Dear Members,
I'd like to take [this opportunity] to [elaborate on] the quality of service that we provide and the many different factors that play into what you all experience regarding that service.
First of all let me state that we are no where close to being "over loaded" with our services. We take great pride in running a Dial up Internet Service that has one of the best customer to modem ratios in the industry. We do our homework, and we know what other companies are running at; and then we try to one-up them at the least. For the most part we average approximately 60% of capacity usage on our modem banks. This means we do NOT give out busy signals. There have a been a few instances (specifically a few weeks ago) where some users were trying to connect and thought they were getting busy signals. This was not the case. There are two different types of "busy" signals: one where the line is actually busy and in use, the other where the phone company switch/circuit system is busy. The recent issues were related to the second scenario I just described and we took action as swiftly as possible to resolve them.
One thing that many users may not realize is that once your computer has called us and connects to the internet, our computers have to be connected to the internet as well. I assure you that you will not experience slow connection behavior due to any lack of "backbone" connection on our end. We basically have a wide open pipe to the rest of the internet at our service. When the usage from our customers/services increases, our cost goes up from my providers.
When you connect to a dial up internet service you should be aware that there are several things that are out of our control which all affect the quality of the service you experience. These are (in no specific order of importance):
1. The phone line wiring in your home.
2. The phone line wiring from your telephone company interface (gray box outside your home) to telephone company.
3. The service capacity of the switch located at your local telephone company.
4. Your Computer (most issues occur here).
I'll take a moment to discuss each of these items.
1. Home Wiring. The older your home, the older the wiring in your home most likely is. Old wire can cause many issues related to static or poor connection. Static causes slow and intermittent internet service. Your computer does not like static.
2. Telephone Company Wiring. The older your home, the older the wiring in the ground (or in the air) most likely is. The more rural your home is, the more likely you have older wiring from your home to the telephone company switch. Old wire, especially that which has been buried in the ground for many many years, causes many problems. When it rains, the water seeping into the ground causes static in the service. Your computer does not like static.
3. Telephone Company Capacity. Not as much of an issue these days in the metro areas, but still comes into play in rural areas on occasion. Simply put, your telephone company cannot support every one of its customers attempting to make a phone call at the same time. Sometimes, like on holidays, during natural disasters, etc., too many calls are attempted by telephone company customers at the same time. You may remember getting a message at some point when trying a call that says something like "We're sorry, all circuits are busy at this time. Please try again later."? Not ALWAYS do you get that voice message. Sometimes you get a "busy" signal that is faster than the normal busy signal. That's called a "System Busy" notification, and that relates to what I discussed in the 2nd paragraph of this article.
4. Your Computer. This is the big one. This is the source of 98 percent of all the problems we come across. First of all lets get something straight: Dial Up Internet is an OLD technology. Yes, I admit it. I didn't say it was a "bad" technology. Somewhere around 60% of Michigan still only has Dial Up Internet as a standard internet connection option (not including the Satellite Internet options that are available). Here's where the "old" part comes into play: Computer companies and software programmers are no longer being kind to dial up users. They are designing products and software that are intended to be used by the growing number of broadband internet users. Many of our customers using Dial Up internet don't get the necessary updates for the software on their computers because you simply do not stay on the internet connection long enough for all of the updates to download to your computer. The downloads are typically very large and cumbersome in relation to your internet connection. Here's an example: Microsoft is about to release the "Service Pack 3" update for Windows XP. In its smallest form it will be a 70MB download. With the absolute best possible connection speed via Dial Up internet, this download will take approximately 2 Hours 54 Minutes 45.76 Seconds. While this is downloading "silently" onto your computer, your internet connection will be maxed out. Any other type of web usage (including email) will be dreadfully slow on your computer. That estimated time, by the way, is figured based on the download having exclusive use of your internet connection for the duration. Any additional internet usage that is concurrent to the download will not only be slow, but it will also extend the download time for that upgrade!
Spyware, Virus, Adware, and other "malware" are another serious concern. This stuff happens. It happens to the best of us. Most customers do NOT have the proper protection in place to avoid this stuff.
Along that same line, many users feel having two (or MORE) anti-virus programs on their computer gives them MORE protection when, in fact, it leaves their computer more VULNERABLE. Most protective software programs don't like each other! They fight for priority on your machine, they try to shut each other off, they consider each other to be a problem. This goes for Spyware, Adware, and Anti-Virus software products.
To help out in this situation, we offer a package of additional features included in our $19.95 plan that covers everything you need to protect your computer, and then some. The "Secure Accelerated Dial up" rate plan includes the following features:
Dial up Acceleration
Pop Up Blocker
Ad Blocker
Privacy Manager
Parental Controls
On-the-Fly Spyware Blocker
FULL SYSTEM Anti-Virus
Our anti-virus software is designed for the dial up user. The program is only about 9MB in size, one of the smallest available. It's quick and it's powered by Authentium...the BEST anti-virus engine available.
Here's the best thing about this package of software...WE SUPPORT IT. It's branded with OUR name on it and we know how to support it. We do NOT support Norton, McAfee, AVG, Spybot, AdAWare, etc. These programs are out of our control. They have their own manufacturers. Support must come from that vendor and is not included in our technical support of your internet connection. Unfortunately, 90% of the calls we take are related to these 3rd party type of software products.
There's a LOT more I could say on this subject, but I'll end it now, as is, and hope that I've covered a lot of details well enough for you to have a better understanding of how it all works, and where we fall into the mix as your service provider. If anyone has ANY additional questions about any of this, please do not hesitate to contact me. I can be emailed at OPERATIONS@INTOUCHMI.COM and I will answer every email that comes my way.
Please also remember that when you decide to upgrade to "broadband" internet service, we now represent HughesNet Satellite Internet Service. HughesNet is available to anyone with a clear view of the southern sky. More information can be found by clicking one of the links on our Members.IntouchMI.Com website.
Thank You all for your continued patronage of Intouch Internet Services, Inc.
Sincerely,
Charles Partridge
President,
Intouch Internet Services, Inc.
