|
You see this, you are on-line!
If this is your first trip to the World Wide Web, here is a
couple of tips: 1.) With a dialup service, you use a connection
program to get on-line, in Windows "Dial-up Networking".
This program makes the
connection to the Internet*, keep you there and disconnects you
when you so wish. The World Wide Web (www, the Web, etc.) is one of the services available on the Internet. To enjoy the Internet most,
try this order of priorities: Browsing
or surfing the Net means hitting hypertext links. They can be
underlined words or graphics. You can tell that your cursor is
sitting on a link when it turns into a hand. You can see on the
bottom bar of your browser where the link will take you. You
don't have to close the previous document. Do I have to remember all web sites? No.
When you have landed a web site that you like, click "Bookmarks"
(Mozilla Firefox, Safari) or "Favorites" (Explorer). Build up a
collection of web sites that you want to visit on a regular
basis. Upgrading your browser Your Windows 95/98/ME/2000/XP/Vista comes with the Internet Explorer browser. There are several versions of the Explorer, Win95 A has the primitive IE 1.0, Windows 95 B comes with IE 3.0, which has full browser capabilities. Windows 98 comes with IE 4.0, known to have several problems and should be upgraded to the latest IE or Mozilla. Internet Explorer is part of your Windows, and you get upgrades from Microsoft. In Explorer, Tools > Windows Update. Downloading a new browser from Mozilla: 1.)Go to http://www.mozilla.com/ |
||||||
|
Protect your computer and ILS account
The Internet is not a safe environment. Most computer crimes are carried out using a false identity on the net. For this reason, the owner of the ILS account is obligated to keep username and password within the
household. Don't be a target
A computer idling on the Internet is a world wide target for hackers who want to practice their skills. Especially, if the computer advertises its existance by regularly pinging or mail-checking an outside server, the hacker is invited to start port scanning, IP spoofing, mail port sniffing, flood pinging and other nasty tricks. Virus Protection Everybody who connects to the Internet with Microsoft Windows operating systems should have an anti-virus scanner installed. These are typically shareware programs available for free 30-day period and registered for modest cost. Most common are Norton, McAffee or AVG.The late versions of virus scanners are meant for high speed connections and take huge amounts of bandwidth to upgrade their databases and are not suitable for dialup use. These programs are very heavy on computers, require lots of RAM and CPU speed and slow down even the fastest machine. A good working light Virus scanner is the free version of AVG, available at http://free.grisoft.com. We recommend this one for dialup users and those you decide that they don't need massive protection packages and prefer more system and network speed. Mac and Linux users don't need Virus scanners. Note, that virus scanners need to be updated regularly. However, unless you download and install new programs all the time, it may not be necessary to run a Virus scanner constantly taking memory and other resources. Always download your files into the one folder (directory), and scan this folder as soon as you added something there. Don't overestimateb> the capabilities of Virus scanners. It does not know what the is coming in the mail tomorrow. Also, virus scanner cannot protect the machine against user stupidity; whoever is on the keyboard can delete and modify files at will. |
||||||
|
ILS provides you with access to the free Internet Mail service. The Internet Mail system is operated by hundreds of thousands of mail server providers around the world, has no user fees, no standards, no delivery quarantees. When you subscribe to an Internet connection through ILS, you get free use of our mail servers, the Incoming POP3 server mail.ils.net and the Outgoing SMTP Mail Server with the same name: mail.ils.net. There are common world wide problems with the Internet Mail system. As you may have seen in news, governments of different countries are trying to find a system to stop the abuse of this system - junk mail or "spam". The volume filtered spam in July 2007 reached 98%. This means that only 2 out of 100 emails floating on the backbone lines of the Internet were legimate emails. The large spam attacks force the providers to raise their filtering thresholds which causes delays and other problems. ILS WebMail The easiest way to access your ILS mail account is through our home page. Start Internet Explorer, go to http://www.ils.net/ and click the MAIL button on the upper left corner. You come to the login page. Type in your username, no, not email address, just username. In lower case letters, no spaces or extra characters. Then the password. The ILS webmail window opens up. On the left you see the different folders, the first one being INBOX. WebMail opens in INBOX. In middle of the window, you see messages that have arrived for you. To read a message, click on the message itself. To get back to the INBOX, click "Message list". Mark messages by checking the little box in front of them, from the right click "Delete" to move the to the Trash folder. Note that the Trash folder is not self cleaning. Go there often, click Toggle All, and Delete to empty this folder. If there are no messages, it says "this folder is empty". To send a mail: click compose, a new window opens up. Easy. Type in the receivers email address in the To: field, add a subject then the message itself to the text area. When you are done, click "Send". Deleted messages are not really deleted. They are stored in the "Trash" folder, just in case you change your mind. Keep the Trash and other folders organized. Delete all unwanted mail from your folders as often as possible. The Webmail is great for anybody who gets one or two messages a day, mostly text based mail. If you want send and receive attachments, and deal with a large number of messages, you should use a mail program installed in your computer (see below). Note that the mail folders are in our server, not in your computer. Below each message, you have the option "to download this as a file" to your own computer. This is very important, the mail folders are for temporary keeping only. ILS takes no responsibility of mail left in the ILS mail server. You can access your ILS Webmail from anywhere, any computer that is connected to the Internet and has a working modern web browser in it. Other mail programsThe ILS email service works with any SMTP/POP3 email program, such as WIndows Mail, Outlook Express, Mac Mail, Mozilla Thunderbird. Settings for all mail programs are the same. In order to receive and send mail, your mail program has to know the following: 1.) your username 2.) your email address (username@ils.net) 3.) your reply address (usually same as your email address) 4.) your password ( same as your dial-up password) 5.) your outgoing (SMTP) server: mail.ils.net 6.) your incoming (POP3) server: mail.ils.net Don't send mail to yourself. It is also called shooting yourself in the foot. You automatically get copies of your out-going mail in your out -box. E-mail is not 100% reliable, though more reliable than fax and as reliable as "snail mail". For this reason create very important mail in your word processor, save the file, copy the text through your Windows clipboard to the e-mail program's new message window. You can send files other than e-mail messages using the "attachment" feature. Send only one attachment at the time. In your settings, got to "sending mail", turn on "Immediate Send" feature on. The "queue" command in your new message window turns into "se nd". Typical Mail Problems Illegal address: you have sent a message, suddenly your mail program cannot connect to the mail server, mail.ils.net. From Mailbox select Out and you see a Q in front of the message you just tried to send. There is something wrong with this e-mail message address. Open the message, clipboard the text to notepad, delete the message. Find out what the correct address is, send a new message, clipboarding the text from your notepad file. Spam - junk mail Just like your road side mail box, your email box gets junk mail - also called SPAM. ILS mail servers have multiple protection filters in place, but just like all other domains, ils.net gets its share of spam. Spammers collect email addresses from a number of sources, main method is cookies on web sites that you visit. Many of these operators avoid the "blackhole" filtering systems by starting a new domain just about every day. Mail programs and mail checkers that have the Mail Preview feature are a handy way to deal with spam. These programs display your server (mail.ils.net) mailbox contents before downloading all mail to your computer's mail program. The preview allows you to delete unwanted mail and attachments. You'll find two handy programs at ILS Upgrade to deal with spam: ERemove is a mail checker, allows you to preview and delete mail. Mail Warrior is a full mail client, fast, efficient, yet has more useful features than many main stream programs. You configure these programs the same way as your original mail program. They need to know your name, username (userID), email address and your mail servers. POP3 mail server is mail.ils.net, SMTP is also mail.ils.net. Install these programs in their own, separate folders on your hard drive, not your Desktop, root or Windows directory. Note that there are restrictions regarding the ILS email service. Plese see Terms and Conditions of your ILS account. |
||||||
|
E-mail
attachments have become very popular over the Internet. While the
unix operating system and multiple firewalls protect the network
servers, dial-up users are in many cases experiencing surprising
problems. |
||||||
|
Operating systems and the Internet?
The most popular Microsoft operating systems today are Windows Vista and XP. The older Windows 95/98/ME have built-in features that let you create your Internet setup. It dials, connects and operates very reliably with Internet software.There are different versions of Win95. The newer "B" version comes with Internet Explorer 3.0 as part of the system. Windows NT 4.0/ 2000/XP interface is
similar to Win95/98/ME, but the operating system is totally different.
In the original NT Dial up Networking is different, but in 2000/XP similar to Windows ME. Consult the documentation. The aging Windows 3.1 is an outdated operating system but can be used for Internet connection.
Unix and Unix-like systems: Mac OS X , Linux Lately more and more ILS users are switching to Mac computers, and all our new documentation will include instructions for Mac OS X. Mac computers are easily connected to the Internet. Mac OS X (BSD Unix under the skin) computers are fast, easier to use than Windows Vista and much less prone to get viruses and trojans. We strongly recommend Mac especially for our new Broadband services.In Mac OS X, you find network settings from Finder > System Preferences > Network. The Broadband connection (ethernet cable to the computer) static IP and other network information goes to: Finder > System Preferences > Network > Built-in-Ethernet. If you are coming from the Windows environment, the terminology is somewhat different: Control Panel is System Preferences, Gateway is Router, LAN is Built-in-Ethernet, Wireless is Airport. Built-in web browser is Safari, but Mozilla Firefox for Mac seems to be a little more versatile. Mail program is simply Mail. The older Mac operating systems come with MacTCP, newer with TCP/IP programs. Both allow the user to configure the PPP dial-up connection. ILS provides Mac users with basic network information. Once your Mac is running on the net, all the advice and software is available to you at Mac web sites. The Internet is a UNIX network, and Unix/Unix variant operating systems are superior in handling TCP/IP operations. The most available and supported Unix for small systems is Linux, which will along its server capabilities provide faster connections than Windows 95/98/ME/2000/XP/Vista. However, make no mistake, Linux should not be thought as a Windows replacement. It's newly-found user friendliness , easy-to-use desktop managers like KDE and Gnome can give you an easy start, but the true power lies in the vast Unix environment under the various windowing systems. This is an operating system for those who really know or want to learn computing. Our recommended Linux distributions are RedHat and Mandriva. ILS services are also compatiple for other Unix systems, i.e. Solaris, Free BSD. |
||||||
|
Speed? How fast is the connection The Internet is a shared world wide network and its data throughput speed depends on a number of factors, mostly on the volume of traffic any given moment. There are no standards for bandwidth, usage of bandwidth or equipment, so speed from different sites varies at all times. Common misunderstanding is that the Internet comes to your computer from the server of your provider. The provider only acts as a gateway to different bandwidth backbone lines that connect different quality servers around the world. The conditions, routing etc. on the Internet change every second, so does the speed. Traffic through the milllions of servers and routers has its rush hours, jams and speedy moments. Some web sites are constantly busy for various reasons.A major network crash in Japan can slow down the connections in Pefferlaw. For this reason, data transfer rates over the Internet cannot be measured or compared in a reliable manner. However, your connection to your provider can measured rather well. The busiest and slowest time on the Internet is 8pm-10pm, Monday night being the worst.Your computer - bottleneck?
Your own computer can also be your bottleneck. In testing the new Broadband service, a computer that averaged download speeds of 8.9 megabits per second slowed down to 3.5 Mbs when all pre-installed real-time virus and spyware scanners, various automated updates and firewalls were turned on. Local is faster than remote The ILS Community Broadband Services take advantage of the massive ILS fibre backbone and the growing ultra modern wireless infrastructure built by South Shore Community Broadband for Georgina. This makes it possible for ILS end users to connect directly to the Internet backbone at very high speeds from very short distances.For a long time the closest Internet backbone was in Newmarket, you now have it places like Belhaven, Baldwin, Pefferlaw, Sutton, Keswick, Jackson's Point.
Large national providers collect users through their remote DSL slams, TV cable routers, modem pools, hubs, routers to entry points in larger centres. That is why ILS, with its high bandwidth
backbone lines, is by far faster than any other provider offering
Internet connections in our region. Broadband speeds The Broadband 900 Wide is a symmetric service, up and down max speeds are 3 megabits per second, and is highly usable for VPN and VoIP. The Braodband 240 WiFi is available in limited areas, and speeds over 12 megabits (record peak tested is 24.02 Mbs) per second are possible with this service in ideal circumstances. Like all other Internet connections, the end user top speed depends on location and equipment. Speeds are highest close to the Community Broadband gateways in several locations, but even towards the edge of the service area typically higher than the highest advertized speeds of older high speed technologies such as DSL and TV cable. The Community Broadband has new services and more resources coming up. While already blazing fast, the speeds will continue to increase in the coming months and years.If you really need to know ...
If you are seriously concerned about the speed of your connection, there is some homework to do: How to test Dialup Line Speed Windows 95/98/NT/2000/XP reports the LINE SPEED (DTE speed) when you connect. This feature in Windows attempts to measure the speed your computer talks to the serial interfaces that host the modems. This information is not coming from ILS servers, it is generated by your own computer before any server connections are made.Typical line speeds:
The line speed is only good for determining phone line conditions. Anything above 28800 is acceptable, but speeds less than that usually mean that there is static noise on the phone line. If your indicated line speed is less than 28 800, and packets need consistently more than 200 milliseconds to make the round trip to ILS, you might want to have Bell clean your phone line from static noise. They can do this remotely. Better modems, such as USR v90, have sophisticated hardware features to deal with phone line conditions. Cheap no-name Winmodems lack these features and perform poorly. In rural areas, line quality is typically very bad. However, you will get surprisingly good results using a good hardware modem. We recommend USR 56K Performance Pro which is worth every penny for anybody requiring a good dialup connection. Web browsers are slower for downloading files than FTP. |
||||||
|
File Transfer Protocol FTP is the die hard program that was used on the Internet before the World Wide Web (webpages) existed.. It is the still most efficient and accurate way to transfer files over the Internet. It is ideal for speed testing your connection, managing web sites and downloading software. It is also more reliable than Mail attachments for sending any large files. It is much faster than any web browser for downloading. Windows 95/98/NT/2000/XP/Vista come with a built-in unix-style FTP program, c:\windows\system32\ftp.exe. If you have lost your browser, you can connect to ILS Upgrade with this program and download a new browser. There are easier FTP programs, such as WS FTP (Windows) and CuteFTP (Windows, Mac) and Gftp (Mac, Linux). With your FTP program, make a new, anonymous connection to ftp.ils.net.Name site label ILS, Host Address is ftp.ils.net, the remote directory /pub. Choose a file, download it to your computer. Watch how fast the file downloads! Managing your web site If you have a web site with ILS, set the Host Address to www.ils.net. Now your own username and password are required, and once they have been authenticated, the server directs to your own personal web space. Now you can upload and download files to your site. |
||||||
|
Web looks better with higher resolution I saw this Web site displayed at the ILS office in Newmarket. Why does it not look the same at home? |
||||||
|
Your ILS dialup account gives you unlimited hours on the Internet. However, as all our promotional material points out, prime time usage is regulated: All users of the network
are requested to divide their prime-time (7.30 p.m. - 11.30 p.m.)
usage to 2-3 HOUR sessions with at least TEN MINUTE BREAKS
in between. |
||||||
|
We are pleased to announce all ILS receiving modems are the fastest Lucent 56K v90 modems. These modems get their connection directly from digital PRI wires, no traditional phone lines are needed. In our test runs, a computer equipped with a 3Com US Robotics 56K/v90 modem connected from two locations in Keswick showing line speeds of 45 333 or 50 666, and downloaded compressed data (.exe files) with Mozilla browser consistantly at 5.0K per second or better. Using FTP and downloading less compressed file formats, the download speed (not line speed) is higher. |
||||||
|
ILS also has a new DSL high speed service for our users. As with dialup services, we are the fastest you can get. From the our home page menu, select High Speed Internet!
|