TurboNet Newsletter 7/7/2005

This summer, we’re installing high-speed, wireless Internet Access points around Moscow. They use a new, very powerful kind of radio which can “hear” a notebook through a wall at about a mile away. Of course, if you add more walls, and trees, the distance decreases. If your notebook can get at least three bars on a Cactus HotSpot, stop by and sign up.

For tower computers, we can do a free site survey. $9.95/mo for the first 3 months. After that, it’s $19.95 for one computer or $24.95 for multiple computers in a household. We’re trying to keep maps updated at http://www.CactusHotspot.com. One of the nice points about our system is that your computer will be able to use any of the Cactus Hotspots. For lots of folks, with a stationary tower computer, that doesn’t matter, but for people who move around a lot with a notebook, it will be handy.

Computer Maintenance

In the summer, our service department sees a lot of overheating computers. To keep this from happening, we have some suggestions.

1. Keep your computer out of the sun.
2. Make sure the fans have room to blow – don’t keep the computer in a tight corner.
3. Blow out the fans and heat sinks with canned air to make sure they’re working their best.

How is the Fiber Project coming?

The wheels are grinding slowly, but it looks like Cactus will be connected to the new fiber-optic backbone and using it by the end of summer or early fall.

Beware of Scams

We received this email recently.

I placed a classified ad on your system and am pretty sure that someone is trying to scam me out of it. They are proposing to send me a foreign money order for over the amount of the item, then I cash it and return the excess money to the person they will have pick up my item for them. They are very determined and keep trying to talk me into doing this for them. I had heard of this scam before and it has been tried on me before, but never with this degree of persistence. It happened when I was trying to sell a horse about a year ago. They wanted to write the money order for $20,000 for a $3,500 horse! Most people don’t know, but the legal limit of an international postal money order is $700.00 and a US PMO is $1000.00. The scam is that the Money order is usually fake but it takes 60 days for it to come back that way. By then the scammer and the money you gave them as a refund are long gone.

I confess that I have become inured to the hundreds of spam and scam emails I receive daily and simply delete. The rule is: be wary. Yes, they will outright lie to you to get your money, and our area is not immune. In fact, the person quoted above has been hit twice by persistent attempts!