|
|
| New Site Introduction |
Welcome to the new Alamak look! We have been busily designing a new site.
The new site look is intended to be more cheerful and functionally easier
to use, something fresh. We are cleaning up our site deleting pages, ripping
out redundant sections, and updating pages.
I know some of you are wondering why it's taking so long to get the new Alamak site
launched and why some services are here and others till on the old site. The
main reason is that there is alot of re-design of the infrastructure from ground
up using a new database system and we have been adding alot of security upgrades
as we go. So you might not see much going on but we're busily hammering out new
progams and installing new stuff on the site.
The restructuring also means that we have to upgrade all our billing systems, both
the credit card and mail application system and forms for offices to update accounts.
The upshot is that once the infratructure is redone we will be able to easily add
more new Ops services and upgrade the site. The security upgrades means it's
alot harder for anyone could get your password(s) from us even if we did get hacked.
When accounts are added, renewed, or passwords changed the update to all
our slave servers will be faster and more reliable.
Currently this test server is providing Account Manger and the new Mail Application Signup.
In the works (as soon as I finish writing this little blurb) is a new Committee Voting system. We just upgraded the committee list to be part of the new database and setup the offices committee
appointment page Aug 29 2003 so now it's the Committee voting system.
We also have installed Ops Email which is still in testing phase. This machine is also
running our test upgraded chat server (no login page yet), data.serv, and freehome.serv all
which use our new database system.
What Else? Well I've actually spent alot of time trying out various mail servers and spam
prevention measures. Over the past few years my email box has been completely useless due to
the increase in spam on the internet. Once in awhile I manage to sucker some poor soul to
handle Alamak and fix accounts but after training they usually quit due to the thankless nature
of the task, and rude or just stupid emails (people complain but don't say who is doing what etc).
I have found the best thing to prevent spam so far is TMDA, a whitelist. The first email sent goes into a
queue and a reply is sent asking for confirmation. Once confirmed the email is delivered from the
queue and the from address added to the whitelist. The next time no confirmation is necessasry because
it's already in the whitelist. Pretty cool huh?
Some still gets through even with spam pevention measures and some software written myself.
Today I spent an hour re-writing one of my spam blockers, I am finding if you catch these
problems at the outset it's alot less irritation later. Some of you may have noticed NOW
get actual replies in a more or less timely fashion! *grin*
The email server research has proven useful so that a secure setup of email for Alamak Ops is now possible,
and we'll probably install TMDA to protect Ops email from spam also!
If you are totally lost CLICK HERE NOW
|
|
