MIS Newsletter - Important! Fall 2006 0. Technical Money Saving Update 1. Mailman Web Mail 2. New Wireless Locations 3. Seasonal Accounts 4. 1-500 dial-up numbers 5. Dial-up back-up for broadband customers 6. New Staff Updates 0. Technical Money Saving Update One thing that has been on my mind recently with the bad weather is electricity. We've stayed pretty busy during recent storms, carting generators around, checking on things, and repairing things. We all take electricity for granted until we have to start generating it ourselves. In addition to having reliable power, conserving power is also important to us. Conservation keeps our eletrical bill reasonable and keeps the battery backups and generators in service longer. It also means less cooling problems, less air conditioning, and a greener business. This tip will save you some money. Get a Kill-a-watt from a retailer or online. This is an inexpensive electrical power meter that plugs into the wall and provides a receptacle for metering. For something that runs 24 hours a day, each watt of power will cost $0.12/month (Assuming $0.17 per kwh) Some island locations will be much more costly. Thus something that uses 100w will cost an estimated $12 a month to run 24x7. (Watts/1000*24*30*rate) was the formula used if you want to do math. If your computer is a couple years old and is used a great deal, upgrading now may save you lots of power and money. New computer processors like the AMD64 series and the Intel Core2 are vastly more efficient than older AMD Athlon or Intel Pentium3/4 series computers. Older computer designs hit a brick wall where the faster the computer went, the hotter it became. New processors are built with power conservation as a major selling feature. An old computer might use 160 watts and a new one might use 60, saving $12/month per computer if you have it on 24x7 like us. Take the kill-a-watt with you next time you shop for a computer or electronics. Some computers can not be upgraded, others can have the motherboard and processor upgraded by a computer technician at reduced expense. We've been upgrading the parts in a few machines here at MIS just for the power savings. 1. Mailman Web Mail Sometimes our customers need to check their email when they're away from home, or away from their regular computer. In an effort to make sure you can get at your email, Midcoast Internet has offered a web-based email program for years. Some of you may remember our old "Mail Spinner" program. That software was replaced by our current Endymion "MailMan" system. (You'll find the link to the system on the midcoast.com home page.) The purpose of MailMan is for quick, occasional mail checks. It's not designed to be a day in/day out mail program. If you're in a cyber-cafe in Hawaii, and you want to check your mail, then by all means use Mail Man. Likewise, if you're at someone else's house and need to check mail. But please don't rely on Mail Man as your only email program. It's just not robust enough to use all the time. If you're using MailMan exclusively, please consider switching to a stand-alone mail program like Outlook Express, Eudora, or Thunderbird. These programs are much more "bullet proof," and offer many more options. We're also aware that even when used only occasionally, MailMan has a quirk; it will sometimes duplicate messages. We're aware of the problem and can fix it on an as needed basis. We've been looking into using a different web based email package for our servers, but even the replacement won't function like a good stand-alone email program will. We have found and installed a replacement web mail software for kona.midcoast.com/free.midcoast.com email addresses. It is called Squirrelmail and is linked off our homepage right under the MailMan icon. It has features like MailMan has such as the address book, and new features like spellcheck. This will replace MailMan for kona.midcoast.com/free.midcoast.com, and after the beginning of 2007, MailMan won't be available for kona.midcoast.com/free.midcoast.com addresses. At some point Squirrelmail will be available for the midcoast.com and lincoln.midcoast.com mailboxes. When that is available, a link will be placed on the homepage for it. To sum up... Use MailMan to check email remotely on occasion. Otherwise, another email application will serve you better, and make you happier. 2. New Wireless Locations We've been busy adding and improving our Wireless Broadband coverage during the summer and fall. We have added service at Hatchet Mountain in Hope. This provides additional service to Hope, Union, and parts of Lincolnville and Camden. We have also added a repeater in South Hope off Martzville road which provides non-line-of-sight to that area on both sides of route 17. We have added service to Monhegan island for the residents there. We have added service on Islesboro utilizing the school. We have also increased our capacity at the Dark Harbor repeater on the island. We are currently working with the town to better serve the north part of Islesboro. We have also built a repeater at Isle of Springs in Lincoln County. This can serve island residents, as well as some Southport and Westport customers. We have also upgraded Belfast. Everything has been redone for more speed and reliability at Perry's Nut House. The Green Store repeater also was replaced for a speed and reliability upgrade. This brings the addition of our platinum service to Belfast. North Haven also received an upgrade for platinum service for people north of the water tower. Benner Hill was also upgraded with a higher capacity link to our datacenter, and the equipment for platinum service has been increased there for more coverage and reliability. We also working on various general speed upgrades for existing customer links. 3. Seasonal Accounts At Midcoast Internet, we have many customers who are seasonal residents, and don't require year round Internet access in Maine. We also understand that there are times when, at the moment, you don't need an Internet account, but would like to come back to it after awhile. So, Midcoast Internet offers a Seasonal Lock program. It works like this... Midcoast Internet can put a temporary lock on your dial-up account at no charge. Your account is not charged while it is locked. When you would like the account open again, just give us a call. We can turn it back on very quickly. Your username and password stay the same, as does your account number. You need not fill out another registration form, and you don't have to pay the setup fee again! Some technical information: Locks are only available for dial-up accounts, and not dedicated connectivity accounts or web hosting. Locks are not available for customers on yearly contracts. Locks are applied for a minimum of 30 days. Please request your lock no more than 10 days in advance. While your account is locked, you are unable to access it for any reason. Therefore, web sites stored on your server space are not available; you cannot FTP files, check midcoast.com mail using web mail, or receive e-mail. We can forward your midcoast.com mail to another address for $5 per month. If you choose to not forward your mail, incoming messages will be deleted from our servers each evening. I.E., if your account is locked, someone can still send mail to that box, but you won't be able to reach it. The sender will not receive a message back from the mail server stating you account is locked. If you do have your mail forwarded, remember to ask us to remove the forward upon your return, or your mail will continue to go to the forwarded address. In summation, locking your account is a good idea if you are going away for the winter, away to school, or if your computer is out of service for at least a month. Consider having your mail forwarded. Ask us to delete old mail, or remove the forwarding address, upon your return to the Midcoast area. 4. 1-500 Dial-Up Numbers For many years, we've been using a system of toll free numbers--the 1-500 system. We have been phasing this system out for a year and a half. As modem usage on those numbers drop, we remove more and more lines, and add more lines to our system of local dial-up numbers. If you're still using a 1-500 number, please be aware that they are going away. Now is the time to move to a local number. The list of numbers is here: http://jet.midcoast.com:8078/dialup/bytown.php Instructions for changing the number are here: http://www.midcoast.com/2help/windows/changephone.html 5. Dial-up back-up for broadband customers This is just a reminder for you Wireless and DSL customers: All MIS broadband accounts come with free backup dial-up accounts. What's that mean? Well, it means if you ever have a problem with some of your equipment, you won't be totally shut off the Internet. Keep your old dial-up modem just in case. That way, if your DSL modem ever dies, or your router succumbs to a surge, you can still get to the Internet via dial-up. 6. New Staff Updates After almost 10 years with MIS, General Manager Mike Young decided he wanted to do something different. In working as his own General Contractor last fall while building his house, he decided he kinda liked it. So Mike has "retired" from MIS, and has taken to swinging a hammer. He still works for us occasionally, doing consulting/service on our billing software, so he's kicking around the office once or twice a month. Bill Batty, Jr. has taken over the majority of Mike's duties, and has taken the role of Customer Manager. Bill is still keeping most of his former duties from the P/R and Marketing side, but he's also now who you'll speak to if you have a billing question. Bill can be reached at extension 106. Peter Tyler has been hired on as full time Tech Support. Pete (as we like to call him) worked many years doing Customer Service for MBNA, so his people skills are top notch. On the technical side of things, he was previously employed by Computer Solutions. So he's full fledged geek, too! When he's not being super nice on the phone, Pete likes to play video games, play the keyboard, and hang out with his wife Debbie.