In 1994 Edmonton FreeNet was set up. Its hardware and software consisted of RS6000 computers that their System Manager is familiar with. Their software consists of Lynx, without shell; this way the login is direct into Lynx with no way of getting into UNIX. This was done for security and maintenance reasons. They have used Gopher since 1994 because at that time Gopher was widely used. It was reliable in real time. Their modems consist of rack mounted modems. These are more expensive modems than the usual type, but are more reliable.
There have been some issues since the start up of Edmonton FreeNet. Such as:
Edmonton FreeNet subscribers wanted to be able to read their news and mail off line by accessing pop mail to read their mail. However Edmonton FreeNet had some trouble setting that up so because of limited resources and manpower, it was not pursued. With news, users would read all the mail and pick a few messages to download, this would take a lot of bandwidth and overtax the already swamped help desk. SLIP emulators would add too much complication for the already very busy help desk staff ,so it too was not pursued. Z Modem -"today's protocol".
PAT Public Access Terminals.
To provide access to everybody is FreeNet's mandate. The Edmonton
Public Libraries,
The Bissell Center Their mandate includes making sure that freenets
work and making sure that they
don't disappear. FreeNet can run on Real VT100 terminals and
"Doorstop PCs" There is custom software
that is available upon request. They created their own software,
using C language, to make the system easier to use.
Modem Issues.
The modem pool costs $60/line/month. They have 106 voice lines and
started with a
small amount of modems. Most of the lines are busy most of the time,
so they now have
equitable access to modems.
Equitable access to modems.
Their aim is to 1:50 users to lines, but they have more of a 1:75
ratio of users
to lines. The inactive time out is 10 minutes and users must enter
their
password within two minutes of logging in, otherwise Edmonton FreeNet
will time out and that
user will have to attempt to get on to FreeNet again. The reason that
their are
time-outs during inactivity is to allow all users of freenet equal
access to it.
Edmonton FreeNet is also thinking about putting in a fixed line for their help desk people. This will allow the help desk people to get fast access to FreeNet so that they can further help the end user who is having difficulty.
Service Limits.
Access to news - News can be read by guests, but they cannot send
e-mail.
VT100 only - FreeNet is sticking with one standard , VT100. Some
users may want a
different standard, but Edmonton FreeNet would have to weigh the cost
of
putting in another standard with the amount of people who want this
other
standard to see if it would be worth it. ANSI is compatible with
VT100.
Direct Access to Arbitrary URL - this was not allowed because of
security reasons
and this direct access also created problems with people downloading
large files.
User Limits and Controls.
Certain times of the day are better than others to connect. The time
limits have
been relaxed, however their are space limits. No more than 2MB of
space is allowed
for storing files. Downloading to a disk is acceptable, but if there
is any files in the users
allowed space, than it will count against their 2MB of space.
Backups.
If something does happen to the files stored within Freenet, they can
recreate
the contents of the files, but it takes 1/2 hour to backup these
files.
White pages.
Users may put your ID on Edmonton FreeNet so that other users can
find you. This is
strictly voluntary so if a user does not want to put their ID on the
FreeNet they don't have to.
Priorities.