WEBWISE: A TIME OF CHANGE...

Quicksilver welcomes Manawatu Internet customers

We are glad to welcome the former customers of Manawatu Internet to the Quicksilver network. Manawatu Internet has now ceased to trade as a company, and Quicksilver has taken over the maintenance and support of its service.

If you are outside the Palmerston North local calling area, we are now pleased to offer you a nationwide number for dial-up access that will be a local call (instead of a toll call) for you. Please call our Helpdesk 0508QSILVER to change your dial-up number accordingly. Quicksilver also has a wide range of services, spanning toll calls, broadband (JetStart and JetStream), and web or domain hosting that you may like to check out at www.quicksilver.co.nz .

Network Expansion

Due to the growing demand for Quicksilver’s internet services, Quicksilver has embarked on a major expansion of its network. We have and will continue to expand our modem pools, lines and bandwidth to keep pace with our growth. The expansion will also result in an increase in our local service reach where customers who currently use our local 0867 number will be able to use local numbers in their area. This will enable us to provide a much better quality of service on our network.

The Internet industry itself is also changing, and not always for the better. Some of the networks that our suppliers could depend on in the past have now fallen short of earlier levels of service delivery, weakening our best efforts to maintain our service commitment to you. We pledge that we will continue to champion the customer in everything that we do.

If you have any feedback or suggestions, please email us at comments@quicksilver.net.nz .

Thank you for your continued support!

During the month of July we’re giving you anytime calls to USA and Canada at only 13 cents per minute + GST. If you’re not yet a customer and you sign up with us, we’ll give you toll calling nationwide during the month of August FREE, provided you sign with us for Tolls for a minimum of 12 months

You may like to call our sales division toll free on 0800 4QUICK (0800 478425) to check out prices for other countries, or simply point your browser to www.quicksilver.co.nz/tolls.htm for an automatic tolls rates display that will show you our Standard Rates and our Favorite Country rates at the click of a mouse. Signing up is simple: just download the PDF application form from our web page at right, and post it to our office. You can even fax it in to 09 9160301 if you’re in a hurry.

We look forward to your call!

Leisurely, enjoyable and affordable, Wonderful Kiwi Tours offers to make your vacation in New Zealand the holiday of a lifetime.

From New Zealand coach tours, small group tours, personal tours with Rolls Royce and limousine cars, self-drive motorhomes and campervans, rental cars, Marlborough Sounds cruises, charter yachts, WKT has many ways for you to experience our wonderful south seas paradise.

The company founder, Robert C. Belmont, insists that every day on tour should be enjoyable and not rushed. He expects that tour groups should have the time to stop travelling and and enjoy the places they visit, and not merely tour long distances. He believes that passengers should be given the opportunity to meet with local people while on tour, and to experience the genuine local culture. Robert C. Belmont also believes that passengers should receive excellent value for money.

For many years Robert has been passionate about the marvellous scenery in New Zealand. “We have the greatest variety and the best in the world, packed into one country," he says. “ From glaciers that reach down to rain-forest to near deserts, from the tallest mountain range in Australia and New Zealand to the Hauraki and Canterbury plain"... "from farmland with the highest natural stocking rate in the world to the vast tracts of High Country land where stock rates are measured in acres per animal”... "where else can you see the range and variety of superb scenery that New Zealand has to offer, and all within a few days?”

Prior to entering the tourism industry, Robert operated his own business for over 15 years as a professional photographer. For several years he specialised in scenic and tourism photography. This combined artistic and tourism background shows in the design of Wonderful Kiwi Tours. He has personally researched and knows the best scenic spots and views in New Zealand.

Check out Wonderful Kiwi tours at www.wkt.co.nz

A HUGE list of winter activities in Palmerston North- especially for our Manawatu customers!
http://www.pncc.govt.nz/ToDo/EventsWrapper.asp?WrapperPage=/aspcommon/ListEvents.asp

Ihi Frenzy is a new exciting work by NZ Ballet. It is a fusion of Maori and Pakeha dance and music. To find out more about the work, reviews and tourdates check out
http://www.nzballet.org.nz/Ihi/tourdates.html

The NZ Film Festival festival is on in 12 different cities. This year's programme includes lots of good films. To find out more about what is on, where and how to book your tickets, check out their website at
www.enzedff.co.nz

Those of you who enjoyed our winter sports surfing links last month will be glad to know the Queenstown Winter Festival is on in July. Check out http://www.winterfestival.co.nz/

The avid gardeners will be glad to know there's a website that give you a list of monthly garden maintenance tasks. Just in case you wonder what needs to be done. If you go to this URl you will find the task for the month.
http://www.garden-nz.co.nz/home.asp?target=/Garden-Stores/Oderings/Oderings-Task-Sheet.asp

Another task list for July 2000's can be found at:
http://www.garden-nz.co.nz/home.asp?target=/Garden-Stores/Oderings/Oderings-Task-Sheet-7-5-00.asp

Aucklanders are undergoing a waste disposal reeducation. The Auckland City Council is trying to reduce the amount of waste that ends up in the dumps. You'll be glad to know they also put up a website about it.:
http://www.akcity.govt.nz/council/services/rubbish_and_recycling/

Kids Festival in Christchurch appears to have lots of activities, including some free events, to keep kids occupied during the school holidays. Check out their website at
http://www.kidsfest.org.nz/

If you’re in other areas you should check out your local city council website. Most city councils have a link to an events calendar.

From Matthew Hobbs:

Plenty of things to do for those cold and miserable winter days.
http://www.trivia365.com/

Yes, there are websites for those hardy souls who don’t miss their angling, whatever the weather:
http://www.fishnz.co.nz/

From Trevor Isted:

Something to make you laugh and smile through the dreary winter months:
http://www.comedy.co.nz

And for the rainy days when you want to relax with a cup of soup and play some cards, you can try these links or even find players online:
http://au.yahoo.com/recreation/games/card_games/

From Mark Frater:

Here's another good site with lots of resources for budding writers, plus you can read the winning short stories from the recent Franklin NZ and TNZWW Short Story Competition 2001:
http://www.nzwriters.co.nz

Happy surfing from the QuicksilverTeam!

QUICKTIP of the month: FIREWALLS

A firewall is designed specifically to stop hackers from gaining access to your computer.

There are many different types of firewalls. Some protect Local Area Networks (LANs) but the firewalls you may be most familiar with are those that are available for download from the Internet, often for free. Black Ice and Zone Alarm are two of the most popular.

It’s important to realise that any firewall software, unlike most programs you can install, require considerable care in setting up and configuration. They all work very well- in fact they may work too well, often blocking off perfectly legitimate access to and from the Internet.

Zone Alarm, for instance, requires you to give each individual application that uses the Internet permission to do so. This includes at the very least your browser (Internet Explorer or Netscape) and your email software (Outlook Express, Eudora, Messenger etc). It may extend to your antivirus software, your version of Windows Update, etc. The process of doing this involves allowing the specific application permission to access the Internet via Zone Alarm by agreeing to a little pop-up box. At this point if you do not want to be troubled with repeated requests for permission from Zone Alarm you will need to tick the option not to show the popup for this type of request again, and Zone Alarm will see to it automatically.

It’s also important not to panic when you see “port probes” being generated in your firewall log reports. Some port probes are quite common, and are indeed necessary for ISPs to dynamically allocate customer resources (and, therefore bandwidth) making your surfing faster. Reading the explanations and interpretations of your log file would be good before you jump to conclusions.

Overall, configuring your firewalls properly will save you much effort and frustration, and will ultimately make your Internet surfing not just more enjoyable but safer as well!