Executive Director's Report April, 2000 =========================== May 11, 2000 By Christopher L. Cope (execdir@freenet.carleton.ca) Contents: 1. Status Report 2. Administration & Funding 3. Member Services and Future Initiatives 4. System Administration 1. Status Report ================ a) Five Key Indicators ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ March April % | April % 2000 2000 Inc/Dec | 1999 Inc/Dec ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ | ~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ 1. Number of members: 9,924 9,739 -0.7% | 14,115 -44.9% 2. Donation Revenue: $24,968 $17,358 -30.5% | $18,023 -%3.8% 3. Percentage donating: 92.0% 92.0% 71.8% | 72.9% -4.8% 4. Average Donation: $30.45 $30.45 -15.7% | $26.86 23.2% 5. Average Modem Failure: 37.9% 37.9% 35.8% | 2. Administration & Funding =========================== a) Donation Data - New Registrations ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ While the number of new members bettered the Budget by 17% at 115 in April, both the average donation ($24.55) and the percentage of new members donating (57.4%) fell behind our projection resulting in a shortfall of $880 or -35%. (See Appendix"A") b) Donation Data - Renewals ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 598 members renewed their accounts in April. While this number is nearly dead-on the Budget, the percentage of members donating fell to 72% bringing the year-to-date percentage to 69%. The average donation was strong at $36.60 and our final position was $15,738 or 5% better than forecast. (See Appendix"B") c) Membership Activity: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Membership continues to decline, although by a much smaller magnitude than we saw in the final months of 1999. The number of members decreased in April by 185 to a final position of 9,739. (See Appendix"C") d) Sponsorship, Homepage Data and Information Providers: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Two new organizations joined NCF this month, Egypt Photo and Club des ornithologues. We are having difficulty in determining a reliable way of counting IPs. Currently we have some 1,794 menus on the system, but many, if not the majority of these are corporate or "house" pages. Similarly, the Alphabetical index for "all" IPs with webpages details just over 200 organizations, yet many more exist on our directories. The figure 414 as used in Appendix "D" is based on a manual analysis of the directories under /files11/www, with obvious duplications and corporate pages removed and is judged to be more accurate. e) Modem Usage Data ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ (i) Weekly Sessions: The number of weekly sessions was down 10% in April at 60,325. The largest component of this decrease was the PPP usage, particularly on the main modem pool at Carleton, which fell by 13%. Text usage fell by 7% Even with this disproportionate reduction, PPP sessions still comprised 66% of the total, with text users making up only 34% of the total. (See Appendix"E") (ii) Unique Users in a one week period: The number of members (unique users) using the system declined as well, but only by a less than 5%. Oddly, the number of unique text users decreased by 6.4%, more than the 3.6% decline in PPP users. As will be seen in the following comment, modem reliability was considerably better in April, and one can speculate that the reduction in the number of sessions may in part be a result of fewer unwanted disconnects. (See Appendix "F") f) Modem Availability ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Modem results were much better in April. The modem testing software was run for a 4-day period, just after the new server was installed at Mitel. The results suggest that the expectation of connecting on the first try are on average 80% at Mitel, 93% on the main modem pool and 52% on the high speed pool. (See Appendix"G") The main reason for not connecting on the first attempt was because the line was busy, especially on the high-speed pool. The overall Modem error figure was just 13% compared to 37.9% last month. The Mitel pool continues to give the poorest results, with some 20% of calls failing to negotiate handshake and authentication with the receiving modem. Continued fine-tuning of the server should resolve these issues, but in the mean time, it appears that once a connection can be successfully negotiated, it remains rock-steady. 2. Member Services and Future Initiatives ========================================== a) Projects ~~~~~~~~ (i) Extended Access II - RMOC: The extended Access project which we hope to initiate at RMOC is temporarily postponed pending acquisition of server hardware and renegotiation of terms with RMOC. (ii) Industry Canada - Smart Capital John MacDonald, Chair of the Smart Communities Selection Committee today announced Canada's 12 Smart Communities Demonstration Projects. Ottawa's "Smart Capital" (http://www.smartcapital.ca/) bid, a project lead by the Ottawa Centre For Research and Innovation (OCRI) beat out 4 other short-listed projects (Cambridge - Guelph - Kitchener - Waterloo, Lanark, Kingston and Windsor) to receive the award for Ontario. NCF has a significant component of the project and now that the award has been announced, the next stage will be to learn about the process and project requirements, in order to finalize our action plan. Jeff Bossert (au025) is team leader on this project. - Way to go Jeff! (iii) Industry Canada - Urban CAP: Ottawa's Urban CAP initiative continues, with the Ottawa Centre for Research and Innovation (OCRI) now taking the lead role. NCF's contract has been completed and the we have invoiced Industry Canada for our fee. NCF has been invited to continue its involvement with the program through its participation in the Steering Committee. This participation affords NCF an excellent opportunity to gain members through our service offerings to CAP sites and affiliations. Principally, we will have a significant market opportunity for our email, web hosting and Thin Client applications. (iv) Industry Canada - VolNet: NCF's participation in VolNet is now complete with the last web-page design class held that the Rainbow Skills Development Centre on the 27th of April. Over the yearlong course of the project, some 300 applications were received resulting in 243 volunteer sector agencies being connected and trained for Internet usage. All of these now have NCF accounts and webpages. 161 of these agencies received new computers and 19 received recycled computers. Another 27 agencies received enabling hardware or software upgrades. (v) HRDC (Office of Learning Technology): Thin Client We continue to await our first instalment from HRDC and are unable to proceed in any substantial way, until this payment is in hand. Discussions continue with our partners in the project so that we can get the project moving quickly, once started. HRDC reports that most projects are delayed, but are optimistic that scheduling will be back to normal towards the end of May. (vi) HRDC (Office of Learning Technology): Web-mail This project is also held up by HRDC's internal delays. We expect to receive development funding for preparation of a detailed business plan in late May, or early June. b) Bandwidth Costs ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Carleton has confirmed that they will need to pay approximately 25% more for Internet access, and accordingly our cost of access will increase from $1000 monthly to $1,250 per month ($15,000 per year). While remaining sensitive to the many other benefits we receive from Carleton, we will explore alternative access. c) New Access Servers ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ On May 9, 2000, we received the first shipment from 3Com. Included in the shipment were the base RAS1500 access server units and the quad-modem cards, but the expansion units were back-ordered. The units received are sufficient for the Sysadmin to be able to begin the configuration process, and get the authentication server going, but he will not be able to install the units in the racks until the remaining components are received. The estimated shipping date for the remaining units is May 10, 2000, and if this date is met, we are hopeful that all of the new modems will be operational early in June. d) Flyer Blitz ~~~~~~~~~~~ Our Flyer delivery blitz has been postponed until Saturday June 3, 2000. Fiona Hammond (ed491), the team leader for the Flyer Blitz has had unexpected computer trouble compounded with complications of moving, making communications with other key volunteers on the project difficult. e) Bookkeeper ~~~~~~~~~~ Our bookkeeper found it too difficult to juggle school, work and the NCF needs and has resigned effective the end of March, 2000. Notwithstanding his busy schedule in his new job, Rudy Wytenburg (ar909), our former accountant has agreed to handle the job while a search for a replacement proceeds. Jean Wilmot (aa145) has been leading the search for a replacement, but so far, we have not found someone suitable. f) Seniors Program ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Our Seniors program is busy on several fronts. Henri J de Wolff (bs889) has taken on the challenge of teaching seniors on Tuesday Mornings at Abbottsford House (replacing Natalie Munro). Robert Young (ab957) continues to run our Seniors program at The Good Companions on Tuesday afternoons and the Churchill Seniors Centre on Wednesday afternoons. Jean Wilmot (aa145) has lent a hand to the folks doing the seniors program at the Alex Dayton Centre at Carlingwood. g) Top Five Priorities - ED ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ (1) 3Com access severs at Carleton - optimise Mitel (2) Research alternative Internet Connectivity options (3) Flyer blitz (4) Continued focus on performance issues. (5) Projects - Webmail - Urban CAP - VolNet wrap-up - Thin Client - Smart Capital 3. System Administration ======================== a) Reliability Concerns ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The current status of reliability is much advanced. The Extended Access pool at Mitel has been fully migrated to the new Cisco AS5200 Access Server and most difficulties resolved. The Sysadmin believes that the configuration can be further tweaked to improve throughput speed and improved handshaking ability, but the current configuration is providing quite reliable performance. We have received the first shipment of 3COM RAS1500 Access Servers at Carleton, but continue to await the required expansion units, which will provide the means to connect the units to 72 of our modem lines. 3Com has confirmed that a large shipment of these units is expected from Europe in the next 10 days or so and that we will be among the first to receive them. Initial configuration and testing of the RAS1500 has already commenced with text-based direct dialup already functional in test mode. Further configuration will bring about the implementation of RADIUS, a standardized remote authentication service, PPP including PAP/CHAP authentication, and integration into the NCF network. b) Y2K ~~~ There are a few remaining tasks to be completed, related to the SunOS to Solaris migration (initiated as a result of Y2K) but we have focused Sysadmin attention primarily on other issues, principally modems and access servers. c) Community Portal ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Dan Green (bd304) continues development of a portal system. The software will be designed in Perl5 and will be modular; initially supporting a CGI interface. The software will additionally support Apache/mod_perl for enhanced performance on large sites. Full specifications will be released with the software once it is functional. d) Extended Access - Mitel ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The system administrator has been working with one of the Telecommunications Consultants from Mitel's Network Planning department, as well as the Supervisor of PBX Routing. Significant progress has been made and major stability problems have been resolved. All incoming calls are now properly routed to the new AS5200. We may expect and in fact, are already getting considerably more reliable service from this server, and will fine-tune the configuration to achieve optimal results. e) Migrate POP ~~~~~~~~~~~ Changes to the Solaris servers will be delayed until various connection issues are resolved, including completion of the Mitel configuration and the Carleton modem upgrades. The current POP server is a Sparc2 running very basic, but sufficiently robust "QPOP" server software. Freenet3, which has been temporarily removed from service, will be reinstated on the network, and used to replace the weaker Sparc2 system. A Solaris 8 system has been configured on freenet3 and the machine will be installed as a drop-in replacement, running the same QPOP software. We will continue to evaluate other POP mail solutions including Netscape's, but at this time, there are no benefits to making a change. f) Xyplex Access Server ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Further work on the Xyplex Access Server will be delayed until integration of the COM RAS1500 Servers is complete. The Xyplex may, or may not be needed at Carleton after the integration of the 3COM RAS1500 equipment. If indeed we do not need the Xyplex at Carleton, it may be an excellent candidate for the proposed Extended Access II at RMOC. g) Sysadmin Priorities ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ (1) Install new RAS 1500 Remote Access Servers (2) Complete installation and fine-tuning of Extended Access at Mitel (3) Migrate POP server to SS10 and Netscape Messenging (4) Continue to resolve O/S migration issues (5) Migrate webserver to UltraSPARC server. Switch to Apache/PHP/Perl. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Appendix A Registration Donations ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ No. No. % Of Avg. Avg. New Budget Regist Memb $ Budget Regist Donat'n Memb. (No.) Var Donate Donate Amount ($) Var Donat'n All New ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ YTD'99 2,521 4,200 -40% 1,198 47.5% $28,153 $42,000 -33% $23.50 $11.17 Avg'99 210 350 -40% 100 47.5% $ 2,346 $ 3,500 -33% $23.50 $11.17 2000 Jan. 162 98 65% 73 45.1% $ 1,743 $ 2,500 -30% $23.88 $10.76 Feb. 191 98 95% 64 33.5% $ 2,021 $ 2,500 -19% $31.58 $10.58 Mar. 153 98 56% 92 60.1% $ 2,871 $ 2,500 15% $31.21 $18.78 Apr. 115 98 17% 66 57.4% $ 1,620 $ 2,500 -35% $24.55 $14.09 May. 98 $ 2,500 Jun. 98 $ 2,500 Jul. 98 $ 2,500 Aug. 98 $ 2,500 Sep. 98 $ 2,500 Oct. 98 $ 2,500 Nov. 98 $ 2,500 Dec. 98 $ 2,500 ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~ YTD'00 621 392 58% 295 47.5% $ 8,255 $10,000 -17% $27.98 $13.29 Avg'00 155 98 58% 74 47.5% $ 2,064 $ 2,500 -17% $27.98 $13.29 Appendix B Renewal Donations ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ No. % Of Avg. Renwl No. Budget Renwl Renwl $ Budget Renwl Donate Renwl (No.) Var Donate Donate Amount ($) Var Donatn All Ren ~~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ YTD'99 6,587 8,892 -26% 5,554 84% $149,521 $181,400 -18% $26.92 $22.70 AVG'99 549 741 -26% 463 84% $ 12,460 $ 15,117 -18% $26.92 $22.70 Jan. 741 580 28% 441 60% $ 13,453 $ 14,800 -9% $30.51 $18.16 Feb. 899 549 64% 520 58% $ 19,069 $ 14,000 36% $36.67 $21.21 Mar. 738 647 14% 667 90% $ 22,097 $ 16,500 34% $33.13 $29.94 Apr. 598 588 2% 430 72% 15,738 $ 15,000 5% $36.60 $26.32 May. 412 $ 10,500 Jun. 208 $ 5,300 Jul. 157 $ 4,000 Aug. 129 $ 3,300 Sep. 78 $ 2,000 Oct. 106 $ 2,700 Nov. 208 $ 5,300 Dec. 482 $ 12,300 ~~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~ ~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~ ~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~ YTD'00 2,976 2,365 26% 2,058 69% $ 70,357 $ 60,300 17% $34.19 $23.64 AVG'00 744 591 26% 515 69% $ 17,589 $ 15,075 17% $34.19 $23.64 Appendix C Membership Activity ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |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 ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~ |~~~~~~~|~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ 1999 | | Dec. 10,325 -2.6% |213 48| 114 400 405 387 22 411 | | 2000 | | Jan. 10,005 -3.1% |213 47| 162 98 741 580 13 323 Feb. 9,992 -0.1% |213 47| 191 98 899 549 1 217 Mar. 9,924 -0.7% |213 47| 153 98 738 647 24 195 Apr. 9,739 -1.9% |213 46| 115 98 598 588 19 329 Appendix D Sponsorship, Homepage Data and Information Providers ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Org. Org. | Line Line | New Total Free -Dec. | Home of Accts Accts | Spons Spons | IPs IPs Pages % | Page Memb ~~~~~ ~~~~~ | ~~~~~ ~~~~~ | ~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ | ~~~~~ ~~~~ 1999 | | | Dec. 2 65| 0 8 | -20 223 223 32.7% | 841 8.1% | | | 2000 | | | Jan. 0 65| 0 8 | -5 218 268 20.2% | 848 8.5% Feb. 5 70| 0 8 | 5 223 273 1.9% | 850 8.5% Mar. 3 73| 0 8 | 1 219 274 0.4% | 845 8.5% Apr. 2 78| 0 8 | 1 1,794 414 0.0% | 831 8.5% Appendix E Modem Usage Data - Weekly Sessions ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ PPP Users PPP Users Text Users Total Increase Main Pool Mitel Pool Total PPP (Main Pool) Sessions Decrease ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~ 1999 Dec. 32,146 68% 8,380 18% 40,526 86% 6,485 14% 47,011 -38% 2000 Jan. 38,628 53% 8,750 12% 47,378 65% 25,501 35% 72,879 55% Feb. 60,580 66% 7,695 8% 68,275 74% 23,985 26% 92,260 27% Mar. 36,545 54% 8,257 12% 44,802 67% 22,365 33% 67,167 -27% Apr. 31,,95 53% 7,688 13% 39,623 66% 20,702 34% 60,325 -10% Appendix F Modem Usage Data - Unique Users ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ PPP Users PPP Users Text Users Total Increase Main Pool Mitel Pool Total PPP (Main Pool) Users Decrease ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~ 1999 Dec. 3,719 41% 1,086 12% 4,805 53% 4,293 47% 9,098 -28% 2000 Jan. 3,736 39% 1,103 12% 4,839 51% 4,705 49% 9,544 5% Feb. 3,059 45% 1,050 16% 4,109 61% 2,648 39% 6,757 -29% Mar. 2,834 44% 1,040 16% 3,874 60% 2,581 40% 6,455 65% Apr. 2,719 44% 1.014 16% 3,733 61% 2,417 39% 6,150 -5% Appendix G Modem Availability & Test Data ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 05/05 15:56 to 05/08 10:46 - 3,113 attempts 271-9768 520-1135 520-9013 Hr:Min Samp Aval Fail Samp Aval Fail Samp Aval Fail ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 00:00 60 90% 10% 60 96% 3% 60 50% 8% 01:00 60 80% 20% 60 95% 5% 60 81% 10% 02:00 1 100% 0% 1 100% 0% 0 0% 0% 07:00 60 88% 11% 60 93% 6% 60 65% 6% 08:00 60 85% 15% 60 88% 11% 60 53% 6% 09:00 60 90% 8% 60 93% 6% 60 50% 6% 10:00 56 75% 25% 56 92% 7% 55 50% 5% 11:00 40 85% 15% 40 92% 7% 40 60% 2% 12:00 40 77% 22% 40 90% 10% 40 42% 10% 13:00 40 75% 25% 40 90% 10% 40 57% 10% 14:00 40 82% 17% 40 97% 2% 40 67% 2% 15:00 42 73% 26% 41 95% 4% 41 48% 2% 16:00 60 76% 23% 60 90% 10% 60 63% 6% 17:00 60 76% 23% 60 91% 8% 60 75% 10% 18:00 60 86% 11% 60 93% 6% 60 71% 10% 19:00 60 73% 26% 60 93% 6% 60 51% 5% 20:00 60 90% 10% 60 93% 6% 60 43% 3% 21:00 60 60% 40% 60 91% 8% 60 38% 3% 22:00 60 61% 33% 60 86% 13% 60 31% 0% 23:00 60 76% 23% 60 93% 6% 60 38% 3% ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 1,039 80% 19% 1,038 93% 7% 1,036 52% 5% Appendix H Modem Error Data ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 271-9768 520-1135 520-9013 ALL ~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~ DialTimeout - 0.0% - 0.0% - 0.0% 412 0.0% DialTimeout - 0.0% - 0.0% - 0.0% - 0.0% ModemInitTimeout 3 0.3% 1 0.1% 2 0.2% 6 0.2% NoCarrier 93 9.0% 40 3.9% 5 0.5% 138 5.1% NoDialTone 1 0.1% - 0.0% 1 0.1% 2 0.1% NoLoginPrompt - 0.0% 5 0.5% 1 0.1% 6 0.2% NoServiceMenu 113 10.9% 28 2.7% 45 4.3% 186 6.9% OtherFailure 1 0.1% 4 0.4% 8 0.8% 13 0.5% ~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ TOTAL ERROR 211 20.3% 78 7.5% 62 6.0% 351 13.0% Busy 5 0.5% - 0.0% 407 39.3% 412 13.2% ~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 216 20.8% 78 7.5% 469 45.3% 351 13.0% ~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SUCCESS 823 79.2% 960 92.5% 567 54.7% 2,350 87.0% ~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 1,039 100.0% 1,038 100.0% 1,036 100.0% 2,701 100.0% -- *** Christopher L. Cope, Executive Director *** National Capital Freenet / Libertel de la Capitale nationale tel. (613) 520-2600 ext. 8024 -or- fax (613) 520-3524