In March NCF, had 14,517 active member accounts. As a volunteer community organization, NCF continued to be well supported by the IT industry with hardware and with software donations, often older used equipment as companies upgraded to newer hardware. For example, in March 1999, Hardware Canada Computing donated a Horizon UltraSparc III UNIX Workstation valued at more than Cdn$8,500. This new computer offered more capabilities than any other that the organization had at the time and was employed as a server to consolidate mail, webserver, and web-mail services. Other examples include Newbridge Networks donating two Sparc10 workstations, a 20-port Xyplex MX-1620 terminal server, and some GeoRim/Es 8-port 10/100 high-speed ethernet switches, while Netscape Communications donated the latest version of their Suite-Spot server software. Nevertheless, the organization's equipment was aging faster than it was being replaced. One report noted that "Three of our four terminal servers were built