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color="#629d29"><big><b>GreenNet Christmas Newsletter 2006</b></big></font>
<p>The last month has been a pretty heady time for the GreenNet
Collective. We've been inundated with the most wonderful messages of
support, solidarity and memories from our users, partners, old
co-workers and friends in celebration of our 20th birthday. It's been
great to feel the links with where GN came from and to see that in
spite of technical change, there is a spirit in our work that is part
of something present and historical. We've been celebrating the
anniversary in various ways - online at
<a href="http://anniversary.gn.apc.org/">http://anniversary.gn.apc.org</a>,
and also with great music and lots of friends at a party in London on
14th December. Music came live from Howard Lane's (GN Billing's)
fantastic band, and we were joined by people who'd had experience of
GN right back from the early days. It was great to have the chance to
reconnect with Viv Kendon, Philip Inglesant, Jill Small, Sarah
Masters, Joanne Doyle and lots and lots of others. Thanks to everyone
for the support! </p>
<p>We were also kept busy with plenty of new project and support work
over 2006 - exciting new web projects powered by a range of open
source technologies with more interactivity for improved community
action online. GreenNet Support broadened its scope to include linux
desktop support as part of our new Linux installation training. And
we upgraded the system to offer IMAP mail and virtual server hosting.
</p>
<p>As usual, the office will be closed during the holiday period from
25th - December - 2nd January, although the technical team will be
monitoring the system daily. If you have any urgent problems, please
call us on +44 (0)20 7065 0942 and leave a message on our answer
phone or email support. We will try to help you as far as possible.
Make sure you include any error messages that you are getting and
your email address. </p>
<p>Please do also remember to switch your computers off periodically,
and enjoy a peaceful, happy and healthy holiday time. </p>
<p>With warm wishes from all of us in the GreenNet Collective, </p>
<p>Ana, Anna, Cedric, Howard, Ian, Liz, Mimo and Marek. </p>
<b>Services<br>
<br>
</b><b>Websites to Grow</b>
<p>This is GreenNet's latest tool for people who need a website in a
hurry, on a budget and without much fuss. The package comes complete
with a calendar, a discussion forum, a photo gallery and space for
all the regular content you want online. You can choose from a range
of styles, or experiment with your own colours and designs. Each site
comes with a simple to follow instruction booklet and of course
there's GreenNet's friendly user support to call on if you ever get
stuck. The site is database driven, built with an open-source Content
Management System called Drupal, and maintaining it requires no
special technical skills. A Website to Grow costs just £275
including VAT. </p>
<b>Virtual Server Hosting</b>
<p>GreenNet has recently started offering dedicated virtual server
hosting as a new service. This gives organisations the access and
independence of a dedicated server but does not involve the cost of
buying and co-locating your own hardware. </p>
<p>Packages start from as little as £35 per month for a server
with 4 GB hard disk with 256 MB RAM. </p>
<p>Features include </p>
<ul>
<li>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Full shell access (SSH) </p>
</li>
<li>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Pre-configured firewall </p>
</li>
<li>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Pre-installed Debian/GNU Stable
(Fedora available) </p>
</li>
<li>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Fair-use bandwidth usage </p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Web based virtual remote power switch </p>
</li>
</ul>
<p>Additionally, we also offer services such as patching, maintenance
and security updates, remote backups, and managed hosting of your
virtual server at very competitive rates. </p>
<p>Contact <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated"
href="mailto:support@gn.apc.org">support@gn.apc.org</a> for more
information. </p>
<b>Linux training and
support</b>
<p>In April this year, Ramon Acedo from our Spanish sister network in
Barcelona, <a href="http://www.pangea.org/">Pangea</a>, travelled to
GreenNet to collocate Pangea's servers with us and to provide a FOSS
(Free and Open Source Software) training to some of GreenNet's
members. </p>
<p>The training, which covers everything you need to get going with a
Kubuntu desktop, has gone from strength to strength, with the
curriculum being developed and an increasing number of GreenNet users
now happily working on the sunnier side of their hard drives. </p>
<p>GreenNet is backing up its training with unlimited online and
telephone user support. Workshop participants are also welcome to
come back and repeat the training as many times as they like. Contact
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:opensource@gn.apc.org">opensource@gn.apc.org</a>
for more details on forthcoming training dates.</p>
<b>IMAP mail</b>
<p>We are in the process of upgrading our webmail system, again. IMAP
allows you to manage your email by using a web browser <i>and</i> an
email programme like Thunderbird directly on the mail server, with
the option to create folders and filters on the server level. </p>
<p>We are planning to upgrade all our users (and new users are
already being set up with IMAP incorporated) but if you would like to
try the new features you can ask by emailing us on <a
class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:support@gn.apc.org">support@gn.apc.org</a>
</p>
<p>And since we have enabled secure connections, you can easily
access your webmail on: <a href="https://mail.gn.apc.org/">https://mail.gn.apc.org</a>
</p>
<p>This means that your connection between you and our mail server is
encrypted (provided your browser supports https: Mozilla Firefox,
available on a number of platforms, supports it. If you still don't
have it, go to <a href="http://www.mozilla.com/">http://www.mozilla.com</a>
to download it for free). </p>
<b>Support News</b>
<p>GreenNet support will be closed from Saturday 23rd of December
until Tuesday 2nd of January <i>inclusive</i>. Full support will
resume on Wednesday 3rd of January. </p>
<p>The GreenNet servers will be monitored throughout this period. </p>
<p>If you have any urgent problems, please call us on +44 (0)20 7065
0942 and leave a message on our answer phone or email support
<a href="mailto:support@gn.apc.org">mailto:support@gn.apc.org</a>. We
will try to help you as far as possible. Please make sure you include
any error messages that you are getting and your email address. </p>
<p>Please do also remember to switch your computers off periodically,
and enjoy a peaceful, happy and healthy holiday time. </p>
<p>Thanks to all our users for your continued support and for all
your kind messages of thanks that we have received coming up to
Christmas. </p>
<b>Windows Security</b>
<p>GreenNet continues to protect your e-mail account against internet
worms, trojans and viruses. However, more and more threats to Windows
come not via e-mail but via the web, particularly if you are using
Microsoft Internet Explorer. These trojans, browser hijacks or other
"malware" could then steal your online account details, or
use your internet connection to send out dozens of spam emails a
minute. Recently, <a
href="http://www.sophos.com/pressoffice/news/articles/2006/07/securityreportmid2006.html">a
leading antivirus company suggested dropping Windows altogether</a>.
While we agree with this, for some reason they suggest moving to Macs
rather than Linux. </p>
<p>If you haven't been able to make any of our Linux training
sessions and are using Windows (as we know most of you are!),
GreenNet Support would like to make the following recommendations: </p>
<ul>
<li>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Use <a
href="http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/">Windows Update</a> every
week or two if you don't have it set up automatically. If your computer
came with Windows XP and you have never updated it, make sure you have
updated to the latest Service Pack, SP2. </p>
</li>
<li>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Download <a
href="http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/">Firefox</a> and use it in place
of Internet Explorer (Windows 98 or later). For Windows 95 users, stick
to Netscape. </p>
</li>
<li>
<p>If you are running Windows 2000 or XP, make sure that the
account you usually use for web browsing does not have administrator
access. Also check that the "Administrator" account has a password set
(press F8 when starting if the Administrator isn't normally listed on
the login screen). Ideally this also applies to Linux and OS X,
although as the virus company pointed out, practically no malicious
software is written to target these operating systems. </p>
</li>
</ul>
<b>Bouncing spams</b>
<p>This may apply to you if you have a domain name registered through
GreenNet, and receive mail at that domain name. </p>
<p>Many infected Windows PCs form part of a "botnet", and
are abused to send out large amounts of unsolicited bulk email
(spam). Since August, there has been a big increase in spam sent in
this way, such as the "pump-and-dump" scams designed to
inflate the price of certain stocks. </p>
<p>Often these also fake many made-up "From" addresses at
your domain name, in an attempt to pass spam filters. One effect of
this is that if you have a "catch-all" address which will
receive email to <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated"
href="mailto:MadeupNameRndmLtrs@yourdomain.org">MadeupNameRndmLtrs@yourdomain.org</a>,
then you will
receive all the "backscatter", that is "undeliverable
message" bounces, "out of office" replies, virus
warnings and so on, even though neither you nor GreenNet had anything
to do with the original spam. Many organisations with GreenNet
websites have already limited the addresses to those which are
definitely used, so please contact <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated"
href="mailto:support@gn.apc.org">support@gn.apc.org</a> if you would
like to remove the catch-all address. </p>
<p>In an attempt to prevent spammers faking your domain name, we can
also set up what is called an "SPF record" for the domain.
This is basically a list of any outgoing mail servers that you use
besides GreenNet. If you would like us to do this (and it is
increasingly a recommended standard), again please contact support.
More information at <a
href="http://phorum5.greennet.org.uk/read.php?4,7074">http://phorum5.greennet.org.uk/read.php?4,7074</a>
</p>
<b>0845 number change
reminder</b>
<p>Some of our members using dial-up are still using a very old 0845
059 xxxx number to connect to the internet. A reminder that the
correct number is 0845 055 4030, and the old one may be discontinued
at any point. You can alter the number to dial in your Dial-up
Networking or Network Connections properties - please email
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:support@gn.apc.org">support@gn.apc.org</a>
if you would like advice how to do this. </p>
<b>Projects and New Websites</b>
<p>2006 has seen a bumper crop of websites from the web team. We've
branched out in the technologies we're working with, and are now
building an increasing number of sites with an open source Content
Management System called Drupal, and developing our links with its
Developer community. Projects this year have included an elaborate
membership subscription database for <a
href="http://www.creativexchange.org/">Creative
Exchange</a>, a beautiful site for artists in the Bristol area -
<a href="http://www.bristolcreatives.org/">Bristol Creatives</a>, a
new calendar and football quiz for the <a
href="http://www.fairtrade.org.uk/">FairTrade
Foundation</a>, an extensive book site for <a
href="http://www.developmentinpractice.org/">Development
in Practice</a> which includes a searchable archive of abstracts from
all their back issues, a complete redesign for <a
href="http://www.genewatch.org/">Genewatch</a>
and a fresh look and structure for the <a href="http://www.dea.org.uk/">Development
Education Association</a>. We've put a lot more emphasis on
accessible design and site structure, and are looking forward to
implementing exciting new training plans for responsible webdesign in
2007. </p>
<b>Staff changes<br>
<br>
</b><b>Goodbye to Janet</b>
<p>GreenNet last month bade a fond farewell to Janet Chapman, support
stalwart and all-round contributor to the collective. Janet
originally came to us to deliver the GET IT women's training project,
and will continue to be deeply involved in community projects in
London, including a City Farm, and in GreenNet Educational Trust
(GET). As well as supporting obscure Mac software, Janet's other
talents include marketing (rounding off her time at GN by redesigning
our range of services), and her real expertise would have been tapped
if answering gardening questions as well as computer ones. </p>
<p>Janet wrote to GreenNet users: "My 6 years here have been
incredibly fullfilling and endlessly interesting - and it's you
people who've contributed so much to that! I've only met a few of
you, but feel that I've got to know so many of you via email and
phone - I even recognise a lot of your voices! GreenNet users really
are a very special bunch of worthwhile people. </p>
<p>"I shall certainly keep in touch with GreenNet, and hope to
be able to join you in future anniversaries. Please accept my best
wishes for the festive season, and for your ventures in the years to
come." </p>
<b>Ana</b>
<p>Ana started working for GreenNet in the summer. She is passionate
about open source software skills sharing and development. Her
background is in FOSS training and radical journalism. As an activist
she has spent a lot of time in Palestine and continues to be involved
in the politics of the region. She's completely bi-lingual in English
and Spanish. Her energy, enthusiasm and user-oriented perspective on
technology makes her a brilliant addition to the team. It's great to
have her on board. Welcome Ana! </p>
<b>Howard</b>
<p>Howard took over as Finance Officer in April. At this time of year
he’s busy counting the petty cash to see if there’s enough for a
vegetarian turkey burger for his many children to fight over.
Mutterings of “bah! humbug” can be heard above the clattering of
the ancient adding machine. </p>
<p>Actually despite the complexities of GreenNet’s interesting
billing system (from an industrial historian’s point of view), he
has relished the challenge of a new job and is really enjoying the
friendly company and support of the rest of the Collective. </p>
<p>Anyway, all frustrations are soon banished by loud and prolonged
drumming on his drumkit most evenings. Fortunately the neighbours are
quite deaf (now). He can sometimes be found in a seedy club playing
jazz, or on improvised percussion with his own band, Bucket. </p>
<b>Coming in 2007...</b>
<p><b>New website</b></p>
<p> </p>
<p>We are also working on another web project, our own! We have been
experimenting with new looks for the GreenNet site and new ways to
make it more interactive and useful to you, our user community. There
will also be a reorganisation of our services to try to make them
simpler and more relevant to the way our users are using the internet
for there work now. So watch out for a new website launching new
service plans.<br>
</p>
<hr size="2" width="100%">
<p>GreenNet supports and promotes groups and individuals working for
peace, human rights and the environment through the use of information
and communication technologies.<br>
<br>
GreenNet, 56-64 Leonard Street, London EC2A 4LT<br>
Tel: UK 0845 055 4011 (Intl +44) 20 7065 0935 Fax: (Intl +44) 020 7253
2658<br>
<br>
</p>
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