



We've completed the backend server upgrade successfully. Performance should be much improved for the messaging, and we've done a couple of updates which are detailed below.

The team has also made some important advances with the vpn, which is now being tested by Unseen users and also done some preliminary testing with the distributed server. In the near future, we'll have a number of trusted nodes, run by partners in various parts of the world and also open up the network to allow people like you to run your own private networks. We think that's the ultimate in privacy and control over your data. Read below to find out more about this exciting vision. Premium lifetime Unseen members will get first crack at testing this new system. Greetings,We've completed the backend server upgrade successfully. Performance should be much improved for the messaging, and we've done a couple of updates which are detailed below. Server Upgrade



This was completed several weeks ago and things have now had a chance to settle down. If you login with a browser, you should completely clear the cache and then go to the Unseen.is home page and hold down the shift key and click on the reload page icon in your browser. That will ensure you have the latest code that's compatible with this new back end server.

We're delighted with the performance of this server, it's based on Mongoose (used by many of the largest messaging services). All the encryption and security is done by your client, so the security is unaffected. Performance is much better, with a lot less server lag time. This means you shouldn't have as many issues logging in, unless you are in a "bandwidth challenged" location. Since the upgrade two and a half weeks ago, the number of people actively on the system at one time have almost doubled. We'd call that a success.

With this server upgrade, we have also fixed a number of bugs:

Lost message in group chat when reconnect should be fixed Online/offline status now updating correctly Notifications for unread messages in group chat should work Offline group notifications should work via email Status of user is offline after updating profile should now be fixed Add/remove an offline user in group, that should work now Accept/deny request bug The "Need Hint" button for the passphrase should work Disable: multiple login, auto connect in group chat Added feature: n2n file sharing for premium users We removed: community link, those aren't working since the server upgrade, we hope to have communities back in the future We've seen a few reports of connection problems, chat time stamp issues, etc. Please report any issues to support@unseen.is

Visit Unseen.is HERE This was completed several weeks ago and things have now had a chance to settle down. If you login with a browser, you should completely clear the cache and then go to the Unseen.is home page and hold down the shift key and click on the reload page icon in your browser. That will ensure you have the latest code that's compatible with this new back end server. The Future of Unseen is P2P!



One thing we've learned being based in Iceland is there are definitely positives and negatives to being isolated. While our user's data enjoys a lot of freedom, getting it there and back isn't always smooth due to disruptions in the communication lines to the island. The best solution to this problem is to distribute the network to many places and to empower you to have greater control over your communications and data/content. This should eventually give you your own private network and complete control over everything.

We divide the tasks our network needs to perform into three general categories:

1. Signaling - finding people and things and helping them talk to each other 2. Relaying - hauling bits around on the network 3. Storage - retaining data for messages/calls that can't be completed at the moment (i.e. voicemail)

These things are now handled by our central servers in Iceland. Network performance issues getting there and back are apparent issues and to fix this problem, we'll start to distribute the network, beginning with a test of our own trusted node servers.

We'll get a bit technical here because the results are pretty astounding. One of these tiny cube computers could serve up to 500K people!! (if you have a good internet connection) The servers we'll be using are the same as the small and very efficient computers we've been using ourselves, the Gigabyte Brix cube. here's a photo:



This box measure about 10 cm on a side and is about 7cm tall. Inside is a 4 core i7 processor running at 3.9Ghz and we've added 16GB of RAM and a 240GB SSD card for storage. You can get this in the US for under $900 from Amazon, which is quite amazing.

Here are the results of the initial load testing of the core Unseen servers and this cube:

- *500.000* active users - User arrival rate: 1000 users / sec - Message rate: *20.000* msg / sec - Transaction: 40.000 trans / sec - Bandwidth: 35Mbps

Nearly any size group could support their own private network from this kind of system. This would form the basis for trusted nodes and all the computers who connect onto this private network could also connect with the Unseen public net. These people would in turn also provide signaling and relaying capabilities for the network (only if they wanted to do this) as untrusted nodes. These nodes could make a very important contribution towards the future because they will become the basis for anti-blocking.

If you are interested in helping us to test this new exciting aspect of Unseen, please contact support@unseen.is. Preference will be given to Premium account holders, those in geographically interesting areas and those with sysadmin / Unix backgrounds.

We'll have a blog post up shortly that will describe this in more detail. One thing we've learned being based in Iceland is there are definitely positives and negatives to being isolated. While our user's data enjoys a lot of freedom, getting it there and back isn't always smooth due to disruptions in the communication lines to the island. The best solution to this problem is to distribute the network to many places and to empower you to have greater control over your communications and data/content. This should eventually give you your own private network and complete control over everything. Go Premium Now!

Now is a great time to upgrade to premium, if you haven't had a chance to do this yet. Premium members get a number of benefits:

- More storage for email and messages (2GB vs. 100MB) - Larger group calls (more participants) - Generate and save your own keys - First look at new features like vpn and peer to peer services.

Go here to upgrade now.



That's it for this week, stay tuned for more news from Unseen.

Best Always,

The Unseen Team

