Venus Telephone Corporation

Your Complete Communications Provider

GENERAL INFORMATION

Venus Telephone Corporation offers all of it's customers DSL - High Speed Internet. We are able to penetrate to 100% of our customers, unlike some of the other larger local telephone companies. DSL, or Digital Subscriber Line, uses a different frequency on your phone line than the one you use for voice and fax applications. With DSL, you are able to talk on the phone and surf the Internet at the same time, on the same phone line. With dial-up a second phone line would be necessary to support these two functions simultaniously.

DETAILS

DSL requires some installation, which is FREE (the first time you get hooked up). DSL prices include Internet Access. With DSL you must have either an Ethernet Card or a USB to Etherent Adapter and a USB port on your PC. You must have a phone jack in the vicinity of your computer. Otherwise a phone jack will need to be installed. Charges will apply if a jack is required. We require customers to use Windows 98 or newer operating systems for DSL. No Windows 95 applications will be installed. With DSL, there is a mandated 1 year contract. If this contract is broken, a $95 installation fees applies - which is waived if you keep it for a year.
Along with your DSL Service, you will also get protection from hackers, with a Private IP Address, that is almost impossible to hack through, Up to (5) email addresses, and 5 Mb or server space to store files and or host websites.

COSTS

With DSL, you have 3 choices of speeds to choose from
384k down / 128k up ---- $39.00 / month
768k down / 384k up ---- $45.00 / month
1Mb down / 500k up ---- $60.00 / month

OTHER INFORMATION

If you require a technician from Venus Telephone to come out because of an Internet Connection problem, and the problem is found to be in your computer, a $35.00 House Call fee will apply. If it is a wireless problem that is found to be on your end - a $50.00 fee will apply.
You will be given (1) Static IP Address, that belongs to only you. This enables your computer to be on our "High Speed Network". Most ISP's set up for DHCP or dynamic (random) IP Addresses, here at Venus, you have the same IP address all the time.

If you want to hook up more than one computer, you'll need to purchase a DSL Ethernet Router. Rather than hooking the DSL modem directly to your PC, our DSL modem will hook directly to your router, which normally has 4 outputs for 4 computers. Remember, you only have one IP address. This static IP must be entered into your router if you have multiple computers, then your computer must be set to DHCP to get random IP Addresses from your Router. If you ever eliminate your router for troubleshooting, or router failure, be sure to put your static IP addresses back into your computer.

DSL is many times faster than dial-up. Keeping this in mind, Viruses can come into your computer much quicker also. With DSL it is extremly important to have an up-to-date, current anti-virus program. There are many out there to choose from. Even if you are not surfing the internet, you still have a live connection vulnerable to viruses, because with DSL you are online whenever your computer is powered up. To dispell a rumor, NO, you can not get a virus when you computer is turned off.

We personally recommend leaving your system up and running the majority of the time, only restarting once a week or so. By doing this, your system is able to get Operating System Updates, Anti-Virus Updates, and all other updates when you are not surfing. This keeps everything, up to date. Of coarse your computer will need to be set for such activities - Automatic Updates and such. The purpose of restarting once a week or two is to clear out the virtual memory being used when your PC is on.

If you are having troubles with your DSL, please call Venus Telephone and report the problem. Our Help desk is mainly for Dial-up users as far as internet connections go. The help desk will still be able to help you with email, and other application questions and problems though. The help-desk telephone number is 354-6001.