We want your Internet experience to be easy, useful and fun. If, for any reason, using the Internet or your email becomes cumbersome due to excessive pop-ups, slow speeds or other trouble, contact one of our tech support specialists. All tech support are toll free numbers and free of charge.

Type of Service Tech Support Number

WINspeed and WINdial-up

1-888-533-8324 (avail. 24/7)

NETins (if email ends @netins.net)

1-800-205-1110

Wild Blue Satellite

1-888-232-6063

SecureIT Services

1-877-373-3320 (avail. 24/7)

Here are some pointers before calling Tech Support. Or check out the tips and FAQ below to see if we can answer your question.

Please be prepared when calling tech support. Make sure that you are in front of the computer, the computer is turned on, and all relative information, such as error messages, is available. Tech Support can assist you even if you are not connected to the Internet.

Things you should know before calling tech support:

A few terms you may come across when talking with tech support or a computer repair-person:

If you can not pull up a website or download e-mail try either or both of the following before calling Tech Support:

We highly recommend keeping your software current, which can help keep your computer virus-free. Updates and patches are available and easy to install; but there are no alarms on your computer that will alert you when you need them. Instead, you will need to visit the websites of the software you own, including your platform software.

To update Windows with a patch or service pack go to www.windowsupdate.com. Upon visiting the homepage, your system will be automatically scanned for the recommended Windows update. Then, choose which patch you want to install; usually recommended.

To find updates and other fixes, you can also visit www.microsoft.com/downloads and click the Windows (Security & Updates) link on the Download Categories menu.

In place of having to manually keep your computer updated, we recommend SecureIT Plus. Not only is it a security software program, but it will also automatically install platform, spyware, virus and firewall updates. Check out SecureIT Plus for more information.

Helpful Tips

Storage Space

Email storage saves and stores your emails until you retrieve them. The larger your storage space is for email, the less likely your mailbox will become "full" if you receive many emails. When your mailbox becomes full, any new emails will be deleted without warning.

Dial-up and high speed Internet customers will receive 30MB of storage space to collect emails. Additional mailbox storage space can be added at any time for $3 per 10MB of email storage space per month. Call our customer service at 888-508-2946 to have space added. Do not call Tech Support to add space.

Additional Email Accounts

Additional emails can be helpful if you have several people in your household who will be using email. Additional addresses from WIN carry benefits you CANNOT get from "free" email accounts, such as Yahoo or Hotmail, including FREE POP based download to Outlook, FREE spam and virus filtering, FREE local customer service and tech support.

Dial-up and high speed Internet customers will receive up to 5 email accounts upon subscribing. Additional addresses will cost $3 per email per month.

Connection Speed

The weather can affect your connection speed. Moisture can cause slow connections or make your connection run poorly. If it is raining, water can affect the lines in the ground as well as those green boxes (pedestals) you see in your yard. When the temperature in the air starts to rise and melt the snow, lines become wet. Static on your line and slower connection speeds could be the result.

Accessing Email Remotely

To access Web Mail at or away from home, go to www.westianet.net . Enter your username (the first half of your e-mail address) and your password. You can read, reply to, compose and delete your emails.

Modem Troubleshooting

 

Web/Email Hosting and web site setup

For information on what web and email hosting is, pricing and signing up and how to setup your very own website go to our hosting page.

Frequently Asked Questions

Question: Is there a way to be automatically notified by a sound from my computer when I've received an incoming e-mail?

Answer: Yes, there's an easy method to set this up. Click your cursor arrow on the Windows "Start," then on "Settings" and click on "Control Panel." Next, double click the "Sounds" icon. In the "Sounds Properties" window, scroll down the "Events" pane until you find the "New Mail Notification" item and then click the "Browse" button to locate a sound file you would like to use. Clicking on the various sound files will give you a demonstration of the "noise" made by the file. Hit "OK" when you've found the sound you'd like to use. Click "Apply" and then "OK" to exit the "Sounds Properties" window. Next time you have mail, your special e-mail sound will play.

Question: Sometimes when I am browsing I inadvertently click on a link to go to a web page but immediately realize that it's not actually the page I wanted to open up. Do I have to wait for this page to fully load before selecting the correct link or is there a shortcut?

Answer: There are actually a few solutions when this happens to you. If you've clicked on the wrong link and still have the mouse button pressed down, simply drag the pointer off of the link to a blank spot somewhere on your computer screen and release your finger. The new page will not load. If you've already selected (clicked and released your mouse button) on a link, hit the "Stop" button located on the toolbar of your web browser. This will stop the active page from fully loading. It will not, however, prevent any pop-up windows from appearing and fully loading. Probably the quickest way to prevent a web page from loading once it's been selected is to hit the Escape Key ("esc") on your keyboard. This will prevent the inadvertently selected page from loading and will also prevent those pesky pop-up windows from appearing.

Question: I've come across a couple of websites that offer downloads, however, when I attempt to download the files, the site tells me I do not have a new enough version of web browser. How do I know what version of web browser I am using?

Answer: Go to the "Help" menu located on the right hand side of the File Menu. Click and scroll down to "About Name of Browser", where Name of Browser will be the actual name of the browser you are using such as Firefox or Internet Explorer. A window will pop up with information about your browser including the Version.

Question: I see on some web sites "Best viewed with..." and another browser besides Internet Explorer is listed. What other browsers are available?

Answer: There's more to the Internet than just Internet Explorer. If you want to try a different browser, check these out. Your computer can handle having a variety of broswers, so try something new! All of these browsers are free to download.

Browser Description
Mozilla Firefox One of the fastest growing browsers in populatiry and security. A great alternative to IE. The original browser with tabbed browsing.
Netscape Navigator Yes, this browser is still around and now available at version 9.0. One of the original broswers that many Mac users used.
Safari Once known as just a Mac browser this is now available for Mac and Windows platforms. Boasted as the fastest browser.
Opera Another tabbed browser; but not as popular as Firefox.
Internet Explorer In addition to trying the above browsers, you'll want to keep IE updated.

Question: Sometimes when I download software from the Internet onto my computer and then go back to try to find a particular file at a later date, it can be difficult. Software makers use such weird acronyms or nicknames for their programs. Is there anything I can do to make my search for these archived files easier?

Answer: Yes. When saving a file onto your computer that you've downloaded from the Internet, you do not have to keep the same name the software company gave to its program. When you click on the download link and the resulting "Save As" box comes up, simply type in a name which is more descriptive or one that you'll be able to remember easily at a later date.
You may already have a bunch of these files with unusual names downloaded onto your computer, which you want to keep but wish to rename. (You may not be able to determine what some of these files are until you open them up.) If it's a file you no longer want to keep, simply throw it away by dragging it to the Recycle Bin. To rename these programs, right-click the file you want to rename and select "rename" from the resulting menu. Just make sure not to change the file extension (i.e. ".doc" to ".exe").

Question: When I open my browser I get "Page cannot be displayed" and I am also unable to get my email. What is happening?

Answer: Your Internet browser/email program are usually linked to your dialup connection. Sometimes this link can get broken, with Internet Explorer follow these steps:

  1. Open Internet Explorer, click on "Tools" or "View" (depending on version)
  2. Click on"Internet Options" or "Options" (again depending on version)
  3. Click onto the tab marked "Connection"
  4. With Internet Explorer 4.0 choose the option to "Connect to the Internet using a modem", click the button marked "Settings". Make sure the box marked "Use the following Dial Up Networking connection" is set to your win-4-u or westianet connection and that the username/password is correct. You do not need to enter a domain name.
  5. With Internet Explorer 5.0 and greater (still on the "Connection" tab), in the white box in the middle of the screen be sure that your win-4-u or westianet connection is selected. Beneath that box be sure the option "Always dial my default connection" is selected.
  6. Click "Apply" then "OK", this should correct the problem.