The following information is provided to help you get the most from your internet connection:

Avoiding Busy Signals While Online
A common complaint about Internet connection is how it ties up the phone line.  Not everyone wants to foot the bill for adding a new line to their home to avoid busy signals while they are online.  Fortunately, there are some less expensive ways to make sure you're not missing important phone calls while you're surfing the net.
Most phone companies offer a service called Call Forwarding Busy with Voice Mail.  The name says it all:  When your phone line is busy, instead of callers getting a busy signal, your calls are automatically forwarded to a voice mail box where they may leave you a message.  The service can be left active all the time or can be activated and deactivated at your discretion.  There is a monthly charge for the service, but it's not as expensive as the addition of an extra phone line.
You can get more information (and pricing) for Call Forwarding Busy with Voice Mail by contacting your phone service provider.*

Another alternative is a service called Internet Call Waiting.  This is bit more difficult to activate, but is less expensive than Call Forwarding Busy with Voice Mail.  With Internet Call Waiting, you download a free program from the internet and install it on your computer.  You will still need to contact your phone company and subscribe to Call Forwarding Busy.  The difference between this service and the voice mail service described above is that, while you are online, your calls are forwarded to a toll-free number where the callers may leave messages.  The messages are then transferred to your computer through your internet connection where they are played for you as soon as the transfers are complete (so long as you have the program running at the time). 
For more information about Internet Call Waiting programs available, you can visit the following website:  http://www.callwave.com.  You will also need to contact your local phone company for Call Forwarding rates.* 

Checking Your Connection Speed
Have you ever noticed that sometimes when you are online web pages and e-mail download quickly and other times it seems to take forever?  You should check your connection speed.  This speed varies due to phone service and internet traffic.  It also depends on your computer speed and programs you may be running along with your internet browser.  
To check your connection speed, double-click on the connection icon in the lower right corner of your desktop screen (two computer screens connected together).  Do this during several internet sessions to determine your average connection speed, then if you notice that everything seems to be moving in slow motion, you can see if your connection speed is up to par.  If it's not, then disconnect and reconnect.  If you aren't able to achieve a desirable connection speed, try closing any extra programs you may be running.  Still can't connect at a good speed?  Re-start your computer and try again.

Using the Favorites List
Most people visit the same websites repeatedly while connected to the Internet.  Instead of having to type in the URL for frequently visited sites each time you visit them, you can add the sites to your favorites list and just click on them for future visits.  It's easy to add sites to your favorites list.  The next time you visit the site, click on "Favorites" from the top of your Internet Explorer screen and then click "Add to Favorites."  After that, whenever you want to visit the site, just click "Favorites" and then the page you want to visit.  (Note:  Unless the pages you add to the list don't change, you won't want to choose to make the sites available offline.)

Avoiding Viruses
Computer viruses are rampant.  Unfortunately, that's a risk all internet users take when going online.  While there is no product that offers a 100% guarantee that you will never become infected with a virus, your best defense is still a good anti-virus software program.  Simply having the software installed on your computer is NOT protection from viruses.  Good anti-virus software self-updates when you are online (users are given a message to inform them the update is in process- so if you aren't seeing the message, your software isn't self-updated) and constantly runs in the background.  If you have an anti-virus program that does NOT self-update, it is crucial that you visit the manufacturer's website and download any updates at least once a week, preferably each day that you go online.  Why so often?  Because a new virus is introduced almost daily and software which  has not been updated will not recognize a new virus and will allow it to infect your computer. 
Most computer viruses are spread through e-mail attachments, so be cautious when opening any suspicious e-mails.  Because viruses spread through automatic sending of the infected files, they can come from friends, family and co-workers who are infected, along with anyone who has your e-mail address. 
Because giving out your e-mail address increases the threat of virus attacks, you should be cautious of who you release this information to.  If you sign up for an e-zine or a mailing list, make sure it is the owners' policy not to distribute e-mail addresses, and don't sign up for anything you will not use often.  If you can look the information up on the net without sharing your e-mail address, that is the safest (though sometimes not the easiest) thing to do.
What about people who never use an e-mail program at all;  is it possible for their systems to become infected?  Yes it is.  While most viruses do come in infected e-mails, there are some out there that automatically download into a computer upon opening a webpage.  So avoiding e-mail doesn't necessarily mean you are avoiding viruses. 
Please visit this page for the latest virus news, a virus encyclopedia, and a free scan tool.  Even if your computer has an anti-virus software program, it's a good idea to get a second opinion occasionally, so we highly recommend the free scan.  It won't protect your computer from viruses, but it will inform you if you are already infected and what to do if you are.   


Instant Messaging
Do you like chatting online but don't like having to log into complicated chat sites and then deal with people you really don't want to chat with?  Try downloading an instant messaging program.  Instant messaging programs like AOL instant messenger, Yahoo instant messenger or MSN instant messenger**, make you available for chatting to others with the same programs downloaded on their systems, and they are available free of charge.  You can create a "Buddy List" with the usernames of friends, family & co-workers you want to chat with and the programs contain options to block out people you don't want to chat with, so you can have private chat conversations without having to deal with chat sites or unwanted messages.  If there are people you enjoy chatting with already, find out which of these programs they may have downloaded and then you can download the same one.  With these programs, you download once and then can set them to automatically start up each time you log onto the internet or you can set them to be opened manually when you want to be available for chatting. 
AOL Instant Messenger is the original and the most widely used.  For more information on this program, visit AOL.
For Yahoo Instant Messenger, visit Yahoo!
For MSN Instant Messenger, visit MSN.

Changing Your Home Page
When you log onto the internet, the page that is automatically displayed is called your Home Page.  Your home page should be a good starting point for the type of web surfing you do.  If you rarely ever use your homepage and always seem to type in the address for another site, you would benefit from changing your home page.  If there is one site that you visit far more than other sites, you would also benefit from changing your homepage directly to that site.  To do this, while you are online click on "Tools" at the top of your Internet Explorer window, then click on "Internet Options."  If the "General" tab is not already displayed, click on it to open it.  The first option in this window is your home page.  You can change it by typing in the full URL (http://www........com) and then clicking the "Apply" button.  Click the "Okay" button and close out of this window.  Now click your "Home" button and your new home page will be displayed. 
MWSI offers a home page for our customers, http://home.mwsi.net.  We also host the local site http://www.smithcounty.com, which contains a lot of local information and would be a good home page for Smith Contains.  Many people choose a search engine for their home page.

Additional E-Mail Addresses
All Internet accounts through MWSI come standard with up to three additional e-mail addresses.  Your primary e-mail account is your username@mwsi.net, but you can add up to three more if you wish.  Extra e-mail addresses are convenient for spouses, children or anyone using your account to access the internet.  These accounts can be set up to be delivered to the same mail box, or identities can be sat up within your e-mail program for privacy for some or all of the accounts. 
If you would like to add extra e-mail addresses, please contact us with your choice of username, an alternate in case your first choice is already taken, and a password for the new e-mail.  Once we have the new mail account set up in our server, we will notify you and you can set up the account in your e-mail program. 
Remember, new e-mail accounts will not work unless we have them entered into our system- so make sure to contact us with the above information. 
Already have all four accounts set up and still need more?  Additional e-mail accounts are available for $4.95 per month.

Setting Up a Personal Web Page
Would you like to have your own page on the WWW?  You can!  All MWSI internet accounts come standard with 5MB of personal web space.  To set up your personal page, contact us with the name of the page you would like (for your free space, the page name will look like this:  http://yourchoice.mwsi.net), an alternate in case your first choice is already taken, and a password to access the account.  You will need Microsoft FrontPage or Microsoft FrontPage Express to create and maintain your site***.  FrontPage Express comes standard with the newest version of Microsoft Internet Explorer.  This program can be downloaded free from the Microsoft web site, or we can mail you the latest version on CD.  Microsoft Internet Explorer is free of charge from the Microsoft site, and we will also mail it out free of charge to MWSI internet customers.  Microsoft FrontPage is available wherever you buy software programs, and MWSI offers it at a discount for our internet customers. 
If you would like to have your own domain name (www.yourchoice.com), MWSI hosts domains starting at $15.95 per month and we would be happy to register your domain name if you would like.  If this is your choice, please contact us for more information.

Protecting Your Family from Internet Predators
If you watch the news regularly, chances are very good that you've heard all kinds of horror stories about children being stalked online.  Is this something that could happen to your family?  That depends.  If your children are allowed to use the internet unsupervised or if they have unsupervised access to a computer with an internet account, the answer is yes.  The more time a child spends online without an adult to supervise their internet habits, the greater the chance that the child will encounter an internet predator.  
Many parents purchase content filtering software programs, such as Net Nanny, to help protect their children.  Filtering programs are great- but, they should not take the place of parental supervision.  Parents should also be aware that installing a filtering program on your computer is not a 100% guarantee that no inappropriate material can ever be viewed online.  
We have found it is not at all uncommon that the children themselves are allowed to install these programs-  guess what?  That means the very people the parents are trying to protect are the ones who set up the type of content that is to be blocked, the type of content that is allowed and the password which will enable all content to be available.  When children are given access to the password, the program becomes completely ineffective in protecting the children. 
The Federal Bureau of Investigation recently released this publication to help parents protect their children from internet predators.  


*MWSI is not responsible for extra costs associated with Call Forwarding and other phone service additions. 
**MWSI will support our Internet service and all problems related to it, but we do not provide explicit technical support for the IM programs listed on this page.  If you download one of these programs and experience problems, we suggest that you visit the site from which you downloaded the program and check out the FAQ and/or Troubleshooting guides. 
***MWSI will give you information on setting up your homepage, but learning to use Microsoft FrontPage and/or FrontPage Express, designing pages and maintaining pages is the user's responsibility.  Most users find these programs simple to use and can easily find help by using the "help" index within the programs.  Web design training/extended technical support will be billed as consultation.