The Future of BNC4FREE

Due to events beyond our control and issues with funding, It is likely that BNC4FREE will be closing on Sunday 1st of May 2016. It is with deep sadness and regret that this decision has had to be considered and will likely go ahead. The current servers that are still operating will continue to do so into next month with the last of our servers likely to expire on the 23rd of May 2016. We strongly recommend that you move to another provider before this date (i.e EliteBNC or PanicBNC) if you still require a bouncer.

BNC4FREE originally started in August 2008 as a small project which has grown to be a success and inspired a number of the providers that now exist today. Unfortunately due to providers increasing their price, large changes in our staff and the ageing of its founder, there is a little option but to close BNC4FREE. We would like to thank all of our users that have supported us and continued to use us over the last 8 years and thank all staff past and present for their input and dedication to keeping the service running. Last but not least, we would also like to thank all of our server providers of without whom, we would not have been able to provide and operate this service.

Regards,
Russell – BNC4FREE Founder

BNC4FREE are now hiring!

BNC4FREE are currently looking for new, skilled, active staff members to join our existing team and help improve our service. We currently have 3 job roles available.

• Development Team
• Support Team
• Technical Team

If you are interested in applying for these jobs, please review the role descriptions and specifications above and then complete our recruitment exercise. Successful applicants will receive a response from the management team within 1 month of submitting their application.

Applications must be submitted by Tuesday 8th March 2016 to be considered

We wish you the best of luck!

Apple has been decommissioned

Today a decision has been made that Apple would be Decommissioned. The main reason for this is that the staff member providing this server has chosen to resign. We have looked at the remaining servers and sessions and concluded that this server does not need to be replaced at this time.

Unfortunately as of 23rd April 2015, any existing accounts on Apple were fully removed from the system and have not been transferred to another server. This is simply because the server is not being replaced and the server had already been taken offline prior to this decision being made. We feel that instead, it would be easier for those users who were on Apple that would still like an account with us, to re-request a new account.

We would like to apologise for the inconvenience caused by this decision and any inconvenience caused by having to re-request.

Important Server Updates!

As mentioned in our previous news, we will be rolling out server updates this week to fix a few bugs and add a few features. The software updates have now been tested and all online servers will be updated on Wednesday 4th November 2015. The scheduled times for each server are as follows:

* Detonates the time has changed since originally scheduled
** Server will not be updated yet as is not currently online

The updates being rolled out to the servers include the following fixes and new features:

• Memory Leak Fix (used to cause the server to crash randomly)
• Increased Timeout Limit (Your bouncer will wait longer for a ping response before timing out)
• Login Notices (When a client tries to login as you, the message sent is now a notice rather than a privmsg)
• DenySetIdent (Allows staff to prevent the changing of ident’s if necessary)
• New GHOST command (Allows you to ghost all other clients connected to your account)
• Allow Expandable Strings in Quit Messages (Allows these to be used in your quit message)
• New Module: ctcpflood – Allows for the blocking of CTCP’s on flood
• New Module: fish – Encrypt channel and private messages using FISH encryption
• New Module: push – Send channel highlights and private messages to a device using push
• New Module: stripcontrols – Strips all color codes from channel and private messages
• CertFP Module now has a web interface
• Crypt module now shows timestamps on messages

We will be upgrading our software further in order to support multiple networks and other features by the end of this year. Dates will be provided nearer the time.

We have also updated several other features of our service as outlined below:

With regards to our Lemon server that is currently offline, we are still awaiting a response from the host. If we have not received a response by close of play on Wednesday 4th November 2015, we will have no other choice but to remove it from our service. We will keep users informed of the situation if this arises.
Due to continuous downtime with Lemon and no response from the host or provider, we have decided that the server will decommissioned. There will be no replacement for this server and users on this server will need to request a new bouncer. We apologise for the inconvenience this has caused.

Many more updates are on the way over the coming months, make sure you keep to up to date with the latest information via one of the following methods:

• Visit us on IRC
• Follow us on Twitter
• Like us on Facebook
• Find us on Google+
• Subscribe to us on Reddit

Thanks for choosing BNC4FREE!

Updates and Upgrades Coming Soon

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again, BNC4FREE will be upgrading its servers very soon! Previously we mentioned that we would have this rolled out in July/August but after delving further into our current systems, discovered that there was a lot of back end functions and features to be cleaned up, fixed and altered in order for the new version of our software to work.

Over the last few weeks, we’ve been working on the back end which is well on the way to being able to handle our new software, this means that we are fairly certain that we will be able to roll out our new software for Christmas this year! The new software contains a number of fixes, new features/modules and most importantly the ability to have multiple networks on your account (limit to be decided).

As Christmas is a just over a month away, it has been decided that we will roll out an update of the existing software on all servers during the next week which will include a selection of new features (mostly backend) and bug fixes for us to trial before the new version is released. Most importantly, this update will fix the issue that is causing the servers to crash randomly (Hooray!). We are looking to roll this out as early as Tuesday/Wednesday so stay tuned for updates as this could be decided at very short notice!

All servers except for Pear (because this was recently re-installed), will have a brief period of downtime in early of December as we will need to upgrade the operating systems and packages on the servers to support the new version of fBNC. No dates have been confirmed for this as of yet but it is likely to be during the first week of December and the downtime is estimated to last no more than 30 minutes per server.

The best way to keep up with the latest notices and updates is by using the following methods:

• Visit us on IRC
• Follow us on Twitter
• Like us on Facebook
• Find us on Google+
• Subscribe to us on Reddit

Thanks for choosing BNC4FREE!

Update on Strawberry

Earlier today a decision was made that Strawberry would be moved to a new server. The main reason for this is that the host we were using for Strawberry has suspended the server due to continual DDoS attacks. As a result of this, we have moved the server to a better host and expect no immediate or similar issues with the new host.

Unfortunately for a number of technical reasons, existing users on Strawberry have been fully removed from our system. This means that existing users on Strawberry will have to re-request a new bouncer.

We sincerely apologise for the inconvenience users on Strawberry have had over the last few weeks and the inconvenience caused by having to re-request.

Summer Upgrade

After a prolonged wait, it’s finally here! Introducing a new version of fBNC, based on ZNC 1.6.1. We will be rolling this out onto our servers within the next couple of weeks (dates to be decided). Some of the improved and new features include:

• No more memory leak and no more weekly crashing
• Support for IRCv3
• New Alias Module – Alias commands such as /bacon to perform actions
• Updated Admin Module – Add/Delete channels on the fly and administer your account easily from IRC
• Better SSL Verification – Enhanced Certificate Checking and Cipher Verification
• Enhanced Blacklist – We now have the ability to blacklist IP’s from servers including checks against DNS Blacklists
• Channel Saving Default – No more chansaver module, its enabled as a default and will always save your channels
• TimeZones – Ability to set playback timestamps to your timezone rather than an offset to the servers time
• Multi Network Support – Ability to have multiple networks assigned to your user

In the near future, it is likely that we will be allow users to have more than 1 network although this is still a way off yet as there are a number of changes that need to be made to the way we currently administer users and data. We will also be looking at automating certain processes, such as adding/removing servers and altering other information that may currently require staff intervention. We will post further information as and when these changes are about to take place.

Inactive and Unused Account Deletion

Any inactive accounts on all of our servers will be deleted on Sunday 10th May 2015. Your account will only be deleted if the following criteria is met:

• Your account has not been accessed for 60 days or more
• Your account was accepted more than 7 days ago and has never been accessed
• Your account is on DALNet, QuakeNet, Undernet, Rizon, EFNet, ICQ, Mindforge, Espernet or Freenode and has not been used for 30 days
• Your account was suspended and you have not appealed it in the last 7 Days

These accounts will be deleted by 17:00 GMT+0 on Sunday 10th May 2015. If your account matches one of the above criteria, you will either need to login to avoid deletion or if in the event that your account is suspended, contact us on IRC to resolve the issue. Thanks.

Lemon has been Decommissioned

Earlier today a decision was made that Lemon would be Decommissioned. The main reason for this is that the host we were using for Lemon ha what can only be described as a rather faulty DDoS detection script. After numerous attacks over the past few months, some of which were barely big enough to be considered attacks, the host decided to suspend the server and demanded an explanation to the attacks. Where we were happy to provide an explanation, we have chosen not to continue using the host as we feel this would just become a re-occurring problem. Due to this and a number of other factors including the cost of a replacement server, we have chosen not to replace this server.

Unfortunately as of 26th April 2015, any existing accounts on Lemon were fully removed from the system and have not been transferred to another server. This is simply because we don’t have an existing server big enough to fit the entire of Lemon onto and splitting the users and notifying them of what server they were moved to would of been a very time consuming task. We feel that instead, it would be easier for those users who were on Lemon that would still like an account with us, to re-request a new account.

We would like to apologise for the inconvenience users on Lemon have had for most of this year and any inconvenience caused by having to re-request.

March News

As you are probably aware, during most of March, our Melon server has been offline. This originally was because we were told that some new IP’s were going to be allocated to the server as the old ones were being decommissioned. This should have been an easy task but the host unfortunately only allocated us 2 new IP’s instead of 4 so it has taken a while longer to resolve that. There was then an additional problem with the servers back end which meant we couldn’t access it to update the networking for the new IP’s and so had to wait for support again before we could resolve the problem. This is a one off issue for Melon and it’s unlikely that once resolved, any further problems will arise from it.

We have been monitoring request processing times and support times this month and are pleased to announce that there has been a considerable improvement. Back in January & February we were experiencing large backlogs of requests and support emails as there were not enough staff or staff available at certain times to process these but now most requests and support emails are processed within 48 hours.

For those who have previously filled in or want to fill in a short feedback questionnaire related to our service, we will be opening another one of these during next month. This will allow you to feedback any comments, suggestions, complaints and will give us more of an idea on what area’s we could improve on. More information on this will be posted when the questionnaire is ready.

We would also like to remind you that you can also follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Google+. Almost all of the important messages we send to IRC channels are also posted on social media and can be highly useful if you’ve been unable to visit IRC.