Surf's Up Newsletter--September 2001 Edition

Labor Day Hours
Atlantic.Net's offices and Member Services call center will be closed Monday, September 3rd in observance of Labor Day. The call center will close at midnight and will re-open at 12 a.m. on Tuesday, September 4th. The Network Operations Center will continue to be monitored during this time. Have a safe and happy holiday weekend!

Dial-up Services Now Available Nationwide
Atlantic.Net's fast, reliable dial-up services are now available across the country. The new service area extends our local coverage to more than 85 percent of the U.S. with more than 1,100 access numbers. This means you can take your Atlantic.Net account with you when you move or travel and still get the same high-quality service and support that you've grown to expect from your Internet service provider. In addition, you can refer Atlantic.Net to friends and family throughout the country and receive a month of free service when they sign up.

Atlantic.Net Gets a Makeover
Visitors to Atlantic.Net's corporate Web site will notice a new look. The site has been overhauled with fresh design created by Atlantic.Net's in-house Web design team. New features include a blue and turquoise color scheme, a more logical site navigation, and an expanded About Us section. Please let us know what you think!

	Announcements	In This Issue: Atlantic.Net@Home • Grandparents Day Ideas • Online Reference Tools • New at Surf.Atlantic.Net • How to Stop Spam Atlantic.Net@Work • Secure Your Network • Marketing Tips for Your Site Contact Us Join our team! Atlantic.Net is always on the lookout for talented people to join our growing company. Check out our job postings online.
	Labor Day Hours Atlantic.Net's offices and Member Services call center will be closed Monday, September 3rd in observance of Labor Day. The call center will close at midnight and will re-open at 12 a.m. on Tuesday, September 4th. The Network Operations Center will continue to be monitored during this time. Have a safe and happy holiday weekend! Dial-up Services Now Available Nationwide Atlantic.Net's fast, reliable dial-up services are now available across the country. The new service area extends our local coverage to more than 85 percent of the U.S. with more than 1,100 access numbers. This means you can take your Atlantic.Net account with you when you move or travel and still get the same high-quality service and support that you've grown to expect from your Internet service provider. In addition, you can refer Atlantic.Net to friends and family throughout the country and receive a month of free service when they sign up. Atlantic.Net Gets a Makeover Visitors to Atlantic.Net's corporate Web site will notice a new look. The site has been overhauled with fresh design created by Atlantic.Net's in-house Web design team. New features include a blue and turquoise color scheme, a more logical site navigation, and an expanded About Us section. Please let us know what you think!
	Atlantic.Net@Home
	National Grandparents Day You already know you're supposed to "Honor thy father and mother." But what about thy father's father and thy mother's mother? On National Grandparents Day, September 9th, we can connect with our parents' parents in ways we often forget. The holiday began in 1970, when Marian McQuade, a West Virginia housewife who spent many hours working with lonely nursing home residents, started campaigning for a special day just for grandparents. As a result, West Virginia Governor Arch Moore proclaimed the first Grandparents Day in 1973. Five years later, President Jimmy Carter proclaimed the first Sunday after Labor Day each year as National Grandparents Day. Check out these sites for more information and ideas on how to celebrate this holiday by honoring your grandparents. Official Site: Read a detailed history of the holiday. For teachers: Discover ideas for teachers and students. For families: Pick out activities for grandparents and grandchildren to do together. For grandparents: Visit iGrandparents.com for more ways to celebrate. For children: Find some cool books about grandparents. Mail Just 4 Me: Send your grandparents a handmade postcard. Gifts for Grandparents: Give Grandpa some gourmet coffee, and send Grandma an assortment of Belgian chocolates. Surfin' Safari School's back in session, so bookmark these handy online reference tools. • Dictionary & Thesaurus You can look up definitions and synonyms at Merriam-Webster OnLine. Better still, download Atomica, a free personal software tool that offers definitions, pronunciations, synonyms, and related links. Once you install the program, simply press and hold the "Alt" key and click on a word while while you're using any application. Instantly, Atomica will pop-up with information about the term. • Quotations & Books At Bartleby.Com, you can use a keyword search to find famous quotations, presidential speeches, classic prose, Biblical verse, etiquette tips, and more. • Web Encyclopedia Britannica and Encarta offer a selection of A to Z info, and while it's not technically an encyclopedia, RefDesk.Com can probably help you find the rest. • Technical Terms If you need help defining Internet-related terms, visit Webopedia or The EDTN Network's ecyclopedia. • Online Tutoring Visit Tutor.Com for live homework help from qualified instructors in a variety of subjects for as little as $20 an hour. New at Surf.Atlantic.Net Now you can find the information you need when you need it at Surf, the portal created just for Atlantic.Net members like you. 1) Get the 411! Browse the newly launched Web Directory with categorized links that take you exactly where you want to go on the Internet. Unlike most search engines, the Web Directory links are actually edited and maintained by human volunteers. So, you're less likely to run into a frustrating dead-end search! 2) Rain or shine? Before you travel or head outdoors, get the latest current conditions, forecasts, and other weather information at Surf. Tech Tips: How to Stop Spam You probably wouldn't want to find a loaf of slimy lunch meat in your mailbox each day, and discovering unsolicited e-mail (AKA "Spam") in your inbox is just as unpleasant. Here's what you can do to repel the online version of mystery meat. 1) When you respond to an online survey or fill out a form, read the site's "Privacy Policy" before giving out your e-mail address. The policy, which is usually found at the bottom of the page or in an "About Us" section, explains how the company plans to use the information it collects about you. 2) Create a separate e-mail account to use whenever you suspect your address may be distributed. Only give out your personal e-mail address to friends, family, and organizations you trust to send only the information you want to receive. 3) Beware of checkboxes on forms that attempt to sign you up for "information that may be of interest to you." Some sites automatically check these, and you have to manually deselect the box to ensure that your address is not added to an e-mailing list. 4) Some e-mail programs such as Outlook Express include a "Blocked Senders List." You can activate this tool so that messages from repeat spammers are automatically moved to your "Deleted Items" folder. You can also sort out messages that contain certain keywords in the message body. In addition to following these tips to reduce the spam you receive, return the favor to your friends and family by not sending spam yourself. Spam is any unsolicited broadcast e-mail, and that includes any chain letters, petitions, and forwarded jokes that you're tempted to share. Do you part to eliminate spam by refusing to clutter your pals' inboxes with unwelcome messages, and your friends will always be delighted to see e-mail from you! You can find more info about these and other self-help topics, at Atlantic.Net's Support Web site.
	Atlantic.Net@ Work
	True Private Network The ultimate way to connect offices and secure your data Now, exchanging sensitive data between remote offices is secure and cost-effective. With a True Private Network (TPN) from Atlantic.Net, employees can share internal documents and customer information between locations over a fully-managed, private network that's safe and doesn't impede your network's performance. More secure than virtual private networks (VPN) With VPN, your data must be encrypted, because it travels along the same path as public data. Conversely, data on a True Private Network passes through a totally private segment on the Atlantic.Net "pipe," much like a tunnel built alongside a busy interstate. More cost-effective than VPN Unlike VPN, True Private Networks are network-based and require no additional hardware and no upgrades. TPN also is fully managed by Atlantic.Net, so you can lower the cost of maintaining your network. More reliable than VPN True Private Networks are centrally managed by Atlantic.Net around the clock, so problems can be isolated and resolved quickly. Plus, since TPNs are network-based, you'll decrease the odds of equipment failure. Better quality of service Because all the endpoints on your private network are on Atlantic.Net, you have a single point of contact and qualified engineers can resolve potential problems before they affect you. Flexible and scalable Atlantic.Net's TPN technology works with a variety of dedicated access methods, from DSL to point-to-point T-1/T-3. Also, because True Private Networks are not equipment-based like VPNs, they have no limitations on the number of sites that are connected and require no additional configuration changes as your network expands. For more information about True Private Networks, contact an Atlantic.Net sales executive at 1-800-521-5881 or sales@atlantic.net. How to Market Your Web Site If your company's site isn't generating the traffic or revenue you'd hoped, try these tips. • Advertise. Print your Web site address on business cards, letterhead, flyers, banners, and company literature. Consider trading links with vendors or buying ad space on other sites to drive traffic to yours. • Redesign. Make sure your page loads quickly, is easy to navigate, and looks attractive. Consider hiring a professional design firm to overhaul your site. • Give basic information. Post your business operating hours, include maps to your store, and offer details about your services. • Create compelling content. Make your site both helpful and interesting to your customers. If the content doesn't change, visitors aren't likely to return. • Include special offers. Give your Web customers reasons to come back. Offer coupons or discounts that customers must visit your site to print out. • Work the search engines. You can pay sites such as GoTo search engine to list your site at the top when users search with related keywords. Visit GoTo for more information. • Make your site name easy to remember. If you've got a great company name, use it for your domain name, and snatch up any Web addresses that are related to your product or business name. You can also purchase domain names that end with ".net" and ".org" and redirect them to your ".com" address. • Respond quickly to customer problems. If customers don't receive answers right away, they get frustrated.
	Contact Us Mail Atlantic.Net, Inc. 2815 NW 13th Street, Suite 201 Gainesville, FL 32609 Phone Member Services (352) 336-7716 or (800) 921-9328 Business Office (352) 375-2912 or (800) 422-2936 Commercial Sales (800) 521-5881 E-mail Commercial Sales Residential Billing Inquiries Commercial Billing Inquiries Technical Support Member Services Web http://www.atlantic.net http://support.atlantic.net http://surf.atlantic.net Other Contact Information
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September 2001 Edition			A Monthly Newsletter for Atlantic.Net Members