Welcome to Inland Internet Inc.

Inland Internet Inc. is your local Internet Service Provider (ISP). With your account, you have full Internet access through your PPP account. With our service, you will have access to many Internet services. The World Wide Web (WWW), Electronic Mail (E-mail), Internet Relay Chat (IRC), File Transfer Protocol (FTP), Gopher, Usenet Newsgroups, and Telnet are some of the services that are available to you.

What are these Internet services?

The World Wide Web (WWW) is quickly becoming the most popular thing to use on the Internet. Many corporations frequently advertise their World Wide Web address on television. You may have seen something that looks like this "http://www.sony.com" on certain TV commercials. These "addresses" that start with http are telling you specific destinations that you can go to on the information superhighway. The WWW has caused an explosion in Internet growth because of its ease of use and its ability to provide information in a pleasing manner (pictures, sound, animation, text). The WWW is what many businesses and individuals are using to create their own "virtual existence" on the Internet. You can find pleasing information on almost any topic you can think of. Many companies provide rapid customer service on the "Web" (as it is sometimes called), online shopping, millions of computer files, and many other services. The WWW is usually the easiest thing to use for new users of the Internet. Using a program that is called a "Web Browser" (Netscape, Microsoft Internet Explorer, and Mosaic are some popular browsers) you are able to jump to any WWW site that allows public access. These browsers are starting to integrate many of the popular Internet services into themselves. This integration allows you to perform many functions such as FTP, E-mail, and Newsgroups that usually required separate programs to use.

Electronic Mail (E-mail) is probably the most widely used Internet service. Electronic Mail or E-mail for short is the digital representation of the traditional mail service from the US Post Office (sometimes called "snail mail" in the computer world). E-mail is an easy way to reach millions of people across the world. Because you have a true Internet account, your E-mail address is a valid Internet E-mail address. This means that anyone on the planet that is able to send and receive Internet E-mail will be able to send you mail and receive E-mail messages from you. Like your address at home, people need to know your street address, city, state, and zip code to send you something in the mail. Likewise, other people need to know your "address" at your "digital home". If they have this address (your E-mail address) they can send you messages to your mailbox at your "digital house". (For your E-mail address, see the New User Frequently Asked Questions at the end of this document.)

Internet Relay Chat (IRC) is an Internet service that allows you to "talk" to thousands of people across the planet. IRC allows people from all over the world to connect to special computers on the Internet that are called IRC servers. These servers manage all of the conversations that the thousands of people are having. You can choose to "talk" in a "room" with many other people or you may choose to talk privately to one or just a few people. Although new software is being developed to allow your actual voice to be transferred over the Internet, most people still just type words back and forth to each other in order to "talk" to each other.

File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is an Internet service that does exactly what its name implies, transfers files from one computer to another . There are many computer files available for download on the Internet. These files range from computer programs to text documents. FTP can be used as a separate Internet service with a separate FTP program or you can usually download (or FTP) a file directly from your "Web Browser" (see World Wide Web above).

Gopher is a service that organizes information into menus. Gopher is a global information delivery service that is distributed across the Internet. Every item on every gopher in the world is accessible to you. Much of the information that is available to you from a gopher server is becoming available on the WWW. Most of our customers use the WWW in place of gopher. There are some sites that contain information that you need that are only available through gopher. If that is the case, you have gopher services available to you.

Usenet Newsgroups can be thought of as thousands of virtual "cork" bulletin boards, with specific topics, that are available to almost everyone on the Internet. People post messages that relate to the boards topic on the "bulletin board". These messages can be viewed by anyone who chooses to read the bulletin boards (or newsgroup) messages. You can then reply to a message or post one of your own. There are newsgroups on almost every topic you can think of. These continuous online discussions are very popular among Internet users.

Telnet is an Internet service that allows you to connect to and log in to a remote computer. Most of our users only use the Telnet service when they want to change their password. Changing your password requires you to log in to our server, which is exactly what Telnet is designed for.

Some details about your Internet account

How our billing cycle works:

• *Check Customers*:
  We mail out invoices on the 22th of the previous month. The due date for your Internet access fee is the first of every month.
  If we do not receive your payment by 5:00pm on the 13th, we place your account on hold. Once your account has been placed on hold we cannot take it off hold until we receive a payment.
  ****EXAMPLE****
  Invoice e-mail/mailed June 22th
  Invoice due: July 1st
  July 5th reminder e-mail sent to customers. If payment still has not been received then .....
  July 13th at 5:00pm, account is locked and assessed a $3.00 late fee
  Account unlocked when payment has been received.
• *Credit Card Customers*:
  The due date for your Internet access fee is the first of every month.
  On (or the first week day) of the first of the month we will process your card for payment.
  Currently the credit card payments are being processed by Ridgenet (our partner ISP). This means that a charge from Ridgenet will show up on your statement. Please do not dispute this charge, it is legitimate.
  If your credit card is declined or has expired the Inland staff will contact you by phone and e-mail so arrangements can be made for your Internet access fee. If you have any question regarding billing please give us a call at 760 446-3501 or contact billing at billing@inland.net

How our system and other people identify you on the Internet

(login name, password, and security)

Our system manages your account by using your login name and your password. Your login name is PUBLIC information (it is okay if other people know it). It is the name that is used in your E-mail address and it is how you are distinguished from other people on the Internet. (Your login name is sometimes referred to as your "User ID", these two terms are used interchangeably for our purposes.) Your PASSWORD is NOT public information. Your password is how our system verifies that it is actually you that is calling in to use your access time. DO NOT give your password to anyone. Be careful to not allow unauthorized people to obtain your password. If another person obtains your password from you, or from any other source and is logged in to our system under your login name, your account WILL BE using your standard access time and WILL BE billed at the rates in effect at the time of use for any additional time used over your standard hours. It is very important that only authorized users are using your account. Take great care not to reveal your account password to unauthorized users. It is your responsibility to ensure that only authorized users are using your account. It is a good idea to change your password frequently so that unauthorized access does not occur. In any event, YOU are responsible for any and all charges that are incurred under your user id (login name). If your login name is logged in to our server, regardless of who actually is using the account, all charges incurred will be billed to your account. Please take great care to ensure the confidentiality of your password. It is wise to use fake words or a mixture of words and numbers in your password. IT IS NOT WISE to use a password that is easily guessed, such as any part of your real name, or anyone in your family. Things that are associated with you are prime targets for people who may try to guess your password to use your account illegally. Your login name must consist of ALL lowercase letters or numbers and must be a minimum of 2 characters and a maximum of 8 characters with no spaces or special characters. (Each letter or number represents a character.) Your PASSWORD must be a minimum of 5 characters and a maximum of 8, with no spaces or special characters. Your Password is case sensitive, which means that an uppercase T is different from a lowercase t. If your password is ALL letters it must contain at least one uppercase letter. (Please see the Service Agreement Terms and Conditions on your subscription application for more details.)

New User - Frequently Asked Questions

Q. What is my E-mail address?

A. Your E-mail address is your login name (user id) combined with @inland.net Therefore, if your login name is joe, then your E-mail address is: joe@inland.net

This is pronounced "Joe at inland dot net" This is your universal E-mail address, anyone that can send and/or receive Internet E-mail can send you E-mail at this address.

Q. What are the telephone numbers I can call to access Inland Internet's system?

A. The current Internet access numbers are: