Hi everyone,

Well it has been a while since the last news post but things have been far from quiet here at Zenbu HQ. We have been working on all sorts of things some of which have already quietly been added to the website and you will have noticed but many of which are background performance enhancements that further improve speed and reliability.

One major development this year (that has happened quietly, so far) is that we have finally made the Zenbu system available for use in Australia.  Over the years we have been contacted by numerous people asking whether they could use the Zenbu Wi-Fi hotspot system to provide internet access at their businesses in Australia.  Up until earlier this year the answer was always no, but because there was an apparent lack of easy to use, reliable, affordable Wi-Fi management systems available in OZ we decided we should do something about it.  Now we have.  The Zenbu wireless system is now available for use in Australia, and it is just as reliable and easy to use as always.  The Zenbu Australia website is http://www.zenbu.net.au and people can securely order a Zenbu system online for use in Australia at https://secure.zenbu.net.au/purchase_wireless_router.  Easy.

A recent article in The New Zealand Herald discussed mobile data roaming charges for international travel and the shock people often experience when they return to their (sometimes HUGE) bill.  What the article doesn't mention is that the main reason for the exorbitant bills is simply that the telcos typically charge ridiculous prices for roaming data usage.  For example, Telecom NZ and Vodafone NZ charge $30 per megabyte and $10 per megabyte respectively for data roaming in the Cook Islands (prepaid prices as advertised on their websites on 5th November 2012).  If they didn't charge so much people wouldn't be so shocked at their bills!  In comparison Zenbu charges only 30 cents per megabyte for data usage in the Cook Islands and we are hopeful that we can lower that price even further in the near future!

Speaking of mobile data usage, a breakdown of current usage of our service by different mobile devices follows.  Sure enough, since the iPad was released the market share of iOS has increased quite dramatically.  Guess that is what happens when you create a product that sells millions in the first few months after release!  About 38% of visits to our website are now by mobile devices, up from about 10% a little more than a year ago.

The following is the current breakdown (during the last month):

Device type	Percentage of users
Android	36.3%
iPhone	34.4%
iPad	19.2%
iPod	8.7%
Blackberry	0.6%
Symbian	0.4%
Others (PSP, Windows etc) combined	less than 1%

In total we have now had over 6.4 million connections and a whopping 205,916,105 megabytes of data has been transmitted via our network of hotspots!  That is over 200,000 gigabytes (about 200 terabytes)!

In more news we have a new member of our team here at Zenbu HQ.  Hayden started with us at the beginning of October.  He has hit the ground running and is doing a good job.  It's nice to have another pair of capable hands to help with things here.  So a warm welcome to Hayden.  Please be nice to him if you are in contact, at least while he settles in!  8-)

Okay until next time I hope all is well out there.  Enjoy the beginning of summer.  It's already great to score the odd bit of daylight savings sunshine after a long day on the computers.

Regards,

The Zenbu Team.


Published: 06 November 2012
http://news.zenbu.net.nz/2012/11/new-team-member-australia-availability.html

Hi everyone,

Well the shadows are getting longer and this morning felt downright wintery (although to be fair after a recent trip to Rarotonga to sort out some things up in the Cook Islands most NZ days feel a bit wintery) so after what feels like a short (non-existent?) summer apparently autumn is nearly here, certainly officially anyway.

Firstly as a follow up to my previous post regarding forced automatic Skype updates I'm happy to report that since making the changes mentioned I haven't had a Skype update forced upon me.  Perhaps this is simply due to Skype not thinking their recent updates were worthy of forcing upon people or maybe (hopefully) the solutions suggested to stop the forced updates actually work.  So at this stage I can report that the modifications may work and Skype is still fully usable (and there have definitely been updates to Skype for both Mac and PC since the "fix" was implemented).  So far so good on that front.

Now while on the topic of software automatically updating itself without warning I'd like to mention another common culprit that many people don't often think about - web browsers.  It is understandable that updates to web browsers are fairly regular, but it is still a bit annoying that a few of the most commonly used web browsers (including my personal favourite Google Chrome) will by default update themselves automatically in the background without explicit authorization from the user to do so.  What's more (at least in the case of Google Chrome) it is not always easy to stop such updates from occurring.  So in case anyone else is keen to try to maintain some control over when and what software changes are made on their computers/devices I'll provide a few tips on disabling automatic updates in the common browsers (valid at the time of writing).  Warning:  as is often the case if you want to successfully deviate from the path of least resistance things can get a bit tricky.

Google Chrome (reference):

On a Mac:  In a terminal window execute 'defaults write com.google.Keystone.Agent checkInterval 0'.

On a PC:  Set the registry value of  HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Google\Update\AutoUpdateCheckPeriodMinutes
to the REG_SZ (string) value of "0"

Firefox (reference):

1. At the top of the Firefox window, click on the Firefox button (Tools menu in Windows XP) and then click Options.  2. Click the Advanced panel.  3. Click the Update tab.  The auto-update options are displayed and can be modified.

Internet Explorer:

Disable automatic Windows updates.  Anyone using Internet Explorer on a Mac (seriously?) is on their own and can surely work Google!

Safari:

On a Mac:  Disable within 'Software update' settings (just click on 'apple' -> 'Software update').  I recommend disabling all automatic software updates as OSX generally has fairly frequent, large software updates (iTunes, iPhoto, system software etc).

Sorry if that is all a bit technical and please be aware that I'm not attempting to provide complete instructions for all browsers on all operating systems, more just a prompt to make people aware that their web browsers will often automatically update themselves without explicit authorization at the time of the update.  This can be frustrating not only because it uses bandwidth but also because it can make plugins, apps etc unusable.  Hopefully the above instructions are helpful and of interest to at least some people.

Now because this post is already pretty long I'll just give a brief update of a few happenings at Zenbu HQ.  We have now had over 4.3 million connections in total and on average there are nearly 10,000 connections a day!  We also have our first [trial] hotspot online in Australia (hi Mangrove Yoga!).  We have had numerous requests from Aussies over the years hoping to use our wireless system over there (mostly after experiencing it firsthand while in New Zealand) and if the initial trial works well we will hopefully make the Zenbu system widely available in Australia during the coming months.  Oh yes, and we have nearly 1000 hotspots online now, a milestone that should be reached in the next few months.

Okay that's about it from HQ for now.  Enjoy the remaining few weeks of daylight savings (summer really did go quickly!).

[PS. This guy should definitely have used Zenbu for internet access in the Cook Islands.  It would have saved him over $2000!]

Regards,

The Zenbu Team. Published: 28 February 2012
http://news.zenbu.net.nz/2012/02/some-updates-automatic-and-other.html

Hi everyone,

Well it's been a while since the last post and we've been very busy at Zenbu HQ.  We now have over 870 Zenbu Wi-Fi hotspots throughout New Zealand and the Cook Islands.  That is over 120 new locations that have joined the Zenbu network since back in July.  We also had our 3 millionth connection on the 15th September 2011 and are already close to 3.5 million only a couple of months later!

Now I'd like to quickly bring up something that has annoyed me for a while - automatic, forced, Skype updates (have there recently been more updates than usual?).  There is no longer any way to disable automatic updates within the Skype software itself and Skype forces updates on their users at fairly regular intervals.  And it apparently isn't only me this annoys.  There seems to be an ever growing chorus of discontent out there.  Not only do the automatic updates use bandwidth but I don't like any programs running on my computer to download or install updates without my explicit approval (at the time of the specific update).  For Skype in particular I preferred the user interface of some of the earlier versions and would like to continue using them.

So what can you do about it?  Sadly the solution is a bit geeky but apparently blocking access to ui.skype.com (204.9.163.158) in your firewall will stop Skype from being able to automatically update itself [see the link above].  I have only recently implemented this myself (after the most recent forced automatic Skype update - the straw that broke the camel's back!) so I cannot yet confirm that it works, but Skype still apparently works fine after making the change and if future automatic updates are blocked I'll be a happy camper.  Fingers crossed.  I also wonder if putting a '127.0.0.1 ui.skype.com' in the 'hosts' file would be sufficient?  [Note that 'conn.skype.com' and 'ui.skype.akadns.net' also resolve to '204.9.163.158']

While on the topic of software, a handy little program for sharing a single internet connection between multiple devices that I have used a bit recently is Connectify.  Basically it allows a (Windows) computer to act as a Wi-Fi hotspot.  So, for example, you could connect to Zenbu on the computer running Connectify then connect your other devices to the signal coming from the computer.  This is a handy way to use more than one device simultaneously with a single user account.  This method also allows devices that can't login to the Zenbu system on their own (eg. they don't have a web browser etc) to access the internet and can also be used to share a mobile broadband (cellular) data connection with devices (such as iPads) that don't have USB ports to which you could connect a USB mobile broadband data stick.

Before I sign off I'd also like to mention the continued growth of Android.  In the last month Android has comprised 5.8% of total visits to our website (and 39% of mobile visits).  Mobile devices now account for 14.2% of visits to our website up from 9.5% in July 2011.  Google certainly seems to be onto a winner with Android!

Nice that daylight savings is well underway and the long warm evenings of summer are with us.  Enjoy.

Regards,

The Zenbu Team. Published: 17 November 2011
http://news.zenbu.net.nz/2011/11/some-bits-and-bobs-skype-updates.html

Hi everyone, Published: 20 July 2011
http://news.zenbu.net.nz/2011/07/updated-mobile-usage-stats.html

Hi everyone,
Published: 06 May 2011
http://news.zenbu.net.nz/2011/05/another-busy-summer-and-some-peer-to.html

Hi everyone, Published: 01 October 2010
http://news.zenbu.net.nz/2010/10/gst-changes-more-connections-and-over.html

Hi everyone,

Device type	Percentage of users
iPod	37.6%
iPhone	24.6%
Symbian (Nokia etc)	18.0%
iPad (not even officially on sale in NZ yet)	7.9%
Android	7.5%
Blackberry	2.1%
Windows Mobile	1.5%
Others (PSP etc) combined	less than 1%

So there's some info on our mobile users. I expect we will continue to see usage by mobile devices increase and it'll be interesting to watch the changes in the types of devices people are using. Apple is certainly dominant in the category at this stage!

I'd also like to quickly thank all our hard working servers for working so tirelessly, reliably and without any complaints! Although they probably don't appreciate the gratitude, they really do a good job humming away in the Maxnet data centre 24/7 keeping the Zenbu service running smoothly. Thanks to them (and I guess their managers deserve some credit too!) the Zenbu website has been available 99.996% of 2010. The only downtime was the scheduled server maintenance back in January. So good job servers! Published: 19 July 2010
http://news.zenbu.net.nz/2010/07/improved-mobile-website-now-live.html

Hi everyone, Published: 09 June 2010
http://news.zenbu.net.nz/2010/06/few-new-things-and-some-milestones.html

Hi everyone, Published: 12 November 2009
http://news.zenbu.net.nz/2009/11/making-it-bit-easier-to-find-things.html

Hi everyone, Published: 21 August 2009
http://news.zenbu.net.nz/2009/08/zenbu-cook-islands.html

Hi everyone, Published: 29 May 2009
http://news.zenbu.net.nz/2009/05/pago-lots-of-new-zones-and-some-new.html

Hi everyone, Published: 27 April 2009
http://news.zenbu.net.nz/2009/04/record-payments-to-our-zone-operators.html

Hi everyone, Published: 14 January 2009
http://news.zenbu.net.nz/2009/01/some-street-view-and-record-payouts.html

Hi everyone,

It's been a while since the last update but there are a few things we think are worth mentioning.

First, each of the last 3 months has been an improvement on the previous record for customers using the Zenbu wireless network. In October we paid out a record total of $4000.61 to our zone operators. That's up from only $2396.68 in July. It's very satisfying to have so many people using the system. The current maximum number of simultaneous users that we've seen online is 94, which is certainly quite a crowd!

This growth means we'll be adding more servers over the coming months to provide an even more reliable service and allow for continued expansion. We already have quite a collection of servers, that can comfortably handle the current load, but we're very happy to have plenty of redundancy and capacity so the Zenbu service will continue to be as robust as possible. If we are making any changes that might impact service we will post the information on our website.

Some of you may have noticed already but we have recently added a Live Chat option to our contact page. This allows people to contact us without having to call and without needing to be able to check their email. Hopefully it will be accessible to everyone, even those not able to login to use the internet, but if you experience any problems using the service please let us know. If the trial goes well Live Chat should become a permanent feature.

I'd also like to mention the new Zenbu search application which runs on the Apple iPhone. For details please see http://wiki.zenbu.co.nz/index.php/IPhone. It's great to have all that info in your pocket with no need to pay data charges. A Windows Mobile version should be available sometime in the future. Good job developing it Sammy!

Well, we welcome all the new zone operators who have signed up to provide Zenbu wireless service over the last couple of months. It is very nice to continually see new zones popping up on the map!

Until next time thanks for using Zenbu.

Regards,

The Zenbu Team Published: 17 November 2008
http://news.zenbu.net.nz/2008/11/more-records-fall-by-wayside.html

Hi everyone,

Well the horrible weather throughout most of the country for most of July apparently kept people inside using the internet. We made record payments to our zone operators of $2396.68 in July. On top of this, many more people used access vouchers obtained from the operators of our wireless zones for access. So there was certainly a lot of internet use in July! It is very satisfying to see so many people happily using our wireless system.

During July we also reached the mini-milestone of 200 zones deployed and online. We are still growing very quickly with much of the growth due to the very positive word of mouth we receive from our customers. Thanks to everyone who uses the Zenbu system and especially to those of you who have told others about it. It's nice to see the map of New Zealand so well covered with Zenbu markers.

On the developmental side of things, you may have noticed some new functions we have added to the zone administration page. You can now provide free access to certain websites and can also use your own website as the page people see once they've connected to the internet. It is also possible to 'hide' your zone. This will remove it from the map and list of our zones. These functions are listed as 'Premium' services on the administration page. In the future there may be an additional charge for using some or all of these functions, but for now they are available free of charge.

A new payment option has also been added. People can now use American Express credit cards when purchasing credit online.

Well that's about it from Zenbu HQ. Hopefully we'll see the sun again sometime in August!

Regards,

The Zenbu Team Published: 01 August 2008
http://news.zenbu.net.nz/2008/08/record-month-of-payments-to-zone.html

Hi everyone,

Another function has just been added to our website.

People often want a list of our zone locations which they can take with them. Well, now you can easily create and download a PDF list directly from our website. This is great for printing and giving to people and for people to save to their own computers so they can look up our zone locations when they are away from an internet connection.

Both the address and the GPS coordinates of zones are provided, so high-tech travelers carrying GPS devices can find the zone by coordinates (if they think our New Zealand addresses are a bit difficult to work with). Other contact details for the zone are also provided.

You can also search for zones in a particular location and save this sub-list. If you're going on holiday to Paihia (for example), just display the zones in Paihia, then save the PDF list to your computer or print it out and take your pick from the list when you get there.

The lists are updated daily, so will always be up to date.

You can try this new function on our zones list page.

Regards,

The Zenbu Team Published: 17 April 2008
http://news.zenbu.net.nz/2008/04/pdf-list-of-zones-and-bit-more-search.html

Hello everyone,

Another quick update on happenings here at Zenbu HQ.

Well, it seems that every month we are setting records for payments to zone operators. Last month we paid a total of $1746.04 and on top of this zone operators sold a lot of their own access vouchers! It is very satisfying to see lots of payments being made to our zone operators as it means more and more people are using the Zenbu Wireless Network. And we're still growing very quickly. In just the last month we have added another dozen zones. This time last year we only had a dozen zones in total!

A minor function which has been added recently is the ability to add access codes as friends of a zone. This means the access code will have free internet access. This may be useful for venues wanting to provide unlimited internet access for a limited time (conferences, special customers etc). Just create the access code as always, then add it as a friend on your zone administration page and give it to the person you want to have unlimited internet access. When you want to stop the unrestricted internet access, simply delete the access code from the system or remove it as a friend. We hope at least some of you find this function helpful. (Thank you Simon for the suggestion.)

As always, if you have any requests for new functions please let us know. We listen closely to feedback and requests from customers and most requests make it onto the ever-expanding planning board.

Regards,

The Zenbu Team Published: 11 April 2008
http://news.zenbu.net.nz/2008/04/adding-access-codes-as-friends.html

Hello everyone,

Just a quick note to let all zone operators know that we now have waterproof outdoor stickers available. These are designed to be added to your existing signage to help advertise your Zenbu wireless internet system.

There are two sizes available, the larger is 25.5cm x 14cm and the smaller is 9.1cm square. Both are printed on UV resistant, waterproof vinyl suitable for being displayed outdoors.

[ 255mm x 140mm ] [ 91mm x 91mm ]

If you would like some of these stickers to use at your zone, please send us an email and we will post some out to you.

We have also been asked by several zone operators whether there are any instructions available that they can put in their rooms to help people connect to the internet. Connection instructions have been available on our website for some time, but were obviously too well-hidden for many people to find. There is now a more prominent link to the connection instructions on the zone administration page.

Please let us know if you'd like some stickers or still have difficulty finding or printing the instructions for connecting to the internet.

Regards,

The Zenbu Team Published: 28 February 2008
http://news.zenbu.net.nz/2008/02/zenbu-stickers-and-instructions-for.html

Hello everyone,

As of February 15th 2008 all prices advertised on the Zenbu website include GST. This means that rather than 10 cents per MB being received from customers who use the Zenbu wireless system, we now receive only 8.89 cents (10 cents less GST). As a consequence, 50% of the payment we receive is now 4.44 cents per megabyte. Usage and payments to zone operators occurring after February 15th 2008 will reflect this change.

If you operate a Zenbu wireless zone and you are registered for GST, please save your GST number on your zone administration page and you will continue to receive payments from us which include the GST component of payments we receive from customers.

Prior to February 15th 2008 Zenbu Networks Limited was not GST registered. Hence no GST was collected on payments we received, and the full amount (5 cents per MB) was passed on to all of our zone operators.

We look forward to our new role as unpaid tax collectors for New Zealand's Inland Revenue Department and hope the government spends the money we diligently collect for them wisely. 8-)

At least this change is due to the popularity of the Zenbu wireless network and it is very satisfying to see both our turnover and the number of satisfied customers increasing so rapidly. Thank you everyone for helping make the Zenbu concept a success.

Regards,

The Zenbu Team Published: 25 February 2008
http://news.zenbu.net.nz/2008/02/taxing-change-to-payments.html

Hello everyone,

Just a quick post to let you know that we have added an often requested new function. That is, the ability to delete existing access vouchers. This function was initially removed to stop people accidentally deleting access vouchers which had already been given to customers (and the ensuing problems that caused!) but we have since received numerous requests for this capability so it is back by popular demand, albeit in a slightly different format.

On your voucher administration page, click on the voucher you would like to delete to bring up the voucher's details. On the voucher's details page click the delete voucher link. This will delete the voucher from the system and it will no longer be visible to you or usable by customers.

Please just make sure that you don't delete vouchers which customers are still trying to use!

Regards,

The Zenbu Team Published: 19 February 2008
http://news.zenbu.net.nz/2008/02/minor-new-development.html

Hello everyone,

As you may be aware, on Wednesday 23rd January we upgraded our servers and increased capacity in our data centre. We should now be able to expand the size of our network significantly (an estimated 50-100 times its current size) before we need to further increase capacity.

Everything went relatively smoothly during the upgrade, but there were some issues with one of our new switches which slowed our website and interrupted service for many people on the night of the 23rd. We apologize for any inconvenience this caused.

The Zenbu network was back online at full speed on Thursday 24th January and is now working better than ever.

Today we received an email from a customer who has traveled around New Zealand and has loved using the Zenbu wireless network to access the internet throughout his trip. Here is an excerpt:

"... We're off now until we get to the Law Courts Hotel in Dunedin, as they also advertise Zenbu, and confirm that it is working. As you may have guessed, Zenbu access is the main reason for shortlisting an accommodation as we tour NZ. Pity you don't have it in OZ, as we fly there from NZ on 27th Feb. Still, we can look forward to a few more days of painless internet..."

Thanks very much for the email and thanks everyone for the great feedback. It is very encouraging to know that our efforts are indeed being appreciated by so many people, both those providing wireless internet access and their customers using it.

Regards,

The Zenbu Team Published: 04 February 2008
http://news.zenbu.net.nz/2008/02/server-upgrade-complete-and-some-nice.html

Hello everyone,

Later this afternoon (Wednesday January 23rd, 2008) we will be upgrading our servers and moving them into a bigger cabinet in the Maxnet data centre.

During this upgrade, which is scheduled for between 12:00 and 14:00, there will be periods during which the Zenbu wireless service is unavailable. All going to plan, these interruptions will be very brief and will hopefully not even be noticed. However, please be aware that it is likely there will be disruptions to the service during this time. Full service should be restored by 14:00.

Why are we making these changes? After the upgrade, we will have more space to expand in the future, increased physical server security, a faster connection between our own servers and increased reliability of the Zenbu service overall. You may not notice these improvements, but the already super reliable Zenbu service will have become even more robust.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and thank you for using the Zenbu wireless service.

Regards,

The Zenbu Team Published: 23 January 2008
http://news.zenbu.net.nz/2008/01/scheduled-server-maintenance-and.html

Hello everyone and happy 2008 to you all.

2007 was a year of rapid growth during which Zenbu went from near-zero to being the single most popular wireless system available at accommodation providers in New Zealand. Our network now stretches from Kaitaia in the north to Invercargill in the south and is available at many places in between. Thanks very much to all our zone operators and happy customers who love the ease-of-use and affordability of the Zenbu Wireless System.

We intend to continue growing rapidly during 2008 and have many new features and developments already filling our drawing board.

All the best for 2008.

The Zenbu Team. Published: 15 January 2008
http://news.zenbu.net.nz/2008/01/happy-new-year.html