Brian's Song Page

We've run into a real snag on getting Tranzeo antennas.   The order now in transit will have taken three weeks since I first placed the order before delivered to Elmwood next week.   We've never had such a delay before.   We have a new sales representative now, I don't know if there is some connection.   

If you have Windows XP download the Microsoft Spyware Beta, it will help keep spyware controlled.   Do not download or pay for a spyware program with out googling for comments about it or checking with us. Many programs are not helping you. Spyware and virus removal notes: drop off computer with out monitor, keyboard, mouse, or power cord.   We may need to restore computer, we will need the system restore CDs, will want to know what to back up from your hard drive.   Mac owners are still able to say (What's spyware?) No one knows Macs are out there. Spyware removal is free for our customers when the computer is delivered to our office.

Summer tips: wireless customers if there is a power fluctuation, turn off computer, and turn off the power strip supplying antenna and router (if you have a router). Wait ten seconds turn on the power strip and restart computer, it should restore connection if you have lost connection.    Call us if you are not connected after that.   Dial up customers if after a storm you see a message no dial tone, connect a phone to the phone line going to the computer. If there is a dial tone, then a surge through the phone line has probably killed your modem.   Make sure your phone line is connected through the surge protector. Most surge protectors have phone connections as part of them. Modems are cheap about $10 dollars we charge $12.50 labor charge for installing them.   Not all computers work with the internal modems we have, but most do.

Anytime tip: turn off computer; restart the computer the problem may be gone.  

I want to address security, identity fraud, and wasted money, your money. The first step in security is to look at your self and your computer use.  People worry about all sorts of fanciful things and not the most likely problem, you.  Do not respond to emails from any entity with a financial connection. Type in the web site and log in using your user name and password. These addresses are www.ebay.com, www.paypal.com, or www.fsbelmwood.com. DO NOT CLICK LINKS in emails purporting to be from ebay or paypal.  I put in Farmer State Bank’s address to make a point. What are the chances you will get a fake email passing itself off as being from Farmers State Bank? Not high, malicious spammers are targeting millions and ebay/paypal members are great targets.  Be especially skeptical of emails when they involve money or your account information.

Do you need a firewall? Elmnet has a firewall, turn on the one in Windows XP. I would not buy a firewall.  Brian and I have decided not to recommend Norton or McAfee products. They have become too demanding for older Windows computers anything without Windows XP; they bog down even Windows XP computers without enough memory. A free for personal use program called AVG from Grisoft works very well.  It can be downloaded or is available on our set up CD.  Elmnet scans every email for viruses our program should protect you as well as any you buy.  If your only email account is Elmnet you do not need to scan your email for viruses.  Spy ware continues as an issue the Microsoft Spyware Beta is still a free download, Adaware, and Spybot Search and Destroy are the other free and reliable products. All of these spy ware products need to be kept current on their update files.

My recommendation to a typical user is, use AVG for antivirus protection, do not scan your Elmnet email account, use one of the free spy ware programs, keep it updated. Will this cost you anything, no.  Put your money in your pocket, buy some music from iTunes, or reflect on what a value Elmnet is while eating lunch out.  Many users are spending $30 to $100 a year on products they do not need and give them no more security.

Your behavior is the biggest cause of identity theft; no program can protect you from yourself. So be careful, be skeptical, and call us before you buy something you don’t need or give away your identity. I hope we continue to serve your technology needs.  We do everything we can to solve any problems with your best interest in mind.

The Geneseo Telephone Company has found a cause for dial up problems related to Yates City customers. Connections in the office in Yates City are the problem. On Monday all our dial up customers are supposed to have their phone number connected to solve the problem. The phone company was blaming us instead of fixing the problem; we do appreciate their finding a resolution. If your connection does not improve make sure you were on our list of phone numbers.

1/20/2005

Dial up problems related to Yates City customers. In the period from January 14, 2005 to January 20, 2005. Elmnet logged 8218 connections. 828 of those connections were below 16,800. 827 of the 828 were from people using theYates City Telephone service. 99.88% of our connections below 16, 800 came from the Yates City Exchange. In my college statistic's courses we would call that a significant correlation. Of connections equalling 16,800 but less than 26,400 there were 809, 728 of those were from Yates City. 89.99% of this range were from Yates City. Charts aren't really neccessary to make the point. The Geneseo Telephone Company has contacted us in working on the problem. The problem may require cooperation with Verizon to resolve. We hope it will be resolved. I have been through the log data. These connections are from people living within Yates City as well as out in the country. It is a telephone issue and we will push to have it resolved. Calls to Elmwood are not being transferred correctly.

1/14/2005

Brian replaced radio in Cramer transmitter, it was working before he did this. It came right back up and continued to work after the replacement. We are still determining cause of Thursday's outage, but transmitter has exhibited no problem since Thursday evening.

It appears to be a faulty connector, we will climb and replace cable.

1/13/2005

Cramer Transmitter stopped working this afternoon. It came back up at 7:10 pm. We will be attempting repairs again Friday morning. There was lightening last night and everything is covered in ice now. We are still determining the cause of outage. Cramer supplies Trivoli tower at fire station.

Elmwood C had a power outage this morning. Power returned shortly after 12 pm. Tower came back up.

1/12/2005

Dial up problems related to Yates City Customers has become much worse in November and December. We contacted the Geneseo Telephone Company in charge of repairs for Yates City. They have replaced a card in a switch that will hopefully improve the connection rates. I have links to charts based on our logging of connections from Dec. 1, 2004 to Dec. 27, 2004. Connections from the Yates City Telephone Company and a chart for all other connections . For the Dec. 1 to Dec. 27 period 98.4 % of connections to Elmnet from phones outside of Yates City were adequate. 26.9% of connections from Yates City are adequate during this period. 38.3% of Yates City connections were below 16, 800 kbps or unusuable on the column in the chart. During the same period for other connections 0.3% were below 16,800 kbps.

11/11/04

An addressing error occurred within our network. It caused a disruption of traffic requests on several transmitters for about fifteen minutes this morning. Problem was resolved and all transmitters came back up.

11/5/04

Dial up connections were not being answered in a random pattern. We changed some of our equipment after circuits were tested. We have not discovered any further problems.

The lightening storm that came through Friday night must have damaged the Elmwoodc transmitter. It was going in and out. Brian began work on it and after repeated climbs to replace enough pieces it is up and seems to be working. The last replacement was complete about 6:30pm.

Installation of backhaul connections to Brimfield involved climb of Elmwood water tower, and grain legs at Brimfield and Williamsfield. Brimfield was not to be out during the upgrade, but did not configure properly and was down from 3:00 PM to 5:30 PM. Brimfield was not up until Brian configured equipment from Elmwood. Williamsfield was out from 9:00 AM until 4:00 PM. Williamsfield had to have modifications to antenna to allow it to be realigned, signal from 4PM until 10AM was weak. This realignment was done on Sunday morning when we climbed grain leg at Williamsfield to add mast to allow alignment of antenna. Both Elmwood and Brimfield should be improved by the upgrades.

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A truck trying to come through the alley behind our office caught the temporary line Verizon had installed last October. The line connecting us to the phone office spans the alley between us, and it carries all our T1s. This completely disconnected us from the Internet and our dial up customers. As Steve was calling Verizon representatives who really didn't know where Illinois was a local repairman who happened to be in telephone office began splicing the wires. Verizon has now promised to come out on Monday. They will look at the new box connected to the buried cable which they installed last December. I don't know when they will actually connect us. In the mean time we are less susceptible to rampaging trucks. The outage lasted until about 2:30 pm.

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Storm caused damage to equipment on Trivoli Tower/ Glasford also affected

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Antena installed to fix relay link to Canton failed back to temporary antenna

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Some equipment on one of our 'slave' towers in Canton was destroyed today, causing an outage for customers hooked directly to that tower. We have next dayed replacements and will be installing them as soon as they arrive tomorrow. Customers connected to that tower will receive one week's credit.

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We will be upgrading our Canton uplink tomorrow morning at 1am. This upgrade should be completed within 45 minutes but may take as long as two hours. Canton Customers will be unable to access the internet during the upgrade.

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At 5pm, there was a fifty minute power outage at one of our Canton towers. During the outage, approximately two fifths of our Canton customers were without service.

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