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Support
Technical and Customer Support |
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Support
Technical
and Customer Support
• Tech Support by phone is available from 8:30AM until 5:30PM Monday thru Friday only. Tech Support is not available Saturday and Sunday. • Please have your computer turned on before you contact Tech Support. • ICOM does not provide
technical support for third party software or applications such as Word
Processors, Data Base Applications, Web Development Tools, Graphic and
Media software. Please contact the manufacturer or distributor for assistance.
Configuration . Q. Sometimes when I try to log on or check my email, I am asked to enter my password again and again. Your user name and password must be spelled correctly, and typed in all lower case letters. If you have one or the other misspelled, the server will not know who you are, and ask for a correct name and password. Look carefully at the User name and password and make sure that there are no spaces before or after. Make sure your caps lock is turned OFF when you are typing your user name and password. . Q. How do I know what my User Name / Password / Email address is? When you signed up with ICOM, you picked out a User Name. The User Name is the first part of your email address. For instance, if your email address is customer@icomnet.com , then your Username is customer. (Your User Name may also be referred to as Login or Customer ID) . You also picked out a password when you signed up. All ICOM customers have a password, even if you don't remember having one. If you have forgotten your password, you can call our office and we can set a new one for you. You will have to provide some information about yourself. . Your email address is your User Name followed by @icomnet.com . If your User Name was customer, then the email address would be customer@icomnet.com . . Q. A program is asking me for my type of mail server, and the mail server name. What do I type? The incoming mail server is a POP3 server, its name is mail.icomnet.com . The outgoing mail server is an SMTP server, it is also named mail.icomnet.com . . Q. A program is asking me what type of connection I have, and if I'm behind a firewall. Most ICOM customers have a dial up connection with 56k modems. Other customers have 64k or 128k ISDN connections. No customers are behind a firewall. * ISDN FAQ is located here . Connections . Q. I have a 56k modem, but I'm connecting at speeds lower than 40k. What could be the problem? Your connection speed is influenced entirely by two factors, modem compatibility and line quality. 56k modems are much more suseptable to these factors than previous 33.6 and 28.8 modems. Although you don't have much control over the quality of your line, you can make sure your modem is running the newest available software. Check your modem manufacturers home page, or give them a call for information on downloading and installing software upgrades for you modem. A more detailed explanation of 56k technology and how it works can be found*here* . Q. Sometimes when I connect, I am only able to stay logged in for a few minutes, then I get disconnected. What is happening? To establish and sustain a connection, the modem on your machine must be able to communicate clearly with our modem here at ICOM. Any loss in signal quality will result in a slower speed. Too much signal loss and the modems won't be able to understand each other at all and they will terminate the connection. Most modems are supposed to automatically lower their speed, if the encounter any problems, so the connection will remain stable. Sometimes however, a modem will not correctly lower its connection speed, and will eventually disconnect. Usually, this is a problem with the modems firmware, and a simple software upgrade will fix the problem in most cases, if not eleminate it completely. . Q. I have a 56k modem, and I am connecting in the 40k to 50k range. Is this normal? Yes. 56k modems cannot actually connect at 56k. 53k is the maximum permitted by law, and even then it is only obtainable in labratory conditions. Most users connect around 44k to 48k, with some being as high as 51k or 52k. Don't be suprised if you don't connect at the same speed every time. The speed of your connection depends on conditions only at the time of your call. These conditions change due to weather, time of day, and phone line outages and maintenence that unfourtunately ICOM has no control over. . Q. I have a 28.8 / 33.6 modem and I want to upgrade. Can you suggest a certain brand modem? We seem to have noticed the best results with USR (3COM US Robotics) modems. They seem to consistantly connect higher and more stably than most other modems. Modems based on Lucent (LT) chipsets also generally get good connections. Make sure your modem is a V.90 compatible modem. V.90 is the newest form of 56k, and most likely to support better connections. While we still currently support the older K56Flex standard, we may not be able to support it much longer. . My E-Mail . Q. I'm trying to receive my mail, but it's just sitting there. It says receiving message, but nothing is coming through. You most likely have a large file attachment in your email that someone has sent you. It depends on the size of the file, but the message may take an hour or more to download. Make sure you give the message enough time to download. . Q. My mail program is telling me it can't find the mail server. What's wrong? There are a couple of possibilities for this one. First, make sure you're connected to ICOM. If you're not connected, then your computer won't be able to contact the mail server. If you are sure you're connected and still getting the error message, you might have the mail server name configured incorrectly in your mail program. Click *here* for instructions on how to configure your mail program. . Q. I'm trying to send a message to my friend, but it keeps coming back to me. Why won't it send? You might be typing their address incorrectly, or their account may not be open anymore. Check to make sure you are using the correct address. If you're sure you are, then it might be their account that's not working. Give them a call, if you can, and verify you have the right address and that their account hasn't changed. . Downloading Files . Q. I'm trying to download a file, but it's asking me where to save it. How do I know where to save a file? For a detailed explanation of downloading and saving files, and how to manage your files, click *here* . Q. I'm downloading a file and it says it's going to take over an hour! Why is it taking so long? Large files can take a very long time to download. This depends entirely on the speed of your connection, but most modem users can download at speeds around 4k per second. At that speed, a 100k file would take about 25 seconds to download. A 1000k (1mb) file would take about 5 minutes to download, and a 20mb file would take about 1.5 hours. ISDN users can download up to 5 times faster than regular 56k modem users. * ISDN FAQ is located here . Q. Sometimes I get a message that says file not found when I try to download something. Am I doing something wrong? Probably not. Try it again in a few minutes. It might be that the file you're trying to get is offline, or there are too many other people trying to download it at the same time. Chances are, if you give it enough time, you'll be able to get it later. . Q. The file I'm downloading is coming through very slowly. It's getting less than 2k per second, and sometimes it will stall, and not download anything, but I'm connected at a 56k speed. What's the deal? Alot of it depends on where your downloading from, and how much traffic there is on the Internet. The Internet experiences its highest amounts of usage during the late evening hours, which starts to decline after 10:00pm. You may find that your downloads are faster in the off hours. . GENERAL . Q. I think I may have a virus on my computer. What can I do to find out? ICOM does not sell or support anti virus software, but we can suggest a couple for you to try out. The two most popular ones are *McAfee VirusScan* and *Norton AntiVirus*. There is also a free website called *Housecall* that can scan your computer over the internet, without having to download and install a program. . Q. I'm trying to find a particular program or web site. Where do I go to look? You need to use a search engine. There are several search engines on the Internet, and they can help you find what you're looking for. A great search engine for beginners is Yahoo. Most of Yahoo's links are categorized, and it makes searching very easy. Other search engines such as AltaVista, Northern Lights, Meta Crawler, and Lycos are very powerful, and can find hundreds or thousands of links. If you have a question you would like answered, try Ask Jeeves. Ask Jeeves can search the Internet for an answer to any question you ask, and can usually return useful information. These and other popular search engines are selectable option at the ICOM search feature. . Q. My friends are telling me to get a program called ICQ. What is that, and where can I get it? ICQ is an instant messenger program. You can use ICQ to send messages instantly to your friends when you're online. You can download it from the ICQ Homepage. We don't provide any tech support for ICQ, so use it at your own risk. . Q. There are acronyms everywhere! What do things like FTP, WWW, and HTTP stand for? There are so many acronyms on the net that it's easy to get very confused. A good site with searchable definitions is: . http://www.currents.net/resources/dictionary/dictionary.phtml . Q. I have a peice of Hardware or Software that I'm having a problem with. Where can I get help? ICOM only supports your Internet connection and certain Internet software. For any other problems, you need to contact the manufacturer or distributor of that hardware or software. You can usually find information about them from their homepage. If you don't know their homepage, use a search engine or just try guessing. Most major companies website is the same as the company name. For example, IBM's site is www.ibm.com. For Netwcape www.netscape.com. . Q. What are the programs that ICOM supports? For standard Dial Up customers, we support Netscape versions 2.x, 3.x, and 4.x. We support Internet Explorer 3.x, 4.x, and 5.x. We provide support for Microsoft Internet Mail and News, Outlook Express 4.x and 5.x, but we do not support Microsoft Outlook (included with MS Office). . Operating system support for Dial Up customers includes Microsoft Windows 3.1, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows 98SE. Limited support for Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 2000 is available. NT 4.0 users must first have dial up networking for NT installed before any support can be given. . Web Browsers . Q. What's a Browser? A Web Browser is a program that allows a user to navigate the Internet using a graphical or point and click interface. Programs like Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer are the most common browsers in use, but their are several other specialized and customizable browsers. Web Browsers may vary in appearance but most have similar functions. The most significant difference between Browsers are the E-Mail clients which are usually bundled together in the full and professional versions. . Q. OK. What is a Mail Client? An E-Mail Client is the program that allows users to send, receive and manage thier electronic messages. Full versions of Netscape Communicator 4.x include a program called Messenger. Internet Explorer versions 4.x and 5.x include an E-Mail Client call Outlook Express. If you want more detailed info about E-Mail Clients use a search engine and search keywords: E-Mail Client. . Q. I'm using an old version of Netscape or Internet Explorer (IE). Where can I download an updated version? New versions of Netscape Navigator can be found at www.netscape.com and the latest versions of Internet Explorer at www.microsoft.com. . Note: Newer browsers require additional recources and may have minimum system requirements. Some older operating systems may not be able to fully support new browsers and features. Always check the minimum recommended system requirements of any program before you download and install them. . OPERATING SYSTEMS - Windows95 . Q. I have often been asked what version of Windows95 I have installed on my system. How many versions are there? There are several versions currently in use. Microsoft routinely updates Windows95 and provides updates and patches for previously released versions. Upgrades range from small patches to full OS upgrades like Windows98 and Windows2000. Updates and patches are available from Microsoft's file library. To check your current version, right-click the My Computer icon on your desktop and select Properties. . Q. I have an early version of Windows 95. It does not include Internet Explorer or Dial Up Networking. Where can I get it? For a small S/H fee of $5, ICOM can provide current members with a CD that can upgrade your copy of Windows 95. It will automatically install Dial Up Networking, and can install Internet Explorer or Netscape Communicator if you like. Stop by the Office to purchase one, or give our office a call, and we can mail the CD out to you. Charges can be applied directly to your account. |
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