archivals and poor renewal response, our membership dropped by 5.8% to 13,399. Oddly enough, as noted in subsequent sections of this report, system usage is climbing. |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 e) Sponsorship, Homepage Data and Information Providers: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Four organisations paid NCF for an "Org" account this month: LWRA (Limerick Waterway Ratepayers Association), St. Stephen's Presbyterian Church, BPW (Business and Professional Woman Association) renewed and Malico continues monthly. The number of member homepages decreased to 1,007, but now represents 7.6% of our members compared to 7.4% last month. 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% f) Modem Usage Data ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ (i) Weekly Sessions The number of PPP sessions increased by 14% to 39,009 sessions. This increase was attributable to an increase of 5,215 sessions on the main modem pool, offset by a decrease of 441 sessions on the Extended Access pool. There was an 8% increase in the number of text sessions as well, to 33,757 for an overall increase in number of sessions of 8.2% to 72,766. PPP sessions accounted for 54% of the total system usage, compared to 51% last month. Notwithstanding the 5.8% decrease in the number of members, the number of sessions increased overall by 8% to 72,766 weekly. 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% (ii) Unique users in a one week period The number of PPP (unique) users increased by 5.2% to 3,767. This increase was largely on the main modem pool (+7.4%) with a slight increase (+0.4%) at Mitel. The number of text users dropped by 2.7% to a figure, which represents 52% of the total number of unique system users. Again, even though the number of members declined, the number of unique users increased this month from 7,825 to 7,897 (+1%). 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% f) Modem Availability ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The modem monitoring software was used to make 12,854 attempts: 2,150 attempts: 99/05/03 [12:05] to 99/05/05 [09:52] 3,342 attempts: 99/05/14 [11:34] to 99/05/17 [10:19] 7,362 attempts: 99/05/21 [16:21] to 99/05/28 [08:47] ~~~~~~ 12,854 As noted in the chart below, results are very encouraging this month on all modem pools except the Extended Access group. The average available rate for the main modem pool was 78% and 60% for the high-speed lines. The problems we are experiencing with our equipment at Mitel however has forced the Available rate down to 49% there. 271-9768 520-1135 520-9013 Hr:Min Samp Aval Fail Samp Aval Fail Samp Aval Fail ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 00:00 220 44% 45% 220 80% 16% 220 49% 4% 01:00 218 60% 39% 218 93% 6% 218 84% 6% 02:00 7 100% 0% 2 100% 0% 1 100% 0% 07:00 240 55% 44% 240 96% 3% 240 89% 5% 08:00 236 59% 40% 236 90% 9% 236 83% 6% 09:00 218 55% 38% 218 88% 11% 217 69% 5% 10:00 187 57% 35% 187 89% 9% 186 68% 6% 11:00 189 47% 37% 189 83% 11% 188 67% 4% 12:00 219 52% 35% 218 82% 14% 218 74% 8% 13:00 220 54% 37% 220 87% 10% 220 77% 6% 14:00 220 54% 33% 220 83% 11% 220 69% 7% 15:00 220 46% 29% 220 76% 13% 220 58% 6% 16:00 234 39% 21% 232 71% 17% 232 40% 4% 17:00 240 42% 28% 240 72% 15% 240 43% 5% 18:00 240 46% 39% 240 76% 20% 240 55% 4% 19:00 240 48% 34% 240 71% 17% 240 49% 4% 20:00 240 45% 41% 240 68% 20% 240 38% 3% 21:00 240 35% 38% 240 53% 17% 240 30% 3% 22:00 240 24% 30% 240 45% 20% 240 25% 3% 23:00 224 23% 39% 223 55% 16% 223 26% 3% ~~~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~ ~~~ 4,292 49% 34% 4,283 78% 13% 4,279 60% 5% The following table, illustrates the frequencies of actual error messages produced by the modem tracking software. Looking specifically at the Mitel number (271-9768) the high "NoServiceMenu" result at 34% indicates substantial terminal server problems. From an equipment reliability perspective, the main modem pool fared much better than last month with 86% of attempts resulting in either success or busy. 10% of the calls resulted in "NoCarrier" suggesting hung modems, but this too diminished in the tests later in the month. The high speed pool is certainly busy, with a 37% rate for "Busy", but from a reliability perspective, is much better than last month, with only about 6% of the attempts failing to connect or produce a busy signal. 271-9768 520-1135 520-9013 ALL ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ Busy 723 17% 388 9% 1,596 37% 2,707 21% DialTimeout - 0% 2 0% 1 0% 3 0% ModemInitTimeout 17 0% 9 0% 15 0% 41 0% NoCarrier 64 1% 440 10% 48 1% 552 4% NoDialTone 4 0% - 0% 1 0% 5 0% NoLoginPrompt - 0% 8 0% 5 0% 13 0% NoServiceMenu 1,441 34% 131 3% 129 3% 1,701 13% OtherFailure 29 1% 18 0% 27 1% 74 1% Success 2,014 47% 3,287 77% 2,457 57% 7,758 60% ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ 4,292 4,283 4,279 12,854 2. Member Services and Future Initiatives ========================================== a) Projects ~~~~~~~~ (i) Industry Canada - Urban CAP Ottawa steering committee: Discussions continue informally among representatives of several organisations in the region, interested in pursuing an Urban CAP project. Industry Canada however, has not yet formally announced the program. (ii) Industry Canada - VolNet: Phase I, the "Assessment" phase is complete. We delivered our "Assessment Report" on May 31st on schedule. We have been told that the committee has recommended that we be authorised to proceed with the implementation phase of the project and await formal documentation. (iii) HRDC (Office of Learning Technology): We have received a letter from the Minister's office confirming that we will receive development funding for our Thin Client project. A draft Contribution Agreement has been prepared by HRDC and submitted to us for review. We expect to complete the development phase of the project by the end of August. (iv) HRDC Student Employment Program - CapitalFind: HRDC has confirmed that we will be allotted only one student for our Capital Find project. Apparently, the program was swamped with requests and HRDC decided to grant all applicants in the region one student employee each. In light of the more modest need now, for only one worker, we will house the project in our volunteer office in Dunton tower rather than the Alumni Development call centre as considered. We have posted the position through the student employment group at HRDC and have received many applications. Sheila Alder and I will complete an interview process next week, with the student to start on June 21st, 1999. (v) Carleton University Research Project: Professor Rob Shields, Ph.D., acting Director, Institute of Interdisciplinary Studies, Associate Professor of Sociology/Anthropology and two of his students are conducting a research project, concerning the relationship between the use of the Internet and the importance of local identity. We expect that this information will be quite useful to us. The questionnaire is located at: http://www.carleton.ca/~hbromber/ncfform.html b) Public Relations Update ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Gordon Pearson's June FREEbytes column in Monitor Magazine this month discusses the recent challenge by someone calling himself SkuMM and offers some suggestions for good security practices. The text of this article is available at http://www.ncf.ca/ip/freenet/announce/monitor/1999-06 or "go freebytes" On June 27th, I made a presentation to the Executive Directors and Managers of the 30 organisations located at the Bronson Centre. My brief included information about NCF personal accounts, NCF Org accounts and opportunities through VolNet. Sheila Alder visited Ridgemont High School on May 27, 1999 and Gloucester High School on May 20. Both visits related to our continuing support of the student coop program at these schools and were part of "employer appreciation" events. We have expanded our coop program to include a student from Laurentian University. Dale Sinclair (ej754) will join the office staff from May through August 1999. MonitorToday, a website billing itself as Ottawa's Technology Information Portal" has donated free banner space and content areas to NCF. The site, which can be viewed at: http://www.monitortoday.com is affiliated with Monitor Magazine. The main page includes a link (left side menu) to Capital Find and a link to FreeNet news/views. Currently NCF has a banner on the search page, but for more than a month; the NCF banner was the top central location. c) Donation from Newbridge ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Newbridge Networks donated two Sparc10 workstations, one 20-port Xyplex MX-1620 terminal server (http://www.nbase-xyplex.com) and a quantity of 8-port 10/100 high-speed ethernet switches known as GeoRim/Es. This equipment will allow us to remove some bottlenecks, and strengthen and speed up our network. Thanks go to Chris Hawley (ah654) who negotiated the generous donation. d) Donation from Netscape ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Netscape Communications has donated the latest version of their Suite-Spot server software. This new web and email server software will provide NCF with the most robust and scalable server software available, as well as a method of accessing NCF email from the Web. e) Centrex telephone contracts ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ We have been informed that Carleton University will proceed on a tendering process to obtain the best price for telephone service. The tender call will be for a group of lines, which includes our existing modem (Centrex) lines. While we do not know yet what impact this might have, we have been enjoying very low rates under the existing contract. Carleton will seek prices from several service providers, including Bell Canada. 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 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The NCF system is now showing signs of ageing. Most of the modems have been in heavy use now for several years. Three of our four terminal servers were built when 9,600 baud modems were considered "fast". Our newest Annex 4000 terminal server represents what could be judged today to have the minimum features that the NCF currently requires to run a reliable modem pool. Colin McFadyen (aa734) and our Sysadmin have been working to reset modems daily, as an interim measure. A NCF System reliability review team is to be formed. The team will review existing performance indicators, hardware and software and make a prioritised list of needed changes. The team will address a broad variety of issues, but we expect recommendations that may include obtaining new equipment and or software and/or retiring older components, or ways of enhancing staffing. b) Extended Access - Modem concerns ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Ring-Noanswer symptoms on the Mitel lines should be diminished considerably. The problem was caused by 4 ports, which were connected to lines that were not a part of our hunt group on the Mitel system. This has been rectified. There are still 3 suspicious ports on our Cisco AS5100 terminal server which we have busied out, providing a current maximum of 45 concurrent sessions. It has been determined that AS5100 parts are unavailable. Although the tentative date is as yet unspecified, the analog Bell lines provided by Mitel will soon be defunct. However, at the same time, Mitel will be re-locating certain dial-up services for employees off their main PRI lines, freeing up at least 64 PRI channels. We have been told that Mitel will offer as many as 46 channels to continue Extended Access service. It is unknown how many PRI channels will be available for daytime access, but our contact at Mitel, Rene Dalle (af842), is working with our System Administrator to try to maximise the availability to FreeNet. Cisco Systems will donate two AS5200 terminal servers to NCF. A shipping date has not been arranged yet, but it now appears that one unit with a single PRI card (24 channels) and a second unit with two PRI cards (48 channels) have been located and may be shipped to us within a few days. The smaller unit will work well for our RMOC project, while the 48-channel unit s an excellent replacement for our Mitel machine. c) Bandwidth - Carleton's Internet Link ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Carleton has completed the installation of their new 5 Megabit ATM switch and bandwidth is no longer an issue. The switch which also has a 45 megabit connection to CA*NetII offers more than enough bandwidth to satisfy Carleton (and NCF) present needs. d) New Equipment ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ We received the shipment of Fast Ethernet switches from Newbridge, and have used two to upgrade to a full fast ethernet backbone for our servers. This has allowed us to connect five of our machines, with fast ethernet cards at 100 Meg and the remaining connections while connected with 10 Meg cards, on individual switched ports. Included in the shipment was also a terminal server, which may also be useful for our local system. Additionally, with the generous donation from Netscape (see above), our Sysadmin is working on installing a suite of Netscape servers on freenet9, the new UltraSparc IIi donated by Rebel.Com. When in production, these servers will be our primary web server as well as the web interface for email. e) Y2K ~~~ Barry Alder (ak221) is continuing the project to port FreePort to Solaris, only until Aug. 1st 1999. If the project is not sufficiently well advanced by that date, the Sysadmin team will begin work to patch SunOS for Y2K compliance. Barry will temporarily suspend the porting project and will look to remaining elements of Freeport and other system software, which require Y2K modifications. At the same time we will upgrade all present Solaris machines to Solaris 7, (the same as our new Horizon UltraSparc, donated by Rebel.com), to guarantee full Y2K compliance. f) New monitoring tools. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Yannick Gravel (dt136) spent a day working with our Sysadmin to update and improve our system monitoring tools. The new tools can be accessed from a new system monitoring portal page at: http://www.ncf.ca/ncf/mrtg Noteworthy among the new statistics being gathered are: email statistics which reveal that we average nearly 2,000 pieces of email per hour (826 in and 976 out) with peaks as high as 9,200 outgoing in one hour. g) Sysadmin Priorities ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ (1) Resolve connection problems on NCF-Carleton servers (2) Resolve connection problems on NCF-Mitel servers (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