Winning E-Story Submitted by: Diane Stefan

Twas the week before Christmas at my desk in my house, was checking out websites quickly moving my mouse. I was shopping like crazy for folks far and near, finding perfect gifts for those I hold dear. Then I stopped for a minute, remembered pre-Christmas '06 internet surfing had been painful, it had never been quick. Going from site to site used to take all day...while the screen slowly downloaded my hair turned quite gray! Then early last summer we got DSL, we had called NATCO and wow, they were swell! In the blink of an eye the modem was linked and right away I changed sites as quick as a wink. I've had no problems so I give NATCO great praise, with Brooks-Jeffrey's help well, they've made my days! Now my shopping goes fast and my emails just fly all my online connections are flawless - here's why: NATCO makes sure everything works just right with their maintenance checks which they do Wednesday night. And if I find a problem all I need do is call, a friendly tech will help me So I say, THANK YOU ALL!!

Diane Stefan just earned two free months of NATCO Internet service! Submit your E-Story today and you could be our next winner! Remember that you can enter more than once. So, if you didn't win this time, try again! Just go to www.natcotech.com/estories.htm and tell us how using NATCO's Internet or e-mail service has made your life easier, helped you promote or manage your business, or simply how much you enjoy using the Internet and e-mail. If your E-Story is chosen, you'll win two months of free NATCO dialup Internet service ($19.95 X 2 = $39.90) or an equivalent credit on your DSL account.

Move Up from Dialup to WildBlue Satellite Internet

If you're currently a dialup customer because you cannot receive DSL service, we may have another solution: WildBlue satellite speed Internet. NATCO Tech wants its customers to enjoy the highest speed Internet service possible. We’re glad to accept new customers for WildBlue satellite speed Internet service. For a limited time, the customer equipment needed for satellite Internet will start at $99.95, a substantial reduction from its regular price. This is a limited offer - call today for additional details - 800-775-6682.

Dialup customers living in areas where there is no access for DSL can get the higher speed Internet service WildBlue can bring – up to 1.5 Mbps with our Pro Pack. Your family or business can save money on your monthly service by choosing the Value Pack (512 Kbps) or Select Pack (1 Mbps). Give us a call today.

Two Trained for WildBlue Installation

Mark Stockdale and Larry Barber of NATCO Technologies are now certified to install and service WildBlue satellite speed Internet equipment. The National Rural Telecommunications Cooperative sponsored the certification course. NATCO Plant Manager and VP Steven G. Sanders Jr., said both Stockdale and Barber passed a three-part online training course before the hands-on training at York, Nebraska.

WildBlue satellite speed Internet is offered by NATCO Tech to customers who do not have access to DSL broadband Internet service. WildBlue is the provider to NATCO and other telephone companies that partner with the NRTC to offer high-speed Internet by satellite to rural residents.

NATCO Announces Yellow Page Contact

Beginning in March, businesses in Marion and Boone County as well as Baxter County will be contacted by Hanson Publishing about their placement in the yellow pages of the Ozark Regional Directory. It is the official telephone directory of NATCO, headquartered in Flippin.

NATCO’s directory covers 31 telephone exchanges in Marion, Boone and Baxter counties in one combined section, including Mountain Home and Harrison, and reverse listings (by phone number) for the same 31 exchanges, also in one combined section.

New businesses and past participants in the Ozark Regional yellow pages may call NATCO at 1-800-775-6682 to arrange to speak with Hanson Publishing representatives - please call NATCO today.

If you happen to miss the deadline for our printed yellow pages, you can always advertise in our online yellow pages. For more information about NATCO's Online Yellow Pages, visit natcotech.com/yellowpages.

Tech Support Always Available

Whenever a NATCO Tech customer has a question, Tech Support is available. If it’s late at night or early in the morning, if it’s a holiday, if it’s the weekend – just call. Remember that the service is free to you as a service of NATCO Tech, and the call is toll-free (1-888-276-8059).

Outlook Also Fights Spam

Spam filtering now comes built-in with the Outlook e-mail program from Microsoft. If you use Outlook and you're interested in more spam protection, enable that feature after reviewing the details on Microsoft's website.

Fiber Upgrade to Top $2 Million

NATCO's fiber optic cable transmission line upgrade, almost complete, will place more than 50 miles of fiber optic cable to more than 20 remote subscriber carrier locations and will top $2 million. Customers in some exchanges will have broadband services available to them for the first time, and DSL speeds will be improved in all exchanges.

“We are taking the network that was developed in the late 1980s and early 90s to the next step getting more bandwidth to the customer premise,” Plant Manager Steven G. Sanders Jr. commented. The project underway began in 2006 and reflects careful planning for this mass deployment throughout the service area.

Fiber optic cable uses light pulses to transmit information down fiber (glass) lines, instead of electronic pulses down copper lines, which were standard telephone wire for many years, followed by coaxial cable.

Video Sharing Options

If you are making a video and wish to share it online, you may do so at YouTube. It must be less than 10 minutes and compressed to less than 100 megabytes. It can be shared or private on YouTube.

Other alternatives are to upload it to one of the big-file sharing sites, such as YouSendIt, MailBigFile and DropLoad. Your recipients can then download the file.

See You at Spring Events

Several annual spring events help local businesses visit with their customers at one convenient location. NATCO Tech is looking forward to attending at least two of those events. We hope to see you at the Twin Lakes Home Builders 18th Annual Home Show, April 4 & 5, and the Mountain Home Chamber of Commerce’s Business Expo on May 10. Each event takes place at the Baxter County Fairgrounds. Please stop at our booth and bring us any questions you may have.

Protect Your Computer

Lightning and power surges can wreak havoc on your computer's internal components. Even unnoticed fluctuations in current flowing into your system may degrade performance and cause gradual damage to your hardware. The simplest solution is to purchase and install a surge protector.

Surge protectors plug into an electrical outlet and offer multiple outlets through which you may provide power to other devices; however, their most important feature is the ability to prevent powerful electrical surges from destroying the equipment that is plugged into them. One of the most common mistakes when purchasing a surge protector for a computer is to neglect to buy one which will protect your modem. Dangerous currents may travel through the telephone line (or coaxial cable) and damage your modem; sometimes the current continues beyond the modem and damages the computer. When purchasing a surge protector, you should make sure it has the appropriate ports for either a telephone line (if you have dial-up or DSL) or coaxial jacks (if you have a cable-based Internet service).

Note: If you have trouble running a DSL modem through a surge protector, the protector may be the problem. Try running the modem directly to the phone jack on the wall to see if the modem performance improves. If so, the protector should be replaced with a model that can continue to protect your modem without impairing performance.

Precaution should be used when buying a surge protector. Some "power strips" appear identical to surge protectors but offer no real protection. When purchasing a surge protector, check for the words "surge protection" or similar on the packaging or ask a sales associate.

Surge protectors offer great protection for little cost. All computer users should invest in surge protectors to protect their systems.

Two Searches Onscreen at Once

If you’d like to search Google.com and Yahoo.com at the same time, (or others – choose from 11) Internet entrepreneur Bobby Kalili has made that easier. Using SearchBoth.com will bring up a split screen with Google results on one side and Yahoo results on the other. Kalili says Google and Yahoo are the top two search engines in this country and both need to be checked in order to secure accuracy of your search.

Kalili first developed the combination Google and Yahoo search site for his personal use because he got tired of going back and forth between both sites. "That ultimately got annoying enough where I just developed a service to have both websites on one screen, side by side," he said.

The site also allows users to compare 11 leading travel sites, and to compare two telephone number searches (YellowPages.com and SuperPages.com). The SearchBoth™ family of websites is owned and operated by Internet Labz, Inc.

Internet Safety for Teens

Parents and teens agree! At least on this - teens are not careful with their personal information online. Many sources, including The Lion magazine in November, quoted studies showing 81 percent of parents and 79 percent of teens, themselves, believe teens aren't careful when volunteering personal information.

Parents should have a safe-computer contract with their teen about the use of social networking sites and computer use in general. Other recommendations include:

• Know each of your child's passwords, screen names, and account information


• Put computers in a visible family area of the home


• Tell teens that you will monitor what they and their friends post online (Teens often link their accounts together.)


• Talk about other access they have to computers, cell phones, and PDAs they might use to share private information


• Report criminal behavior to the appropriate law enforcement agency, including the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children's Cybertipline at www.CyberTipLine.com or the Internet Fraud Complaint Center at www.ic3.gov

Win a South Shore Gift

When you visit the South Shore website at www.southshore.com, you'll have a chance to win a South Shore souvenir, like a T-shirt, a cap, chiller cups, and other necessities for the great South Shore outdoors. The South Shore website is an electronic community for the towns on and near the south shore of Bull Shoals Lake, and it's packed with information for you and for our tourist visitors.

Nicole Tatar is this month's winner of a coffee mug. Congratulations, Nicole Tatar.

Weekly Maintenance on Wednesday

Each Wednesday morning from 12:01 A.M. until 5 A.M., NATCO Technologies performs regular maintenance on Internet equipment. Your Internet service should not be affected. But, if you do experience an interruption in service during this time, please try again a few moments later. We try to minimize any "down time" by doing our maintenance at a regular time each week.

All users agree to terms and guidelines published at www.natcotech.com/guideline.htm.

Feedback: NATCO invites readers' comments about the e-newsletter and suggestions for future articles. Let us know what information in the e-newsletter is most useful or what Internet issues are important to you. Readers may send suggestions for future e-newsletter articles, questions or comments to: custserv@natconet.com.

Want to view previous issues? Visit: e-newsletter archives.

NATCO Technologies does not endorse or recommend any software or program. The purpose of the articles included in this newsletter is to keep our customers informed. We do not provide free technical support for software or programs such as Norton, McAfee, AVG Anti-Virus, Instant Messenger Services, etc. Please see the NATCO Internet brochure for full details on what is and is not covered by our free Internet Technical Support.