Well, it looks as though the modem pool upgrades mentioned in the previous update have solved the ring-no-answer troubles we have had this year, and also divided up our user traffic between our two backbones. Our support staff is recieving so few calls now, we have nothing to do except work on making our system even better! Please give us a call if you are having any type of troubles at all and have an excellent Christmas.
2003.10.6
Modem Pool Upgrades
We have installed a additional server to divide the load on our modem pool system. Historically, there has only been one server that handles the modem pools (the server that picks up and answers when you dial in). If this server has any trouble, nobody can sign in. With our new setup, if one of the servers is having trouble or we need to service it, the other server can handle all HomerNet connections. This should clear up the ring-no-answer troubles we have been having this year, and also give our users more reliable bandwidth to use because the load is divided. Let's see how it goes.
2003.08.22
RPC Errors
Due to recently discovered security vulnerabilities with Windows NT, 2000 and XP, Internet customers may receive RPC Errors causing their computer to shutdown. You must contact Microsoft or the manufacturer of your computer for updates and security patches to resolve this issue! Go to the Symantec web-site for more information.
2003.08.21
Sobig Worm
We have configured our mail system to block any messages with .PIF or .SCR type files to counter the unending amount of garbage that this worm is creating on the Internet. CustomCPU users should not be affected by this worm any more.
2003.06.25
It's been a while...
In case you haven't noticed, it has been more than a little while since the updates page was actually updated. There was a lot to do in upgrading and migrating since the sale of HomerNet to CustomCPU. We have migrated the e-mail system once again, not away from qmail, but the setup is much different. We now have multiple MX's (mail exchangers) which virus scan and spam filter all incoming mail before sending the messages to a high performance server with RAID 5 array for safe storage until a user decides to POP in and download their mail. We now have 3 redundant RADIUS servers (where all username/password info is stored) and replication between the three runs like champ. In the past, we only had one, and if/when it went down, nobody was able to log in at all. Redundancy is GOOD. We are starting work on a proxy server with will block pop-ups for anyone that voluntarily calls us up and gets instructions on how to use it. That won't be running for a few months though. We are also getting into the final stages of testing with our new e-mail content filter. Our primary spam filtration system, detailed at RBL Filtering, is blocking 60,000-80,000 spam and virus infected messages a day. But its just not enough. Some people's mailboxes are still plagued with garbage. Our content filter will weed any messages that make it through the RBL system and by looking for keywords and patterns that match those of spam. The content filter system can be flipped on for individual users instead of all or none which is good because believe it or not, some people do like getting all that garbage in their mailboxes. I wouldn't believe that until I took the first call from somebody who was angry that spam was being blocked. Anyways, hope everyone is surfing the net without trouble right now, and if anyone is or has a question about *ANYTHING*, please feel free to give us a call @ 235-9373.
2001.08.14
Linux Server Migration (Revised 2001.08.14)
All Linux-based services such as our Apache Web-Server, DNS, and Qmail server have all been consolidated onto a single 1U Rack-Mountable Server which has been moved to the TelAlaska Network Operations Center up in Anchorage. User home directories still need to be moved over from the old mail/web server and ftp services will be down for a short time until I can install proftp which is a secure replacement for the wu-ftp server which comes standard with RedHat Linux. Our web-mail services are also down until further notice, everything except for sqwebmail went in without a hitch during the switchout and I've actually been looking at a completely different package from The Horde Project that requires courier-imap and would basically be like an on-line Outlook for Linux. It includes a nice web-mail interface and even an on-line contacts and scheduling utility. Go ahead and check the site out and read up on it, we're testing it out on a server at home and when everything is ironed out and looks good to go we'll get it installed and up and running. In the meantime you can check your HomerNet e-mail over the web by going to www.thatweb.com and entering in your e-mail address and password. Stay tuned for more updates...
We will be keeping the old mail server on-line for about another month before it gets wiped clean so make sure that you pop any old messages off of it before that time. You can do this in Outlook Express by doing the following: 1.> Go to the Tools menu and select Accounts. 2.> Under the Mail tab select mail.homernet.net and hit the Properties button. 3.> Go to the Servers tab and change the Incoming Mail (POP3) from mail.homernet.net to ns2.homernet.net and make sure that Leave a copy of messages on server is NOT checked under the Advanced tab. 4.> Hit OK and Close out the Internet Accounts window. Check your mail and start over from step 1 and change your pop3 server back to mail.homernet.net.
If you are experiencing problems with your e-mail please call immediately. There is a chance that you may have been skipped during the migration or the password we had on file is not the password you use for e-mail. Before calling make sure that you try to use the password that you use to dial-up to the Internet. Users now have the ability to manage their e-mail preferences using the Qmailadmin utility which gives you the ability to change your e-mail password, set up autoresponders and mail forwards and lets you manage list subscriptions as well.
More to come at a later date...
2001.08.08
Achtung!
Hmmm...some posts disappeared from here. Something's rotten in Denmark. Anyways, still having problems getting on-line with Mac OS 9.1 and now joining the fold : Web TV! Also, doing alot of maintennace on our stuff down here, migrating things to La-La land, getting a new mail server up and running, romaing wild with the bulls and what not. Please be patient, everything will iron itself out in the next week. What follows chaos? Order. It's the natural state of things and everything is gonna be alright. Thank you for your patience...
2001.07.16
Outage Update
Should have known better than to select Friday the 13th to do work on the network. Anyways, we have switched out our Linux Radius server for a Windows 2000 Advanced Server running IAS and RRAS because Equinox doesn't have a Linux driver for their Digital Modem Pools. As with any major computer expedition in unknown territories, things have not gone as planned and if you are having authentication problems please call me so that I can do what is necessary on the back-end in order to get you up and running again. Sorry for the inconvenience, please call.
2001.07.02
Outage Update
Sorry for the hectic weekend folks. TelAlaska Networks Core Router in Soldotna went down several times this weekend which caused quite a bit of havoc for things here at HomerNet. While I have a backup circuit to route traffic through that will allow everyone to browse web-sites and send e-mail within the HomerNet domain it won't allow anything outside our domain to be received because of the way things are set-up on our secondary provider's back-end. Any messages sent to users in the HomerNet domain at the time of these outages were bounced backed to the sender with a message indicating that the intended recipient could not be found. Unfortunately it was a Catch-22 situtation, either I keep everyone completely cut off from web-browsing and all e-mail (which would have meant all your mail would have been received and stored on the server) or switch everyone over to the back-up circuit. Oh the choices we have to make...Anyways, things are back up and running and if you continue to have any problems please call me at the office at 907.235.9373 or e-mail support so I can get you back up and running.
Another point of interest, I'm still trying to get these new modems up and running and I'm trying to keep any testing I need to do slated for the middle of the night so as to avoid causing any further confusion to an already confusing situation.
2001.06.25
Outage Notice
Somewhere in the neighborhood of 6AM yesterday morning our network went down. Apparently our AT&T circuit out to the Internet as well as one of our local loop dial-up lines is currently down and both AT&T and ACS/PTI Alaska are working on trying to figure out what the issue is. At 2AM this morning a temporary work around was instated by TelAlaska Networks in Anchorage which should allow everyone to gain access back to the Internet until our circuits get brought back on-line. I apologize for the inconvenience, hopefully this issue will be resolved sometime tomorrow morning. Thank You for your patience.
Home | Site Map | Contact Us | Policy Information | © 2003 Apted Technologies, Inc. all rights reserved.