The squadron.org servers have been around for quite a while now. Originally made by AbsoluteK to allow EH members make EH websites without having to put up with adverts and spam from the providers, it has expanded into one of the most important things in the EH. The features grew to allow EH members to have e-mail addresses, mailing lists, and when it merged with the Internet Office it grew even more with a IRC server and Half-Life CS servers.

What is your position in squadron.org? What are your other positions in the EH?

I’m the systems administrator of the squadron.org server. I’m the command attaché to the EH Internet office in the EH. I’m also in the BHG and CD. But I don’t do anything in those subgroups anymore (I’m surprised they haven’t AWOL’d me yet).

Who else works for squadron.org?

Well, the AD TurtleXiV helps me occasionally with administration, but for the most part squadron.org is my responsibility.

Why was squadron.org created?

Well, I hate banner ads, as I’m sure most people on the internet do also. I thought, since I have a fast college internet connection, a static IP and an extra computer to use for a server I can host a domain, and websites for the EH.

How much of the running of squadron.org do you take part in?

About 99%. I like to do everything myself so that I know what is going on at all times with my server.

Is this not just some feature of the Internet Office? How involved is the office in the running of squadron.org?

Well, I started the squadron.org hosting service about 4 months before I actually got involved with the IO. The IO site has had integrated into it the hosting services that I offered before I joined the IO. Web hosting has become an integral part of the Internet Office since I joined, and I would like to keep it that way for as long as possible.

No offence, but as a squadron.org user for many of your features, I’ve noticed it going down quite a few times lately. Is this because of it crashing regularly or is it some other reason?

Well, I had some problems with my web server. It had a fairly large memory leak in it, so I had to take it down and replace it. Which caused further problems, but things should be settled down now. I’m not going to do anything radical with the squadron.org setup anymore unless it’s absolutely needed.

Are there any more features planned for users to get from squadron.org?

Well, I’m working on developing a counter / statistics program in PHP that will allow EH webmasters to get statistics on the visitors to their websites. Things such as, how many hits, type of browser, country code domains (such as .ca, .co.uk, .au etc…) have visited your site. This will work by putting a <img> call to a PHP file that outputs an image to a users website with the number of hits. It will be available to EH webmasters even if they don’t have a site hosted on my web server.

Are there any restrictions on what you put on a website, or post on a mailing list?

Lately, there has been quite a boost in websites using your webspace, with the IO, msgboards, other important sites, and even our lowly magazine using your servers. Are you quite proud of how important squadron.org has become to the EH?

Yes, I’ve made my mark in the EH by doing what I can do best. I’m not a great pilot, and I don’t have any of the non-flightsim games that are played by the EH.

When it’s working, you now have HL Counter-Strike servers running? Are you planning on expanding into any other games (like SW games!!!)?

Well, the problem is that there aren’t any good SW modifications for HL, or any other game for that matter that would run on my server. Certainly if Lucas Arts decided to make a game which had a free Linux server available, I’d look into supporting it if there was demand.

Alright, an EH member has a website, mailing list, e-mail address (and all the other stuff) from you. If they have any problems, or need help on how to do anything, what help do they get, and how do they get their questions answered?

Well, there are several ways to get help. I can be contacted via Email (absolute@squadron.org), on IRC (I usually use the nick name “absolutek”), or they can try asking other EH’ers (sometimes the problems aren’t even related to my server).

If an EH member had some ideas on how to improve squadron.org (like new ideas), would they be able to get into contact with anyone and suggest them? If so, who and how should it be done?