Effective January 15, 2004, we will be increasing our late charge to $10 for customers with an open balance after the 10th of each month. Payments are always due on the 1st of the month. Please make every effort to have your payment in our office before the 10th of each month to avoid the late charge.

Our Kansas City dial-up customers using the 816-459 phone number for connecting should immediately change to one of the 913 phone numbers for future access. We are making some changes in service and because of those changes, the 816 phone number does not qualify. Please have no worries, your connection reliability and speeds will not change as a result of this and the 913 numbers are still local for your connection calls. The 913 connection numbers can be found at the top of this page. If you require assitance in making this change, please do not hesitate to call our office at 913-557-2777 while sitting at your computer and we will assist you.

We are in the process of upgrading our internet circuits to an ATM type of Southwestern Bell service. While this will allow for an additional amount of internet bandwidth at the same price, the main reason we are doing this is in order to offer DSL service we are required to have an ATM type of connection in place. Southwestern Bell has provided us with an estimated turnout date of 12-30-03 for DSL in our area. We have already started the process of becoming eligible to sell DSL to our customers so that when SBC finishes their required upgrades, we will be ready and waiting to offer it to our customers. As more information becomes available and we become better prepared, I will provide more information as to the hardware required, its costs and the cost of DSL service and installation.

Sprint Telephone is now offering DSL service in Osawatomie. I am not for sure how this might effect how Southwestern Bell is dragging their feet to provide the service in Paola, but I continue to question several upper management contacts that I have as to their delay. We purshased the necessary hardware to provide DSL service in the 4th quarter of 1999 on Southwestern Bells estimate to have service available in Paola during the 2nd quarter of 2000, and we are still waiting.

There have been a couple stories in the local newspaper recently pertaining to Internet fraud. I hope that you have had the opportunity to read and learn from others misfortunes. I recently received an e-mail from a college friend in California which I thought contained some very useful information. Please take a few minutes to read and follow through with the suggestions it makes. A corporate attorney sent the following out to the employees in his company:

* The next time you order checks have only your initials (instead of first name) and last name put on them.
* If someone takes your check book they will not know if you sign your checks with just your initials or your first name but your bank will know how you sign your checks.
* When you are writing checks to pay on your credit card accounts, DO NOT put the complete account number on the "Memo" line. Instead, just put the last four numbers. The credit card company knows the rest of the number and anyone who might be handling your check as it passes through all the check processing channels won't have access to it.
* Put your work phone # on your checks instead of your home phone. If you have a PO Box use that instead of your home address. Never have your SS# printed on your checks (DUH!) you can add it if it is necessary. But if you have it printed, anyone can get it.
* Place the contents of your wallet on a photocopy machine, do both sides of each license, credit card, etc. You will know what you had in your wallet and all of the account numbers and phone numbers to call and cancel.
* Keep the photocopy in a safe place. I also carry a photocopy of my passport when I travel either here or abroad.
* We've all heard horror stories about fraud that's committed on us in stealing a name, address, Social Security number, credit cards, etc.

Unfortunately I, an attorney, have firsthand knowledge because my wallet was stolen last month. Within a week, the thieve(s) ordered an expensive monthly cell phone package, applied for a VISA credit card, had a credit line approved to buy a Gateway computer, received a PIN number from DMV to change my driving record information online, and more. But here's some critical information to limit the damage in case this happens to you or someone you know:

We have been told we should cancel our credit cards immediately. But the key is having the toll free numbers and your card numbers handy so you know whom to call. Keep those where you can find them easily.

* File a police report immediately in the jurisdiction where it was stolen, this proves to credit providers you were diligent, and is a first step toward an investigation (if there ever is one).

But here's what is perhaps most important (I never even thought to do this): Call the three national credit reporting organizations immediately to place a fraud alert on your name and Social Security number. I had never heard of doing that until advised by a bank that called to tell me an application for credit was made over the Internet in my name.

The alert means any company that checks your credit knows your information was stolen and they have to contact you by phone to authorize new credit. By the time I was advised to do this, almost two weeks after the theft, all the damage had been done. There are records of all the credit checks initiated by the thieves' purchases, none of which I knew about before placing the alert. Since then, no additional damage has been done, and the thieves threw my wallet away this weekend.(someone turned it in). It seems to have stopped them in their tracks.

The numbers are:
Equifax: 1-800-525-6285
Experian (formerly TRW): 1-888-397-3742
Trans Union: 1-800-680-7289

Social Security Administration (fraud line): 1-800-269-0271

We pass along jokes on the Internet; we pass along just about everything. Pass this information along. It could really help someone you care about.

A new Internet worm has been discovered in the wild. It has been named W32/Mimail.A Worm. W32/Mimail.A worm is spreading rapidly via the Internet.

About the W32/Mimail.A Worm:
W32/Mimail.A is an email worm. This worm will infect Windows systems. The worm spreads through email. The worm arrives as an email message, with the 'From' address displaying admin@ Your_domain (Your_domain is the domain present in your email address)

The subject of the infected mail will be your account *Variable string*

The worm uses the same *Variable string* in the subject and the body of the infected mail. The mail carries an infected attachment message.zip.

You can read more information about this worm at this site.

As a quick reminder, it is the customers responsibility to protect themselves from getting a virus on their computer. There are several different types of software available, both in the store and online, that can help with this. We recomment the first prevention of getting a virus, is NOT opening a message from someone you don't kow, just delete it. Most software manufacturers will provide e-mail updates similiar to the three I have listed below:

This mail comes to you from the Virus Emergency Response Team at Proland Software. A new Internet worm has been discovered in the wild. It has been named W32/BugBear.B Worm. This is a variant of the Bugbear worm. W32/BugBear.B worm is spreading rapidly via the Internet. About the W32/BugBear.B Worm: W32/BugBear is an email worm. This worm will infect Windows systems. The worm spreads through email and shared drives on the network. It is polymorphic in nature and infects Windows PE files. The worm arrives with a fake 'From' address with a random subject. The body of the infected mail contains random text. It carries an infected attachment with a random filename having single or double extensions. You can read more information about this worm at: this site.

A new variant of the Bugbear virus, W32/Bugbear.b@MM is a HIGH RISK mass-mailing worm that contains numerous malicious elements, including a keylogger, network share propagator, remote access trojan, polymorphic parasitic file infector and terminator of security software. Creating privacy and security concerns for consumers, these elements may allow a remote attacker to access an infected PC and log all keystrokes, including passwords and personal information. It also mass-mails itself without the user's knowledge, spreads across network shares and embeds itself deep into the infected PC. Caution: An infected email can come from addresses you recognize and may contain the following information:
Subject: [content varies]
Body: [content varies]
Attachment: [ standard executable extensions: .exe, .pif and .scr ]
Currnt and up-to-date VirusScan users are protected from this threat.
Learn More about W32/Bugbear.b@MM at: this site.

This mail comes to you from the Virus Emergency Response Team at Proland Software. A new Internet worm has been discovered in the wild. It has been named W32/Sobig.C Worm. This is a variant of the Sobig worm, which also was discovered recently. W32/Sobig.C worm is spreading rapidly via the Internet. About the W32/Sobig.C Worm: W32/Sobig.C is an email worm. This worm will infect Windows systems. The worm spreads through email and shared drives on the network. The worm arrives with 'From address' as "bill@microsoft.com" or any other random address. The worm will have any one of the following subjects:
Approved
Re: 45443-343556
Re: Application
Re: Approved
Re: Movie
Re: Submited (004756-3463)
Re: Your application
Re: Screensaver
The body of the infected mail will be:
Please see the attached file.
The mail carries an infected attachment, with any one of the following names:
submited.pif
screensaver.scr
movie.pif
documents.pif
document.pif
approved.pif
application.pif
45443.pif
You can read more information about this worm at: this site.

In recent months, SPAM mail has become an increasing problem for the Internet. I personally receive more than 400 messages a day, at times less than 5 are what I would consider legitimate. We are curently looking at several software programs the customer can load onto their computers to help eliminate SPAM and will provide further information once we learn more about the software and how effective it is. We have tried to block some sites we have found that are obviously sending SPAM, but several customers then complained that they were no longer receiving wanted e-mail messages. I still stand by my original recommendation, NEVER click on one of those "remove me" links. Just delete the unwanted e-mail, set up a message rule or block sender and go on to the next.

We had been in business for about 2 1/2 months when an older female customer walked into the office and said she was having problems with micoks. Not m-i-c-o-k-s spelled out but rather micoks pronounced. We were a little taken back as we had always known it to mean Miami County Kansas and spelled it out to customers and it had not occurred to us to pronounce it.

After that we were a little undecided as to what to do. Well, after almost 7 years and a lot of customer laughs (and funny looks - until it is explained) we have decided to starting offering customers the option to change their "micoks.net" to its actualy meaning of "miamicountykansas.net" for e-mail use and webpage lookup. We have set this up on the server that allows customers to make only one change (maybe two) in their Outlook Express e-mail software. To make the change(s), follow these directions: Open your Outlook Express, click on TOOLS, then OPTIONS. Click on the MAIL tab then select your mail account with us. Click on PROPERTIES and you should open a new window looking at the GENERAL tab settings. Where you see "micoks.net" in the E-mail address and possibly in the Reply address lines, all you need to do is replace that with "miamicountykansas.net". Use all lower case, no "" marks and no ending period. When done, click APPLY, click OK, then click CLOSE. You are all done.

If you have a problem, a different software you can not figure out how to change or are just afraid to try this yourself, please feel free to give us a call and we will assist you as best as we can.

In 7 years, we have seen customers come and go, and some come back again.......competition come and go, one still here and another kind-of still here if you don't mind calling Indiana for support and billing questions. In any event we were the first and still remain the only locally owned and operated Internet Service Provider in the area. We are very greatful for the support of customers that have been here since our beginning as well as happy to see all the customers that we have signed up over the past 7 years and the support we continue to see as new customers cross our doorway. As a special "thank you" to our faithful customers, both old and new, we are hosting an open-house and 7th year anniversary celebration at our office at 103 N. Silver on Friday May 30, 2003 from 11:00am to 2:00pm. Chris Cakes of Louisburg will be providing, free to everyone, hotdogs, baked beans, chips and lemonade for the celebration. Everyone is invited to attend. This celebration will be taking place at the same time that the Paola Chamber of Commerce is hosting a Chamber Coffee for Chamber members at our office in recognition of our 7 years in business. All Chamber members are also invited to attend to enjoy in the hotdogs, etc being provided.

After our yearly company review last month, he have made the business decision to stop offering the free month(s) of service when customers pay semi-annually or annually. My vendors, the biggest of which is Southwestern Bell, does not offer me any type of discount and in order to more effectively service our customers, we have decided that we must make this change. Starting with the February billing last week, we started to notify customers that effective on their NEXT billing period they will no longer see the free month(s) of service. We will continue to notify customers as their billing dates pass that their NEXT billing will reflect these changes.

With the new year, comes our new Internet server. We are pleased to announce that the new Internet server we purchased a couple weeks ago has passed testing with flying colors and is now 100% in operation as our main server. Our old server has been changed to now act as our primary backup and the old backup server has been taken out of service pending us finding another possible use for it. With the new server comes faster processor speeds and more (tighter) security as well as better login history tracking abilities.

Part of the tighter security is now the inability for the same username to be logged on to the server more than once. This means if you have shared your name and password with someone else or are using it on two computers at the same time, only one computer will be able to log on at a time.

As part of our yearly company review, we have made a few changes to our Membership Agreement. You can take a look at your current Membership Agreement by clicking on this link.