🚀 go-pugleaf

Hi folks and folkettes,

Steve Gallinger here, CIPSnet guy to the stars. Anyway, my tour of duty in
Sarnia is quickly coming to a close and I thought it was time to reconnect
with everyone on the list and to give you a quick update. Actually, Michele Sura
our new CIPS Nat.Office Internet Co-Ordinator keeps making it pop up on
my priority list and this was the night that was for my report....so onto the
stuff (and
there's lots of it).

CIPSnet is.....

The Internet Service Provider of the Canadian Information Processing Society
(zingy, eh?).

We have;
               A national web-server site
               A plethora of local section web-servers (which by the way can be
done for about $300/yr)
               An FTP site (used to exchange files cross-country)
               An email-for-info address (info@cips.ca)
               Our own E-ZIne (started by Suzanne Spannis and continued by
Michele Sura, what a team)
               A gopher server par excellence (run by Marvelous Mike McDonald
out of University of New Brunswick)
               A full-service listserver site at the same place (Note: Donated
FREE by UNB, thanx muchly)
               Full board discussions taking place via email
               International contact has started between ourselves and other
net-nauts
               A sexy-as-all-get-out home page (www.cips.ca) written by the
renowned web-meister Jumping Jon                             Nightingale from
our Vancouver section

We're working on....
               Latching in our server to the CIPS Nat. Office MS Mail server to
give staff basic pass-through email
               Allowing access to our nat.membership.system via the net (with
appropriate software)
               Membership info on the net (BTW, ask Rob Black what he thinks of
'comma-delimited')
                          via secure access (eg. for membership-directors) as
well as our directory in some
                          form
               Registrations on the net for CIPS events (via Web Forms)
               Cross-Canada weekly summarized job-postings via ftp from our main
anonymous site (cips.ca)
               Participation in Canada's info-pipe policy setting (ie. CANARIE,
CA*net Info-Highway Advisory                                           Council)
               International cross-volunteering (ie. work on sexy projects
around the world)
               e-phones and e-conferencing
               forms and CGI Scripts
               a cure for all known diseases utilizing
net-artificial-intelligence

Where've we been?
               Got DEC donated 486 beige PC to talk to it's internal modem and
out to the net (sort of <g>).
               Got our Windows 3.1 web-server/email-server/ftp-server site to
work, sort-of
               Got can.org.cips started (thanks to the crew at UNB,
again)...don't forget to ask for it at your local
providers store.
               Started regular work sessions to develop the CIPS Nat. Office
site further.
               Got our site data well organized (thanks, Jon and Michele)


Howzit been going?

              Well it coulda been better....

              We've had quirky interrupt problems, the software was ....in Ed
Yourdon's
                          words...."Good Enough Software" meaning it flaked
regularly.

              We've had the most patient Nat.Office staff through all of
this....thanks one and all
              We've had severe problems with our provider....both in our
interface with their software
                          and within their own operation (as those of you who've
tried to send email can attest)


Soo.....what's next.

              Well first off, we've started investigation other suppliers. Our
current list of candidate
              providers (all in the Toronto local calling area) goes like this;

                      O*Net (the Ontario arm of CA*net, Canada's broad-band
info-pipe)
                      Interlog
                      I*STAR
                      Internet Direct

              This is what I know at present (watch out...lotsa geek-speak
coming...)

                      O*Net has a 12Mb pipe out to CA*net and a 45Mb pipe out to
the US (not easily switchable)

                                         They are non-profit but you have to buy
all the equipment at both ends and ante up for
a year at a time (figure $3K equipment + connection charges of $5k) upfront .
This                                                  would be for an ISDN line
(about 4x current speed).

                                          They also have guaranteed 365x7x24
tech staff available (untested yet).

                      Interlog has 2 T1's (1.44Mb), (1 full one and one fractal)
and can give us a 64k ISDN for $300/mth
                                          and come recommended by one of
Toronto's net-luminaries (Ken Campbell)

                      I*STAR was about $800/mth (tax, tip and ISDN line) for a
top-of-the-line, primo connection +
365x7x24 support

                      Internet Direct is a local upstart run by the effervescent
John Nemanic, the man who brought
Ontario e-voting. He is also leading the charge for an IAP association. He's
well
                                         regarded in the industry, has a good
relationship with CIPS Toronto (including a
10% off deal for access) and runs a popular site. On the downside, he's kinda a
                                         small provider (connection details
unknown at present but that's my take on it).

                     Note that none of their references have been checked out at
present so feel free to opine.

            Secondly, I'd like to commit to starting trials on some of our new
stuff around Februaryish (unless
some exec.director type calls me up and yells at me to hurry up <g>)

             Thirdly, I'd like to have an open discussion during Dec/Jan
culminating in our January really-big-board
                                        meeting on 20-21Jan (approx). At that
time, perhaps we can get a working session
                                        together to review options, determine
next-steps, etc.

             Fourthly, I'd like to give a big hand to all the contributors to
our service delivery capability. The local
                                       sections have really come on strong in
this area. We've had support from coast to coast

             In the meantime, since I''ll' be back in one place, Michele and I
will start knocking off the the 'To Do' list
                                       starting with the nat.office email
connection followed by membership info access
unless somebody has a brainstorm that we agree is a better choice.

Keep CIPS-chatting,
Steve Gallinger, ISP
Regional Director
CIPSnet something-or-other (not sure of my title)