Hi all,
I felt it was time to give you an update on what is coming in 2008. It will be our 4th year of business and we will continue to bring you the most reliable service in the area as well as customer promotions to show our appreciation of your continued patronage.
Hardware & Dataline Upgrades
We will continue our upgrades with a few more towers this year. This will help reliability and increase throughput for each of them. We plan to continue to expand our bandwidth this year and also provide some new increased speed packages.
Expanded Coverage
We are in the process of negotiating a tower in the Fortune Lake area. We should know more in February. Also, there is a new product coming out that may allow us to consider the Beechwood Water Tower as an access point again. Coverage maps can be viewed at http://www.fast-air.net/coverage.html or see them under the Services menu of our website.

We also assisted in implementing coverage this fall for a new company called SonicNet in Phelps, WI. They currently have coverage in Phelps and will be expanding to Land O' Lakes, Eagle River, Watersmeet, and other possible areas this spring and summer. If you know anyone wanting high-speed Internet in those areas, have them check out their website (http://www.sonicnet.us) for contact information. Fast-Air Office Changes
We are in the process of switching places inside the Vic's TV building. Jerry will be moving his business to where I was located entering the side door of the building at 89 E Genesee Street, and Fast-Air will relocate to the front of the building. We are planning a Grand Opening in March to mark our 4th anniversary. So at this point, please use the front door of the building. The payment box will stay at its current location by the side door. I also hope to hire another installer. so I can spend more time in the office, and doing other boring administrative activities.

Spam - Many Kudos on Spamfilter
Many of you have given me very positve feedback on the the new spam filter we implemented in September. This is a privately developed filter from a company in Colorado and has continued to work very well. At this point we get about 30,000 emails per day with only about 15% of them being valid messages. The mail quantity continues to increase each month so the filter is certainly doing its job.

Lightning & Power Surge Protection
With spring coming, lightning storms will also be coming. We had many hits last year, primarily to customers who had bad surge protectors. It is important to remember that surge protectors are ONLY good for one strike. After that they are no more than a power strip. The better surge protectors have a protection light on them to signify they are still good. An even better solution is a UPS (Uninterrupted Power Supply). These units have better surge protection and backup power in the event of a power outage. These typically run about $40 and up, but do withstand multiple spikes. I use these on all my computers and network equipment and can not remember the last time I had a problem with any hardware.
Keeping Your Connection at Top Speed
We have added a lot of customers since the last newsletter, so I want to stress the need to have and run spyware removal programs. We recommend Ad Aware and Spybot and to run them at least once a month to keep your connection at top speed. Note: We still recommend AVG Anti-Virus for anti-virus protection.

We have found that Mozilla Firefox significantly reduces the amount of spyware that gets on your computer. We strongly recommend using this browser over Internet Explorer. You can download this from our website or at this link - Firefox

I must continue to emphasize the importance of disabling file sharing when using downloaders. When I encounter users with this functionality enable, I will send a reminder/warning. If this does not resolve the problem, I will then issue a second warning and turn their speed down significantly. A third instance will result in termination of the account. You can find instructions on disabling file sharing at the Setting up downloaders link under the Troubleshooting & Tips.

For more information on how to keep your internet speed up, go to the link Maintaining your Internet Connection Speed or find it under the Help & Support menu and then Troubleshooting & Tips.
Customer Appreciation
We will continue to give out referral credits and free month drawing for 2008. You can see the 2007 winners on our website 2007 Free Month Winners. I just want to thank you all for your continued patronage. I like giving back to my customers for their loyalty.

Your Feedback
I would appreciate your feedback. If you have had any issues, have any questions, any suggestions, or comments. please let me know. You can reply to this message, or use the contact us page on the Fast-Air website. 

Thank you for your patronage and getting the word out to the community about our Internet service. Feel free to forward this to others or refer them to the Newsletter link under the Company menu on the Fast-Air Web-site.