RemARQs

ARQ

Issue 22Internet Services | Internet SolutionsAugust, 2001

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

1 / Vmall Spotlight
1
2 / Welcome to the Family
Connectivity Problems
2 / ARQ People Pages

Vmall Spotlight

The rest of summer
By Brian Backhaus

Director of Sales and Marketing

With the start of August, summer is beginning to start its decline. Soon schools will be full of students, and warm sunny days become cold snowy days. Here are a few sites at ARQ’s Vmall that can help add some value to the days of summer left and help you prepare for the days that follow.

Four Bears Water Park–

Hot summer days need to be relieved with a trip to a water park. It is one of those things you must do at least once during the summer or it would not be summer.

Diedrich’s Berry Farm –

By now you have missed the strawberries, but do not miss the fresh produce picked right on the site.

Beck’s Farm Market –

A Michigan market complete with history and pictures from the beginning. Well worth the time to look.

Great Lakes Sailboat – –

Ok, so you will not be able to get a boat for this summer, but you can look ahead for next summer.

Hitch House –

If you have a boat, or a camper you need a hitch and here is the place get one. Who knew there would be so many to choose from?

Slick Shirts – –

Summertime means T-shirts and this is THE source. If you have a reunion, a sports team, or a business that needs a shirt here is the place to get them.

Keep an eye on ARQ’s Vmall ( in the next few months for even more new business web sites of interest. Is your company in the Vmall?

Welcome To The Family!

For those of you that may not have heard yet, ARQ and PhoneTech have recently undergone some organizational changes. To centralize Phone Tech’s service and support, the Florida/Southwest division of PhoneTech has consolidated with its Michigan division, ARQ Internet Solutions. We would like to stress that these changes are purely administrative and its impact on you as a PhoneTech customer will be minimal. The only additional change you should see is a new name on your billing.

To provide some background, ARQ is an ISP (Internet Service Provider) based in East Lansing, Michigan providing Internet access for individuals and corporations, in-house domain and web hosting, and web site design. As we say at ARQ, "If it touches the Internet, We do it!" Our staff of Internet professionals is ready to help. If you have any questions or comments please call us at (877) 819-1760 or email us at or . Again, thank you for your continued business, and we welcome PhoneTech to our growing Internet family.

Refer-A-Friend Program

Just refer a friend to ARQ and you will get

a $20 credit towards your next bill.

When your friend signs up, we’ll ask them how they heard about ARQ. They’ll give us your name or account name and we’ll credit your account when they pay their first bill!

ARQ Emails

For Technical support:

For all Business related questions:

Creating a website or edits to yours:

ARQ or PhoneTech websites:

For submitting resumes to ARQ:
For billing questions: .

Understanding Connectivity Problems

Sometimes I get disconnected - what could be causing this?
Line Noise - By far the most common cause of being abruptly disconnected from the Internet is line noise or interference. Even if your phone line "sounds OK" when talking over it, your modem is many times more sensitive to line conditions & can be severely affected by poor line conditions. Following are some well-known (and very common) things that may cause unwanted line noise inside your home:

  • Damaged or poor internal wiring / bad splices or terminations. Every place that your line is tapped into in any fashion is a potential problem area. Be sure that all splices are tight and clean. If you are not familiar with splicing wires, have a friend or relative help.
  • Fax machines, answering machines, or other modems on the same line. Again, a potential weak link because of the junction with the phone line, with the addition of active electronic devices.
  • Wireless transmit / receive devices. Same as above, however, if you are using a wireless "room extender" to run your computer line though you (as opposed to just having one in some part of the house for another extension) you may not connect very well at all because of the signal conversions that the devices perform. Remove this device and run a hard line to the room.
  • Satellite TV devices (Primestar, DirecTV). Again, a potential weak link because of the junction with the phone line, with the addition of active electronic devices.

If you think a device that is mentioned above may be causing problems, unplug it from the line (just turning it off probably won't help) and try your Internet connection again to see what affect it has.

Of course, there are several factors that can affect your connection outside your home as well, such as damaged lines, carrier devices, and even weather conditions. To determine if there are any outside factors at work, you will need to contact your phone provider.

When calling to have your line checked, rather than telling them it is computer related, tell them that you are having problems being heard by and hearing the other party (the second you mention computers or Internet they will pass your problem off on us, as they are obligated only to provide voice grade service to customers... voice grade is all a modem needs to function though, so your end result is having them service the line to improve the quality to voice grade). Also, your phone provider may not catch the problem the first time through - don't be afraid to ask them to check it again if the problem persists... but be absolutely sure that you have explored the other reasons listed below - they can't fix it if it's not broken :)

Call Waiting - Another major cause of being disconnected is forgetting to disable call waiting before you dial into the Internet. Everyone has heard the familiar "beep" when there is another call waiting - that beep is the equivalent to a heart attack for a modem - it will most likely hang up the connection if that happens. Call waiting can easily be disabled by placing a *70 (70# in some areas - consult your phone book) in front of the number to be dialed (I.E. *70 846-4700). This can be a permanent addition to the dialing process when changed in the "Dialup Properties" section of your dialer.

Picking up another extension - be sure that the other members of your household know you're online! If someone picks up the phone to make a call, you may lose your connection.

Inactivity timers –There are also settings in Windows 95/98 & Windows 3.1 that may disconnect you after a period of inactivity.

Poor modem quality - Let's face it - some modems are cheap and just don't work well... others perform well in certain conditions. Just because you have a modem doesn't mean its the right modem for your situation. A $40 USR Winmodem just doesn't compare to a $300 USR Courier - they are built differently & act differently. If your Internet time is important to you, don't use a cheap modem - get a good modem & save yourself many headaches!

The above reasons are very real and not intended to be excuses on our part for your connectivity problems. If you are having problems, please contact us immediately for assistance if you cannot determine the cause of the problem on your own. We are here to help you.

ARQ PEOPLE PAGES

By Marie Gallagher

Graphic Design & Support

With every personal account, you receive 10MB of webspace. You are free to upload your website from your computer to our servers and then you’ll be published! Your own personal website to put:

Photos of the new baby, dog, vehicle or that big fish that nobody believes you caught.

Your calendar to let the Grandparents know who’s going to camp and when.

Contact information like your new cel-phone number.

Journal entries because sometimes we just need to say stuff.

Anything else you care to publish or share with the world, or just your family and friends.

Arq has a small listing of our clients who have their personal pages on the web also. If you’d like to have your website added to the list, email . Include:

Name (the name you have on account with us)

Email Address (your Arq or Phonetech email address)

Page Title (what you’d like your website referred to as)

Website Description (optional and try to keep it short)

The listing will look like:
The Jones Family Website (title)

A Website dedicated to improving communication issues between the teenage children and the parents of the Jones family. (description)