Spam Alert for subscribers to Reeth Rural Radio Net

The RRRN network has been reported for the sending of e-mail alleged to be unsolicited (spam).

Due to the potential impact of sending spam through RRRN all our customers may loose all or part of our services as our service may be suspended from the internet.

There are a number of reasons why we may have been reported for sending spam - and it is possible spam is being sent through your computer without your knowledge.

The most likely cause of this report is malware on your
computer(s) - such as viruses, worms or Trojans, which may be sending spam without your knowledge and without using your
e-mail programme.

We also recommend ensuring any anti-virus and firewall software is fully up-to-date and that you perform a full system scan after you have done an update.

Please contact us if would like advice on updating your anti-virus software.

Important Policy Information

File sharing - web announcement

The use by RRRN subscribers of file sharing software (such as, Kazaa, Limewire, Gnutella, BitTorrent, eDonkey, uTorrent) is compromising the quality of our service to all subscribers, causing network slowdowns and outages.

File sharing in itself is not illegal, but it does put a strain on the network. Any file downloaded is then uploaded from your PC to anyone else on the internet that requests it. This can happen many hundreds of times. It is this outbound traffic that causes the high usage. The ISP through which we connect to the Internet beyond Swaledale and Arkengarthdale warned us last month about the illegal sharing of a copyright film over our network. We cannot afford to jeopardise our relationship with the ISP or risk legal action.

Accordingly, the directors of RRRN have decided to block file sharing, otherwise known as peer to peer (P2P), through all our internet gateways. We will, however, still allow VoIP (e.g. Skype, SIP), Gaming and VPN access. The first Internet gateway will be the King's Arms, Reeth.

We trust subscribers will understand and support our action. If you have any queries regarding this announcement please email support@swaledale.org

Collecting your email through your browser. You can collect and send email online when you are away from home. There are two methods available to collect webmail.

Open www.mail2web.com and select the Advanced login.
Enter pop3.strato.com as the server name.
Enter your swaledale.org email address and password.
Highlight the POP3 mail protocol radio button.

OR

Open www.strato-communicator.net
Enter your swaledale.org email address and password.

Subscriptions and tickets

The monthly subscription is £11.75 inclusive of VAT, payable by bank standing order.

A week's subscription costs £11.75 and a single month's £23.50, both inclusive of VAT.

Access tickets for casual users cost £2 for two half-hour sessions.

Tickets are available at Fat Sheep, The Green, Reeth, or contact support@swaledale.org for further information.

Thank you for supporting our community not for profit venture. In the coming year we hope to add additional functionality to the network and take the first steps to creating an online community in our dales.

Dangerous spam warning: please note that there is a lot of dangerous unsolicited email ("spam") in circulation at present. Some have attachments they suggest you open which are viruses ("malware"), some purport to be from high street banks, some appear to be rejected/ bounced messages, some are clever enough to use "swaledale.org technical support team" as their signature! (By the way, these are not unique to our network - they are being received by thousands of people all around the country - but we would like our customers to be educated and safe.)

• (Here is a "malware" example in plain text format - the attached file it refers to was a virus.)
• (Here is an example of a banking scam (a "phishing" attack) in HTML format - please see our inline note for details of how the phishing attack works).
• Here is another banking scam - note only some of the links go to dodgy locations, some go to the banks real web site. Note: any dangerous links have been removed

Please never click on links from unsolicited emails which request login details or other personnal information and never open attachments from such emails. Delete the message and also remove it from any recycle bin you may have in your email client. Also please ensure you have a up-to-date virus checker installed.

We will only ever contact you via email with very specific information to do with our services, such as service outages and newsletters, and we will always have "Reeth Rural Radio Net" somewhere in the mail. We will not send you unsolicited mail with attachments or requests to click links to login or provide other personnal information.

You can report phishing attacks to the Anti Phishing Working Group.

Reeth Rural Radio Net has now been successfully operating in Reeth since November 2004, offering a fast, "always on", internet service. We have expanded both up Swaledale and Arkengarthdale - if you live in the dales we will be very happy to provide a free survey. Please contact support@swaledale.org or phone 01748 886903 (answerphone)and we will organise a visit.

Why bother supporting a local wireless network anyway? It's cheap! And as more people get involved we will make it faster and therefore even better value. We will always try to provide the best value service available in the area. It is a locally run, not for profit, company and therefore provides a local investment which will endeavour to be highly responsive to local needs (such as helping local schools, businesses and community organisations get online). We look on this as the equivalent of building a locally owned, virtual motorway into the two dales. Why pay BT to run a toll road that doesn't offer long term cost savings and benefits to the local community!? You'll be helping the whole dale get online. We endeavour to get to the far-flung reaches of the two dales as soon as possible, which will mean a radical change in the communications services available to them. You'll get a very personal email address. You can choose between a 'swaledale.org' or 'arkengarthdale.org' email address. No phone line required! which means once it's up and running it should be more reliable than the phone line services Secure and private. The local network provides greater protection from external problems such as viruses and hackers (it is much more secure than a standard dial-up). No users of the network can "see" each other's computers or traffic. We will also be able to provide additional security (Virtual Private Networks) for businesses in the near future. Local skills. The practical knowledge learned and shared at many levels locally will enable the local community and hopefully other local communities for the future Tourism services. Business (e.g. cafés/ pubs/ caravan parks/ hotels/ post office) will be able to offer temporary wireless internet passes to visitors. The future - free local phone calls! Once the basic internet service is in place there are additional possibilities such as free telephony services and wireless phones, providing free calls to anyone else on the network (useful when you're out on the farm!). Who knows, even local video phones!