July 2009 - OCIS Changes and Upgrades

July 2009 - Changes, upgrades and information from OCIS

Backbone Network Enhancements
High Speed Usage Calculation Adjustment
ADSL Port Upgrades
Mail System - Modifications and Information - ie: Quotas and Spam
Customer Communication Options - ie: Reminders and Statements

OCIS Homepage

Backbone Network Enhancements Back to Top

The biggest change has been a combination of the addition of a second connection, obtaining OCIS owned internet (IP) addresses and the implementation of an intelligent routing method.

Historically, OCIS had a sole provider for connectivity to the internet. In March, OCIS obtained a second connection to the internet and has been modifying network configurations to utilize both connections. Using two connections to the internet is known as multi-homing and it allows OCIS to provide its customers with a superior service. When an ISP becomes multi-homed, they are able to provide redundancy on their network so that if one link goes down, the alternate link can continue to run so that lengthy service interruptions are avoidable.

Redundancy is accomplished with an intelligent routing method known as border gateway protocol (BGP). Along with allowing for redundancy BGP has the ability to provide OCIS clients better, more efficient connections to the internet. BGP allows connections to choose their best possible path to reach their endpoint. It automatically determines whether the traffic should travel over one connection or the other when communicating with sites on the internet. This efficient routing method has the ability to speed up connections by choosing the shortest path to an endpoint. As important, it allows OCIS the ability to be involved with responsible traffic management, which helps keep the internet functioning effeciently for everyone.

In order to fully utilize BGP for both inbound and outbound connections, OCIS has secured its own block of IP addresses. IP addresses are the unique identifiers for each internet connected device. IP addresses are the attribute that allows routing protocols like BGP make their decisions and optimize network traffic flow. OCIS used to have its IP addresses provided by its sole provider and as such, all traffic would travel over that provider connection. Now that OCIS has its own block of addresses, they are not tied to any particular provider and traffic can choose whichever connection is most appropriate.

Over the coming weeks and months, OCIS will work with its customers to change the assigned IP addresses from historical addresses to OCIS addresses so that clients can fully benefit from the multi-homing. If a client wanted to benefit immediately from the multi-homing, they can make a request to our support department to have their IP address migrated before the OCIS scheduled migration. OCIS has already migrated the IP addresses assigned to dialup customers.

High Speed Usage Calculations Adjustment Back to Top

The implementation of BGP has caused OCIS to change the way it calculates usage statistics for its ADSL and Wireless connected clients. In the past, usage was calculated on the link between OCIS and its sole provider. With the implementation of the second connection, usage is now calculated on the link that connects the client to the OCIS network. This means that activities such as surfing to OCIS websites or checking your OCIS email will now be calculated in your usage statistics. This may slightly increase usage, however, OCIS has augmented the allowed usage in recent months to compensate. OCIS is also implementing a usage quota system. Customers of high speed services will soon receive email to alert them when they are getting close to their allowed usage. They will have the option of having their accounts put on hold if their account exceeds the allowed amount of usage to avoid having to pay any overtime charges. They will have the option of being directed to a reminder system that they will have to pay for overages to their usage or they can select to be exempted from the quota system and will be responsible for any usage overages incurred.

ADSL Port Upgrades Back to Top

ADSL customers are to get a boost in their potential connectivity speeds. Our ADSL ports provider will be working with OCIS to upgrade our customers from legacy ADSL which had speeds available in the 1.5mbps, 2.5mbps and 4mbps downstream rates to ADSL2+ which has speeds available up to 3mbps and 6mbps downstream rates. Upstream rates increase from the potential 512kbps and 640kbps speeds up to 1mbps on all ports. All OCIS ADSL customers subscribed to 1.5mbps and 2.5mbps will retain their download speed or be automatically assigned the new 3mbps service. Customers subscribed to the 4mbps service will be assigned the 6mbps service. OCIS will be creating new plans with similar price points and allowed usage to match this upgrade and will automatically adjust clients to these new plans. Prices will not change, however, the allowed usage may be adjusted. This migration will take place in the early morning hours of July 21st, July 22nd and July 23rd. There may be short outages between 1:00AM and 6:00AM on those days. ADSL clients are urged to work around those hours to avoid any disruption of service.

Mail System - Modifications and Information - ie: Quotas and SpamBack to Top

There are a few changes to the mail system. We have developed a hard quota procedure. We plan to remove a couple of our aliased domain addresses. We are changing our webmail service. We are taking steps to secure and syncronize email passwords. We are developing a method that allows users to specify where they want particular emails to be sent. We are implementing a paperless option. Finally, we want to remind customers about phishing messages, identity theft and spam.

OCIS has implemented a hard quota system for customers on the mail.ocis.net system. We have developed a system that detects email boxes that are nearing their quota and will send a warning message to the address alerting the customer to take action such as reduce the amount of mail in the mailbox or contact our support department for management assistance or quota increase. The default quota size for OCIS mailboxes is 100Megs and has a maximum limit of 500Megs. If an account goes over its quota, it will be assumed that the account is not being used. The quota will be reduced and future mails to the address will bounce back to the sender. The mailbox will also be cancelled after 3 months, it will be removed from the OCIS system. This will help to keep our mail system running as efficiently as possible as larger mailboxes tend to cause unnecessary load on the mailserver and slow it down for others. Keeping your mailbox size to a minimum helps the system run more smoothly.

The OCIS email addresses used to have the ability to use up to 8 addresses including @ocis.net, @mail.ocis.net, @kamloops.net, @mail.kamloops.net, @nicolavalley.com, @mail.nicolavalley.com, @squilax.net and @mail.squilax.net. Analysis has shown that the @nicolavalley.com and @squilax.net addresses are used very little and likely generate more spam than necessary so we have decided to remove them as aliases. The addresses will still work for customers who have been using them, but they will be setup differently. We have already changed the flow the squilax.net domain and plan to change the flow of nicolavalley.com by the end of the month. If you are using those domain extensions and encounter any problems, please let us know.

Customers who use the OpenWebmail system will soon be migrated to the Squirrelmail Webmail system. We have found that the OpenWebmail system is insecure and does not work well with the OCIS mail system. Many users already have switched to our QMail/Courier system and utilize the Squirrelmail Webmail system. We would like to have all our customers enjoy the same experience. Customers who are currently on the QMail/Courier system have the potential of having a different password than their User Zone password. Over the coming weeks, we will be working to sync the passwords so that users have a single password to access all the OCIS services. We have detected that some users have the same username as their password. This is very insecure and is a method by which customer accounts are being compromised. We will by working to ensure that none of our users have such insecure passwords to further secure our systems.

Over the past number of months, OCIS has seen an increase in the attempts to gather personal information from them. These attempts are knows as phishing and are a form of identity theft. Generally, clients will receive an email claiming to be from an OCIS representative and will generally be asking for the clients username and password. OCIS will never send an email requesting your username and password. If you receive one of these phishing messages, you can alert us about it but we will have likely already detected it and it is better just delete it. Unfortunately, there is not much we can do to stop these types of phishing messages as they are usually very crafty and subvert detection until they have been delivered. Our commercial spam protection, SecureLinks, is very effective at ensuring all other junk mail does not reach your mailbox, however, due to the way the scammers and phishers develop their messages, it is too difficult to detect and remove the phishing messages. OCIS urges you to never give out personal information such as usernames and passwords via email.

Customer Communication Options - ie: Reminders and StatementsBack to Top

OCIS sends many different types of email messages including renewal reminder messages, system outages, service updates and changes, general information, quota reminders and account balance and invoicing information. Currently OCIS sends these messages to a default address as defined by OCIS. We are implementing a 'message email recipient' system where clients will be able to specify where they will want particular messages to be sent. It no longer will have to be an OCIS address and users will be able to control what messages they receive and where they will be sent via the User Zone. This system will allow OCIS to offer a paperless option to its clients. If customers no longer wish to receive any paper mail, they can select to receive only email or even receive nothing at all.

OCIS sends a monthly statement to clients with any outstanding invoices. The statement would generally reflect the last payment on account and any invoices that were still outstanding. Clients will notice that this months statement looks quite a bit different. It now reflects a summary of charges and payments from two months previous with any balance carried forward. It also reflects any charges and payments from the previous and current month. This will help give clients a much better record of their account.