Roaming Service Available Soon!

We will soon offer roaming service to our subscribers. This service will allow you to access your Cove account from practically anywhere in the world, by dialing a local number!

This service will be provided through an agreement between Cove and I-PASS, a consortium of Internet providers. The consortium maintains over 2,500 local access points in more than 150 countries, including the U.S.

Roaming subscribers will still log-in with the same username and password, but they will dial an I-PASS local access number. This will greatly reduce the phone bills of our distant subscribers!

Actual costs for this service are still being developed, but will be much less than accessing us through a typical long distance call. We will provide additional details on this new service once it becomes operational.

Your New WebServer - Marina!

We are currently putting on the finishing touches on a new webserver, marina.cove.com.

Marina is programmed with the latest Apache webserver and is dedicated to our subscribers' websites.

We have also greatly improved the interface you will use to maintain your website on marina. The new interface uses two web-based program suites, MakePage and EditPage.

The novice can now create their own homepage without any knowledge of html using MakePage.

Those who write html can now upload files, edit files, create and delete files and directories and even preview edited files before saving them using EditPage. These new programs will shortly replace the current interface found on the My Webpage Page.< /P>

Your website will be accessible through the traditional "www.cove.com/~name/" and "www.marina.cove.com/users/name."

Hackers/Spammers Attack!

Some of you may have noticed around mid-March that your access to Internet sites was a bit slower than usual, or you may have had trouble receiving and/or sending email.

During the middle of this past month, the Cove was virtually under siege by at least four distinct groups of hackers and spammers.

In 'net lingo,' a hacker is typically a knowledgeable user who tries to enter a network or server illegally and usually for nefarious purposes. A spammer is typically an inexperienced marketer who uses a special software program to send mind-boggling a mounts of 'junk mail' to email addresses, usually using other networks' mailservers to hide their identity and avoid the resulting deluge of 'hate mail' from annoyed recipients.

As far as ISPs go, the Cove has always ranked pretty good in the security department and ranks good-to-excellent in security issues concerning our subscribers. In fact, all customer information is kept in secure hardcopy only!

The siege was unsuccessful for most attackers, but did uncover a weak point in our current mailserver. Using this server, spammers were able to send hundreds of thousands of illegal email throughout the Internet.

The security break was quickly identified and we retained a group of experts to swiftly secure the server.

Our new mailserver, due for delivery in a week, was programmed by the same group of experts and will be much more secure than the current server.

Several of the spammers have now been identified and we will be working with Federal agents to prosecute them.

Avoiding Spam

Our new mailserver will have the ability to filter some 'junk mail.'

There are also measures you can take to prevent 'junk mail' from reaching you. Go to our Internet Software Archives Page and check out Shareware.com or Tucows for anti-spam freeware and shareware.Spamming is now a Federal offense. Cove Communications expressly forbids users from spamming and actively promotes the identification and prosecution of spammers. If you receive unsolicited 'junk mail,' please forward it to abuse@cove.com.

Service Updates

The CoveCam

The special video cable has arrived! It will be installed this week, so we will resume camera service around mid-April.

Internet Training

Cape Ann subscribers should call Gloucester Continuing Education at 281-9873 for a schedule of classes.

Classes will be held at the Cove in Salem on the 7th and 21st, from 6pm to 9pm.

What's New at the Cove is a monthly publication of CoveCommunications.

Publisher, Bill Ostaski
Editor, John Trefry

27 Congress Street
Salem, MA 01970
(978) 741-5300
office@cove.com