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Scammers have identified Facebook as an easy place to make money through survey scams. These scams are now rampant and there are too many variations to describe here in detail. However, we'll share the elements of survey scams so it will be easier for you and your Facebook friends to spot them.

It starts with the bait, which is typically one of these types:

Sensational or extreme headlines – If you see a status update that starts off with "OMG...," "SHOCKING..." or "You have to see this...," there's a good chance it's a survey scam.
"Too good to be true" offers – Have you seen status updates from your friends or received Facebook messages promising you a free or drastically reduced priced iPhone or iPad? This is a common ploy of a survey scam.
Additional Facebook features or functionality – Some of these Facebook scams claim to offer you the ability to see who has viewed your profile or see who has deleted you as a friend. They're all fake. Facebook doesn't provide developers the access to the information required to create such applications.

Anyone curious enough to click on the link is taken to a page that looks like Facebook but isn't Facebook. Then you're asked to "Like" the page, which adds the scam to your own Facebook wall. This is how the scam spreads. You're also asked to fill in a survey. This is how the scammer makes money; they're paid by a marketing company to complete surveys.

Remember, if a Facebook page or any site insists that you share a piece of content or do a survey before reaching the promised destination, it's likely a scam. If you've fallen for these (or similar) scams, remove the message from your status, newsfeed, and your Likes and Interests in Facebook's "Edit my Profile" menu.

The Hartelco offices will be closing at 1:00pm on Friday in observance of Good Friday.

We'd like to wish everyone a Blessed and Happy Easter!

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Graduaton Gift Ideas - We Have Many Cash-N-Carry Items for the Graduate

Hartelco Computers has some great gift-giving ideas for that high school or college graduate. We've got gifts in all price ranges. Here's just a sample:

Dell desktop computers with 20" wide-screen monitor - in stock! Stop by and see these machines that'll relieve your workload.
Dell 17" laptops. We've sold out of the many laptops we had in stock due to overwhelming response and our low prices. But stop by and order one in time for graduation!
Wireless routers which allow you to take your laptop anyplace in your home.
1.5 Terabyte External Hard Drive - this is 15x larger than a 100Gigabyte hard drive.
Flash drives - we have both 4Gig and 8 Gig flash drives in stock. No easier way to transfer files. This is a great low-cost gift idea that your graduate will appreciate.

Our office hours are 8am-5pm Mon-Fri, and we're open weekends and evenings by appointment. So stop on by at 103 West Centre Street in Hartington or call 402-254-3901. We have a gift that fits your style!

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Hartelco has increased Internet speeds again at no cost to you! In fact, we've lowered our price for our lowest speed - 2Mbps (megabytes per second) to $28.95. Call us at 402-254-3901 to see how our new speeds can help you at work or home, and save you money!

Hartelco would like to remind everyone of the annual Chamber of
Commerce Easter Egg Hunt that is being held at the south entrance
to Felber Park. The event starts at 1:00 sharp on Saturday. Come on out with your children and have some great fun! We'll see you there.

The Chamber is also giving away four Easter Baskets, each filled locally in our town. Each basket is for a specific age group. Register at local businesses by noon on Friday to win!

While all of the fiber optic cabling for the towns of Hartington and Bow Valley have been buried for quite some time, we're still in the process of connecting the fiber optics to the remaining homes and businesses. Questions and rumors still abound, so we thought this would be a good time to address them.

Q: Is it true that you'll be digging in my yard when you connect the fiber optic cable?
A: No - not at all. In almost all cases, all the digging has been completed.

Q: I've heard that you'll be charging me to connect the fiber optics.
A: No. There is never any additional charge for fiber optics.

Q: Will this new fiber optic cable affect my TV service?
A: Not yet. We are still working to find an economical way to provide TV over the fiber optic cables and keep our customer's rates low. Stay tuned for details.

Q: Why did Hartelco install fiber optics in the first place?
A: Installing of the fiber optic cable throughout Hartington and Bow Valley is similar to back in the 1970s when all the phone lines were on poles with aerial wires. Over time, those aerial wires wore out and needed to be replaced. In retrospect, it was a very smart decision to upgrade the phone lines and bury them underground rather than to expose them to ice storms and blizzards.

In a similar fashion, those copper phone lines that were buried all those years ago have now begun to deteriorate in certain areas. Rather than replace the copper lines with the same type of cable, the Hartelco Board of Directors decided to borrow the money to upgrade to fiber optics - the best forward-looking type of cable found today. Fiber optics is said to be "future-proof", meaning that the lines should not need to be replaced because of becoming obsolete. We look forward to what the future holds.

Q: Does that box in my house need to be plugged in? Will it use lots of electricity? What's that "beeping" sound?
A: In almost all fiber deployments, a battery backup is needed in case of power outages. A battery backup is installed in each home and business, and the units should be already plugged into an electrical outlet to charge it. It's been said that the types of battery backups that we install only use as much electricity as a standard night light!

Now about that "beeping" sound - that means that the battery backup has lost electrical power and it's letting you know that it's running on battery power. There's nothing to worry about, but if you hear a beeping sound and there's not been any weather-related outages, you may want to check your circuit breaker or make sure the grandchildren or young children haven't accidentally unplugged your battery backup. Unplugging the unit from the electrical outlet would cause the phones in your house to go dead. Stranger things have happened!

Please be sure to keep your battery backup plugged in at all times. If it's not plugged into an electrical outlet now, please plug it in as soon as possible.

Q: When will I see a speed increase in Internet?
A: Fiber optic cables provide the pathway for voice and data transmissions. We are constantly upgrading the speeds of broadband DSL, and we will continue to do so in the future. See the article above in this newsletter about the newest speeds and prices offered. If you need a faster speed than the 12 Mbps download speed that we have advertised, please contact our office at 402-254-3901.

Q: I'm not seeing the speeds that I expected. Now what?
A: There are many factors in making sure that you're getting the speed you wanted, whether you have Internet over copper cable or over fiber optic cable. Our technicians can test the line from our office to your home or business to detect any issues. There may also be problems with certain websites that are slow. Many times the computer in the customer's home has been found to be the speed issue, whether it was from a virus, full hard drive, not enough memory, loose connection, or other problem. If you suspect a speed issue, call Hartelco and we can talk about your options to speed up your service.

Please let us know if you have questions on fiber optics. Just click here to send an email to us. We'll be glad to address any questions in upcoming issues of the newsletter.

A mystery has arisen as some long-distance phone calls originating outside of Hartelco's network are not being completed or are experiencing a range of problems.

Representatives from rural telephone companies described this problem to FCC staff members in March as a "nationwide epidemic".

This phenomenon is also occurring across the United States, most often affecting long distance calls being made to customers of rural telecommunications companies such as Hartelco. One telephone representative meeting with the FCC pointed to an industry survey showing that 80% of rural telephone carriers surveyed reported call termination issues.

The problem occurs on calls originated using a variety of telephone technologies including landline, wireless, cable, and Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP).

Sometimes the calls never connect. Sometimes the phone on the receiving end rings but the caller's voice cannot be heard once the phone is answered. Sometimes the voice quality is so poor the call is not productive.

This can lead to a sad disappointment when grandparents don't receive a call from their grandchildren. The effects are more dramatic when a business does not receive a call from a customer or supplier.

Hartelco General Manager Bill Dendinger stated "We're not sure how many calls are affected by this because we only learn of problems if the caller from outside Hartelco's service area eventually reports the issue to our customer who in turns notifies us. The calls that we hear of having issues just might be the tip of the iceberg."

Technicians and engineers have been unable to pinpoint the exact cause, but believe that many times it is related to an Internet Protocol (IP) switch being used somewhere in the route of the call. IP uses a different technology than a normal voice call and if not setup correctly, can cause many call routing issues.

It is our best guess that long distance carriers are now widely using "least-cost routing" switches in an attempt to avoid the costs associated with normal long distance calls. But at this time and without IP industry standards, they sacrifice call quality for many customers across the nation in their attempt to satisfy their corporate stockholders.

We do know that Hartelco's network is functioning properly and is not the cause of the problem. The troubled calls, which move from one company's network to a second and often a third and fourth network, do not reach Hartelco's network.

Because this issue has been occurring across the country for several months, some state regulatory agencies are conducting formal investigations. The Nebraska Public Service Commission has requested information from the local telephone companies within the state regarding the circumstances of these types of troublesome calls. We are very interested in hearing about any trouble you might experience with calls not being completed.

If someone attempting to call you experiences this trouble, please gather as many details as you can, including:

The time the call was placed.
The phone number from which the call originated.
The long-distance or wireless provider for the phone number from which the call originated.
Details about what, if anything, occurred on the receiving end of the call.

You can report these incidents to Hartelco by calling 402-254-3901.

Hartelco has launched a Phone Portal service. A "Phone Portal" is a webpage link on our website that allows customers to easily adjust and customize many of their phone services. Just click the Phone Portal tab in the top, right corner of our site. All customers with voice mail service received a letter from Hartelco last week announcing the new service. Other advantages of using the portal are:

Question: I heard something on the news about the Internet running out of IP addresses. As a consumer, should I be concerned?

Answer: No, you don't need to worry. A transition is taking place to a new Internet Protocol called IPv6. But if everything goes according to plan behind the scenes, you won't even notice.

Here's the background on the transition: Every device that connects to the Internet needs a unique IP address to identify it; websites need them as well. An IP address is actually a set of binary numbers but to make them easier for us to remember, they're usually displayed in decimal format. For example, in Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4), the 32-bit binary number 11011000.00011011.00111101.10001001 would appear as 216.27.61.137.

Since 1981, IP addresses have used IPv4, which allows for roughly 4.3 billion 32-bit addresses. After years of rapid Internet expansion, however, the pool of available unallocated addresses for IPv4 will soon be depleted. The solution is for the Internet to upgrade to IPv6, which uses 128-bit addresses and therefore allows trillions of unique numbers.

Once again, this change from IPv4 to IPv6 will be primarily managed by commercial websites and Internet service providers. Action on the part of consumers is not expected to be required.

Word Search Puzzles
onlinewordsearch.org – Get your brain working with fun word search puzzles in dozens of categories such as fitness, garden, space, animals, music, holidays, seasons, and sports. Puzzles with wedding and baby themes are also included so this is a great place to look for games to play at showers this spring.

Virtual Art Tours
googleartproject.com – Can't get to Paris or Florence to view famous works of art? This site is the next best thing. It lets you wander from room to room at world-renowned art museums as if you're walking through them. You can even zoom in on the paintings for a closer look at colors and brushstrokes.

Play With Bubble Wrap®
bubblewrapfun.com – There's something about Bubble Wrap that people of all ages find appealing and this site caters to that fascination. The Bubble Machine allows you to pop Bubble Wrap with your mouse pointer —almost as much fun as doing it for real. Other activities include Bubble Paint and Bubble Quizzes. Check out the Pop Pix section to see whimsical photos of people using Bubble Wrap in different ways.

Social Networking for Kids
togetherville.com – If you're tired of your younger kids asking why they can't join Facebook, you'll love this site. It's a social networking site especially for children. Recently purchased by Disney, it creates a safe place for "kids and their grownups" to play online. While the social component features Facebook-like interactions, it's perfectly safe since you have control over the people your kids interact with.

Recipes For Your Ingredients
supercook.com – You know the situation: It's time for dinner, and about all you have in your refrigerator are some chicken, a bell pepper, parsley, and a piece of cheese. What to do? Go to this site, type in your ingredients, and get ideas for recipes that use those ingredients (and maybe a few staples from your cupboard). When you find a recipe you want to try, click on it to get instructions and reviews.

In computer terms, a cookie is a very small text file placed on your hard drive by a server when you visit a website. It is essentially your identification card, and its job is to keep track of your preferences and store information such as your e-mail address. Cookies can actually save you time by eliminating the need to re-enter your information every time you make inquiries or purchases at your favorite websites.

However, if you are concerned about websites placing cookies on your browser, you can adjust the setting to block all cookies or to accept cookies only in some situations. Follow the steps below for your browser and operating system.

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Adjusting Your Browser's Cookie Settings When Using ...
Internet Browser: Internet Explorer 8
Computer Operating System: Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7

With Internet Explorer open, click your cursor arrow on "Tools" in the menu bar. Then select "Internet Options" from the resulting drop-down menu.
When the Internet Options window opens, click on the "Privacy" tab.
In the "Settings" area, you will see a slider to adjust the cookie settings. Moving the slider up to the highest setting will block all cookies. Moving the slider down to the lowest setting accepts all cookies. The default setting is "Medium" and will accept cookies in some situations.
Click the "Apply" button to apply your new settings and then the "OK" button to close the Internet Options window.

Adjusting Your Browser's Cookie Settings When Using ...
Internet Browser: Mozilla Firefox 3.6
Computer Operating System: Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7

With Firefox open, click your cursor arrow on "Tools" in the menu bar. Then select "Options..." from the resulting drop-down menu.
When the Options window opens, select the "Privacy" tab.
By default, Firefox will remember your browsing, download, form and search history, as well as keep cookies from websites you visit.

Adjusting Your Browser's Cookie Settings When Using ...
Internet Browser: Mozilla Firefox 3.6
Computer Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5

With Firefox open, click your cursor arrow on "Firefox" in the menu bar. Then select "Preferences..." from the resulting drop-down menu.
When the Preferences window opens, select the "Privacy" tab.
There are two options for cookies: "Accept cookies from sites" and under that is "Accept third-party cookies." Check the box next to either or both. (For this tutorial, we will select both.)
Next, select how long you'd like cookies to be kept on your computer. From the "Keep Until:" drop-down menu, choose: "they expire," "I close Firefox," or "ask me every time."
Once you've made your choice, click on the red circle in the upper left corner of the dialog box to save your changes and close the Preferences window.

Adjusting Your Browser's Cookie Settings When Using ...
Internet Browser: Safari 5.0
Computer Operating System: Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Mac OS X 10.5

With Safari open, click your cursor arrow on "Safari" (when using a Mac) or "Edit" (when using Windows on a PC) in the menu bar. Then select "Preferences..." from the resulting drop-down menu.
When the Preferences window opens, select the "Security" tab.
In the "Accept cookies:" section, choose from "Always," "Never," or "Only from sites I visit." The last option will block cookies on your computer from third parties and advertisers.
Once you've made your choice, click on the red circle in the upper left corner of the dialog box to save your changes and close the Preferences window when using a Mac. If you are using Windows on a PC, click on the X in the upper right corner of the dialog box to save your changes and close the Preferences window.

Adjusting Your Browser's Cookie Settings When Using ...
Internet Browser: Google Chrome 10
Computer Operating System: Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Mac OS X 10.5 and up

With Chrome open, click your cursor arrow on the wrench icon located in the far upper right corner. Then select "Options" ("Preferences" on the Mac) from the resulting drop-down menu.
When the Google Chrome Options/Preferences window opens, select the "Under the Hood" tab.
In the "Privacy" section, click on the "Content settings..." button.
When the Content Settings window opens, verify that "Cookies" is highlighted within the "Features:" section.
There will be two groups of two options to choose from in the section labeled Cookie Settings. The first group includes radio buttons for "Allow local data to be set (recommended)," and "Block sites from setting any data." The second group includes "Ignore exceptions and block third party cookies from being set," and "Clear cookies and other site data when I close my browser." You can choose on option from the first set, and one or both options from the second set.
Once you have made your choices, click on the "Close" button to close the Content Settings window and then click on the "Close" button to close the Google Chrome Options/Preferences window.