System IV
Current Status: Online
This article was last updated on: March 14th 2023
System IV in July 2020, recently relocated to Charlie's house.
"Ian wants to make an SQL based login system. However, it seems that this is his version of the Willemstan Chronicles."
- Charlie on a possible security upgrade for Willemstan, 08/14/21.
"System I was obviously not a good idea. System II was just the same thing waiting to happen again. So yeah we made a separate thing that wasn’t on a school computer but still accessible from school to store all our crap and put computer viruses and such on."
- Charlie in the Willemstan Documentary on the creation of System IV.
Lore
System IV was created on October 9th of 2019. After System III was established on Google Drive, the plan was to continue the development of a Willemstan File Service application. That way, System IV could eventually be established using its own Willemstan-engineered network system. However, it ended up being more practical to create System IV in the room of the WHS Robotics Team, after the team received some old-ish but capable computers. System IV was established on one of the robotics computers as an FTP server. This allowed System IV to be online continuously as its very own server, and to have an almost limitless amount of storage dedicated to it. As a result of this move, work on the WFS application was de-prioritized and later discontinued. Due to the fact that System IV was not hosted on a school computer, the IT Men had little authoritative power over the server while it was in the school. This also meant it bypassed the restrictions and slowness of school software and violated minimal school rules, at least compared to the previous System folders.
Ever since its creation, System IV has been an integral part of Willemstan. It was and is still used for many Willemstan operations. Previously, you were able to access System IV by going to the network section in file explorer, and then to "BEEPBOOP1", but only if you were connected to school internet. Eventually, the free-to-use Microsoft IIS (Internet Information Services) was used to host a FTP site so that you could access System IV with any device on school internet. A wireless adapter pulled from an old iMac was also added to the computer so that the folder was hosted on both the WiFi and wired network, which are 2 separate access points in the school. It was hoped that eventually we would be able to bypass some network security and enable port forwarding for the FTP, but that ultimately proved unnecessary, because today you can access System IV at any time by going to this FTP link. This is because the computer had to be moved out of WHS during the summer of 2020.
The Server Itself
The server is a modified small Dell Optiplex computer from about 2012. It was heavily used in a business environment until they upgraded their computers in the summer of 2019. It ran Windows 7, but has since been upgraded to run a legally licensed copy of Windows 10 Home. The operating system is highly optimized. During the 1st IT Man Raid on the Robotics Room, System IV suffered damage due to their negligence. The Ethernet cable was ripped out improperly, causing critical damage to the Ethernet port. As a result, Charlie took the computer home that weekend and made several modifications. The loss of the Ethernet cable was made up for by installing a small antenna. Furthermore, Charlie made several security additions to the server, in order to prevent the IT Men from accessing it. A physical key was added to the computer to replace the power button, as well as a bike lock to prevent access to the internals. The normal power button and indicator lights were detached so that observers could not tell when the server is running.
Since moving to Charlie's House, System IV used to do backsups to an external hard drive weekly in case of failure of the main HDD, which has probably been running for far more hours than it has been designed to. Backups were eventually cancelled and the backup disk was turned into more storage space. All the hard drives are cheap 2.5 inch repurposed laptop and desktop hard disks, with 500 GB. This HDD holds System IV and the files used to run the server, although those cannot be accessed over the internet. File compression is used on some parts of System IV to increase maximum storage space, and folders are spread over multiple disks. Although FTP is an old and insecure protocol, it is used because Microsoft makes free and reliable FTP-hosting software for Windows, and FTP is basically supported on any device.
System IV as of November 2022.
Security
Due to the fact that System IV is available to anyone with the FTP link, there are many (weak) security measures. For one, the SuS Premium Discord tokens haven't been stored on System IV since the summer of 2020, in order to prevent another incident. Since the discovery of Willemstan.com in March of 2021 by the Williamston High School administration, the Willemstan Wiki and System IV have had a permissions overhaul. It has been made impossible to access System IV in any form without being logged in. Basic credentials are a username of "Willemstan" and a password of "GloryToSystemIV". It is recommended you use Filezilla or some other server viewing tool to access System IV. We have made several videos on how to access System IV, which you can find in #notifications in the Willemstan Discord Server.
Charlie and Ian talking about the login system in the System IV group chat.
Contents
As of January 19th of 2021, System IV has reached over 393 gigabytes in size, making it the largest System folder by far. Here is a list of its contents:
- "ARCHIVES/" - Contains an archive of the Silly Goose videos that were pulled from public view during the March Incident. In September of 2021, the entire Chris Armour YouTube channel was archived to this directory.
- "EXTMEDIA/" - A folder that links to other system drives, such as another HDD partition and the computer’s DVD drive. This folder is not restricted but some devices do not know how to interface with it. Usually, it is empty.
- "MediaPool/" - This is the folder that contains all of the files collected by SuS Premium, and is the largest folder by far. It automatically deletes older files to prevent the entire hard drive from being filled up, and as a result, this creates a lot of fluctuation in System IV's file size. However, this folder has not been actively updated since shortly after the discontinuation of SuS Premium.
- "MOVIES/" - Willemstan's collection of pirated films.
- "PRIVATE/" - Contains various hidden documents, such as FTP access logs and some other things. This folder is heavily restricted.
- "PROGRAMS/" - Contains applications that you can download from System IV, and some installed to the server. Hidden but kept around for compatibility reasons.
- "PUBLIC/" - Pretty much an anarchy folder, where anyone can upload and remove files inside of it. Sometimes used as a storage space for Charlie & Ian projects. Stored on a seperate 500GB hard disk. No longer actually public since the March Incident.
- "ROBOTICS/" - A folder where all things robotics are stored. If you aren't a member of the WHS Robotics Team, this folder is pretty much useless to you.
- "SUS/" - A folder for SuS bot source code and data.
- "WEBSITE/" - This is the folder where the Willemstan Wiki is hosted. This folder is read-only for non-developers.
- Everything from System III is scattered throughout System IV, mostly in the PUBLIC/ directory.
Space Issues
On October 20th of 2020, it was reported by Charlie that System IV was filling up its storage rapidly and may require an upgrade soon. This was probably due to all of the Mediapool files. Charlie had up to 2.75 terabytes to spare in terms of space from other drives. On January 19th of 2021, Charlie finally added another hard drive to the System IV computer, resolving the space issues for now. Shortly after the PUBLIC folder was migrated to the new hard drive. The MOVIES folder was migrated there as well, on June 7th of 2021. With the MediaPool/ directory mostly discontinued, it is unlikely that there will ever be space issues again.
2021 Reconfiguration
Following the events of the March Incident, in which Charlie, Ian, and Sean were prosecuted by the administration over Live Camera Feed: Season Two, the Silly Goose YouTube Channel, and other various things, Charlie reconfigured System IV. He made the PUBLIC/ folder no longer public, and implemented a mandatory login for the entire website, instead of just a few folders of System IV. Nothing is viewable without logging in now, as we do not want the administration to see anything on System IV.