[Advisors] FreeNet history/philosophy

[Ian! D. Allen]

> From: ciresearchers-owner at vancouvercommunity.net On Behalf Of Mike Zajko
> Subject: FreeNet history/philosophy
> The writeup for the TV segment credits NCF as the world's second FreeNet, but
> this can't be right as it seems there were several in the US by that time.
> Mike Zajko

Ottawa's NCF was *Canada's* second Free-Net, after Victoria BC.

I was NCF employee #2, hired in 1993 as sysadmin: aa610 at freenet.carleton.ca

NCF employee #1 was office manager Kyla Huckerby: https://www.facebook.com/kyla.huckerby

You can reach one of the lead programmers of the original Case Western
Reserve University (Cleveland) Free-Net "FreePort" software here:

    Chet Ramey  chet.ramey at case.edu

I first corresponded with Chet by email in August 1993.  He may know more
about "how many at what dates" in the USA.  I have this email message
archived, which lists some FreeNet contacts in April 1994:

| From: Chet Ramey <chet at odin.INS.CWRU.Edu>
| Subject: Re: Security, pls. read
| Date: Wed, 20 Apr 1994 16:28:51 -0400
| To: gbnewby at alexia.lis.uiuc.edu
| Cc: root at bigcat.missouri.edu, root at dayton.wright.edu,
|         root at bigsky.bigsky.dillon.mt.us, root at freenet.buffalo.edu,
|         root at ciao.trail.bc.ca, root at kanga.ins.cwru.edu,
|         root at firefly.prairienet.org, root at freenet1.scri.fsu.edu,
|         root at tso.uc.edu, root at freenet.hsc.colorado.edu,
|         root at freenet-a.fim.uni-erlangen.de, root at freenet.lorain.oberlin.edu,
|         root at freenet.carleton.ca, root at freenet.victoria.bc.ca,
|         root at kosmos.wcc.govt.nz, root at yfn.ysu.edu, root at nptn.org,
|         root at osfn.rhilinet.gov, root at ozarks.sgcl.lib.mo.us, root at rgfn.epcc.edu,
|         chet at odin.INS.CWRU.Edu
| 
| > There's a security hole in the FreePort software which resulted in
| > the Prairienet system being compromised last week.  A hacker was
| > able to obtain superuser privs, although he luckily did little
| > damage.
| 
| I agree that `asu' is a major security hole installed 4711.  Around here,
| we have it owner root, group wheel, mode 4710.
| It may be enough to change the perms to 4710 rather than remove it
| from the system.

-- 
| Ian! D. Allen  -  idallen at idallen.ca  -  Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
| Home Page: http://idallen.com/   Contact Improv: http://contactimprov.ca/
| College professor (Free/Libre GNU+Linux) at: http://teaching.idallen.com/
| Defend digital freedom:  http://eff.org/  and have fun:  http://fools.ca/