Cruzio Newsletter - Number 68, September 18, 2003
1. Continuing the Sale: Cruzio DSL $29.95 per month
2. Please Come to Our Small Business Fair
3. Cruzio's New Spam Weapon
4. Busy Phones
5. Did You Remove Your Virus?
6. Why are Viruses Worse Than Ever?
7. Tips on Spam
8. Older DSL Modems with New DSL Accounts
9. Buddy Bucks: Sign Up a Friend for Cruzio Credit
10. Late Fees/Cans
11. About This Newsletter
12. How to Reach Cruzio (dial-in or tech support)
1. Continuing the Sale: Cruzio DSL $29.95 per month
We're extending our popular DSL special until Dec 30, 2003:
High Speed DSL service now costs just $29.95 per month plus tax
for the first year. (The tax is called FUSF tax; it's about
$2.82 per month.) A DSL modem is required: they're available
at Cruzio and online.
This is a great price for a service that's starting to seem
like a necessity on today's Internet. Cruzio is seeing ten or
more people a day signing up for the service.
By the way, the areas served by DSL are going to expand again,
probably early next year. If you haven't been able to get DSL,
we will let you know when to give it another try.
For more info about Cruzio DSL, see
http://www.cruzio.com/services/highspeed_access/
and if you are ready to order:
https://quartz.cruzio.com/dslorder/order_dsl.html
2. Please Come to Our Small Business Fair
Last four Wednesday evenings in October
4:30-7 p.m., the Museum of Art and History,
Downtown Santa Cruz
If you run a small business -- even if you are just thinking
about it -- it's fascinating to hear other local businesspeople
tell their stories and answer "how do you do it?" Even better,
potentially, is meeting other folks and listening to their
comments and ideas.
Every year, certain speakers energize the room and we all feel
more enthusiastic, confident, and better prepared for the year
to come.
Join Cruzio in its 5th year of panel discussions featuring
successful small business leaders bringing practical tips and real
world expertise to local growing small businesses. Networking
opportunities, raffle prizes, and refreshments will follow each
discussion.
TOPICS:
* October 8th, "Growing Your Business"
* October 15th, "Generating Sales and Keeping Customers"
* October 22nd, "Technology Choices for Small Businesses"
* October 29th, "Achieving Online Success"
Cost for Cruzio customers:
$30 each evening, or $100 for all 4 evenings if you pre-register;
$40 at the door
To pre-register, call Cruzio at 459.6301 x247 or visit
http://www.smallbusinessfair.com
3. Cruzio's New Spam Weapon
Recently, spam so flooded the Internet that our email servers
slowed noticeably. Alacritous Engineer Mark came to the rescue
immediately and installed new spam-fighting software. If you
check your Cruzio Control Panel, you'll see new choices at the
advanced filter level. Currently, this new spam software is working
for customers with cruzio.com mailboxes; custom domains will
follow soon.
The new filter puts a score on your email based on patterns
which indicate it might be junk. You pick a score. Email above that
score will be filtered. You can modify your chosen level at any time
through your Cruzio Control Panel. Or just stick with the level
chosen by default.
It's simpler than our earlier scheme, and the software is less
stressful on the server, so we believe Cruzio will be able to
handle the load more easily.
Spam is a constant battle, and we apologize for any inconvenience.
Please check your Cruzio Control Panels (ask support if you need
help -- email support@cruzio.com or call us at 459-6301 #4)
and enjoy the new, free spam-blasting service!
4. Busy Phones
Recently, when we were able to lower our rates, DSL sales
shot through the roof. Cruzio is currently selling nearly four
times our previous monthly volume. So we are sorry if the phones
at Cruzio are, temporarily, busier than usual. Please be assured
that we are getting to all the calls and requests, and hold
times are still rarely over a few minutes. We are working to
handle the extra volume better. Thanks for your patience.
5. Did You Remove Your Virus?
During the recent Blaster worm epidemic, some Cruzio users'
computers were affected. Cruzio helped folks fix the problem
in a two-step process. The first step was to repair the computer
sufficiently so that it could get on the Internet. The second
step was to completely scrub the worm off the computer.
A handful of Cruzio users performed the first step, but were
unable to complete the second one. Despite their best efforts,
probes were still pouring forth from their computers. To the
user, the computer looked fine. But Cruzio was able to detect
which computers were still infected.
Cruzio had to prevent these customer computers from sending
damaging worm data to the network, which in some cases meant
cutting the computers off from the Internet until the worms
were removed. The process has nearly completed.
We understand that people out there aren't always familiar
enough with computer technology to understand how to react
to a virus. And sometimes, the infection mutates so quickly
that the first attempt must be followed by more steps. No
worries! Just contact Cruzio with any questions and please
try to follow instructions completely.
6. Why are Viruses Worse Than Ever?
You've heard old timers, surely, reminiscing about the old days
when a computer the size of a house could do fewer computations
than a modern cellular phone.
Computers are super-powerful now. And they are linked to each
other via a high-speed interconnection called the Internet. Without
being consciously aware of it, we've all become part of a huge
and powerful organism -- not a living organism but a computing
network. Along with the power comes the responsibility of being
a part of this huge entity: responsible computer use. That means
watching out for viruses and protecting yourself and the network
against them.
Virus, worm, and trojan horse creators are depending on all of
us to spread their infections. Virus writers use unwitting victims'
software on victims' computers to flood the Internet with probes,
searching for other unaware computers and planting the damaging
software on their computers, too.
Victims do not give explicit commands for the virus to issue forth
from their computers, but by leaving computers unguarded they
give permission indirectly.
Viruses damage computers in two ways. First, they often damage
files on your computer or prevent computers from working properly.
Generally it's not permanent damage, and if you've kept good
backups you'll be fine.
You do keep good backups, right?
Viruses can also slow or stop any network that infected computers
connect to. The viruses send out so much data that connections
between computers (such as servers, routers, and data lines) are
overwhelmed. Just a few powerful computers (and lots of us have
them) on a fast, always-on connection (like DSL) can bring down
service for many people.
By paying attention we can prevent damage to our own computers and
those of others. How do we know what to do?
Cruzio will help you with low-cost suggestions to defeat the latest
virus, whatever it is, but you can have a much higher level of
protection if you are proactive:
-- Use virus-scanning software to scan your computer every
few days or more
-- Read instructions carefully, and follow through completely
-- Read Cruzio's informative page about viruses:
http://www.cruzio.com/support/security/virus_info.html
On Cruzio's side, we have virus scanning software and firewalls
which prevent known viruses or worms from entering our
networks. The most dangerous time, of course, is when a strain
of virus isn't yet known or understood. That's when we all need
to pitch in.
Thanks for helping us maintain a fast, reliable Internet!
7. Tips on Spam
The longer you've had your email address, the more likely it is
that a spam house has somehow grabbed it and is selling it to
spammers all over the Internet. Some of the longtime customers
are suffering the most. Cruzio can help you to shift your
email addresses so you can start over fresh if you need to.
Tips from Tapati, who works in Cruzio's Finance Department and has
been active on the Internet from early on:
Use one of your extra mailboxes just for placing orders and buying
things on the Internet. You often need to give an address to receive the
confirmation of your order. Tapati created a separate mailbox just for
such email and finds that it is always packed with spam; in other words,
some companies out there are selling email addresses. When she orders
something, she checks her confirmation mailbox. Otherwise, she just
deletes all the email in there.
The second tip from Tapati is to open a new mailbox for family and
friends only. DON'T use that one for other purposes. She finds her
personal mailbox gets virtually no spam at all.
All Cruzio email customers get 6 mailboxes, so you can generally
set up a "confirmation" mailbox free of charge.
8. Older DSL Modems with New DSL Accounts
If you have an older DSL modem, a year or more old, and you get
a new DSL account, you may have to change some settings on your
modem.
DSL is generally so trouble-free for customers that this comes
as a surprise, so we thought we'd mention it. A lot more people
these days are coming to us after having a previous DSL account,
either at Cruzio or at another provider. Changing modem settings
is a simple process, and if you aren't sure how to proceed Cruzio
Support will be glad to help.
9. Buddy Bucks
Recommend us to a friends, family, colleagues: if a new customer
gives us your email address, id number, or full name when they
sign up you'll get $10 credit to your account. If two friends
sign up, $20. Three friends, $30. It just goes on and on.
10. Late Fees/Cans
If you're late on a payment to Cruzio, turn it into a donation
to hungry folks in our community. We will waive your late
fee if you bring 3 cans into our office for our Second Harvest
Food Bin barrel. Learn more about this charity at
http://www.thefoodbank.org
12. About This Newsletter
Cruzio doesn't like to waste bandwidth with extra email, but we sometimes
have events and announcements that users need to know about. This seems
like the most efficient way to let people know what's happening. Hope
it's helpful. Please email support@cruzio.com with any comments or questions.
By the way, we would love to have a regular, predictable schedule
for this newsletter...but we simply do not send it unless there is real
news enclosed. Thus the haphazard datelines.
13. How to Reach Cruzio (dial-in or tech support)
To reach the Cruzio Information Center, for online technical and
sales information:
http://www.cruzio.com/support
To dial in to Cruzio, set your software to dial one of the numbers
below (note: we've expanded and joined modem pools, so you may be
using another number. If so, don't worry, it still works just fine).
56k: 459-9408
33.6 kbps and under: 459-6230
To call Cruzio:
459-6301............Use this number to check Cruzio's system status,
pay your Cruzio bill, find out more about our hours and location,
or to reach someone in customer service and technical support.
To send email to Cruzio, use one of these addresses:
support@cruzio.com ......for technical support
office@cruzio.com .......for billing and ordering information
Cruzio's location:
903 Pacific Avenue, Suite 101, Santa Cruz, CA 95060
Cruzio's hours:
Sales hours: 10am-6pm, Monday through Friday; 10 am - 2 pm Saturday
Technical support: 10-6 pm, Monday through Friday, 10am - 2pm Saturday
System monitoring, including customer-alerted emergencies, 24 hours
per day, 365 days per year (leap years, 366 days)
Thanks very much from Cruzio:
Chris, Peggy, Julianne, Kathy, Mark, Martin, Georgette,
Tapati, Pedro, Alec, Stephen, Paul, Gershom, Jessi, Michael,
another Chris, Maria, Ezra, James, Juana, Krissie, Nikkie,
Mike, Mario, Don, Bruce, Jason (who, along with Ezra, is Cruzio's
second intern to graduate to real employee! Congratulations!)
(the grownups); Jake, Annika, and Carly (the kids)
Carly, age 6:
"Oh Mommy, if there was Rapunzel Barbie breakfast cereal,
that would be delightful!"
(She's going through a Rapunzel Barbie stage.)
