Granite Internet

The Granite Newsletter

published May 1, 1998

Want Ads

Introduction

We need help! Granite is looking for people to submit short articles for this Newsletter from the following regions:

You will be free to use the opportunity to get the word out about your community events and whatever else might be happening in your region that would be of interest to the Granite membership. No monthly commitment is required. The length of the articles should be between two and four paragraphs. To submit an article for the next newsletter just e-mail it to the webmistress@granite.mb.ca.

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Pinawa Gets a New Resort!

The Pinawa Resort and Conference Centre, located in Pinawa, is finally getting down to business. After much anticipation, all transfers of the Kelsey House and associated properties have been completed and work has begun n creating a first class resort in Pinawa. Visit the resorts web page, to see what you can expect at the new resort. The opening of the new resort has not yet been announced.

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Busy Signals

The curse of the internet: Busy Signals! Granite maintains a user to modem ratio of at least10 modems per user. In fact our ratio is usually better than that as we try and anticipate new customers. The month of April saw a rush on new accounts, due in large part to the recent layoffs at the Whiteshell Labs site in Pinawa. While we anticipated an increase in business, we did not anticipate as much as we saw. For about one week in April, busy signals during the busy time (8PM - 11PM) became the norm while we waited for MTS to install new telephone lines. The lines have been installed and there should be no problems now.

Some of our customers, when faced with a busy signal at the 345 exchange, simply dialed the 348 exchange instead. The 348 exchange is reserved for those customers who must dial in to that location to avoid toll charges. The user to modem ratio in that location is only sufficient to handle those customers.

If you would like to optimize your surfing time, check out our on-line Network Statistics page. The number of modems in use at any given time, as well as the load on the main link to the internet is graphically displayed here.

Lac Du Bonnet Modem Pool

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Business Week in Pinawa

Business Week in Pinawa last month was a roaring success! The Pinawa Business Council would like to take this opportunity to thank all the participants in the seminars and the Trade Fair, all the visitors that crammed the hallways at the Trade Fair and made that event such a success, the performers at Charity Night (The Pinawa Jazz Band had their first of what should be many gigs) at Jalapenos, all the people who attended Charity night and helped us raise $1500.00 and last, but certainly not least, all of the volunteers who helped organize the events all week.

The money raised at Charity Night will be contributed towards the fireworks held on Pinawa's Birthday Weekend as well as to purchase some benches for the new park being constructed at the Pinawa Beach.

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Freenet News

It is with deep regret that I read the news about the demise of Blue Sky Freenet last month. While this likely doesn't affect directly too many people in our region, it is a sign of the times everywhere that freenets are dying all over the country. Blue Sky's demise was a bit sudden, MTS cut off their telephone lines for non-payment of bills.

Here in the Eastman region our local freenet, the Eastman Freenet has been struggling with a similar issue. Interest in our freenet has been waning for quite some time. A call for interest has produced only a smattering of responses, which makes the question of the freenets' future even more cloudy. If you are interested in a future for our freenet, please call Tim Fast at 753-2559 or 753-8445.

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Spring has Sprung

Spring has arrived in our region. In keeping with the pleasant El Nino year we've had, the early spring weather has been almost expected but much appreciated.

Spring in our region brings with it the return of many snowbirds. Welcome back! Reports from those with snowbird accounts have been very favorable. Accessing their granite mail from remote (and warm) locations was apparently quite easy and they have reported enjoying the link to home.

Spring also brings back the cottagers that have been anxiously awaiting a chance to get in and start the big spring clean-up. Granite expects to see a few roamers added to the logins soon. Roaming access is available to all our customers who travel throughout Manitoba. Call us if you need toll-free internet access from somewhere outside of our calling region.

The many resorts in our region are opening shortly for business. For some this has meant sprucing up their web sites. Check out Eagle Nest Resorts new site. The Manitoba Natural Resource Officers' Association are now on-line.

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Granite Has a New Home

April saw the staff and management of Granite carrying desks, filing cabinets and various pieces of computer hardware across the town of Pinawa into their new digs at Lewis Business Centre. The Lewis Business Centre is located at 24 Aberdeen Avenue in Pinawa. The office is open from 9 AM to 5 PM. Thats right - the hours are a little shorter in order to get on track with the other businesses in the Lewis Centre, but our technical help-line hours haven't changed.

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Classified Ads

For Sale A 1979 AMF Puffer sailboat needs a good home. Length-12'6"",90 sq, ft. sail. Well maintained & in good condition. Lying at Falcon Lake Contact newmanwk@granite.mb.ca or 204 349 8584.

Wanted to Hire - A position is open for a cook or Chef at ,Eagle Nest Resorts. Must have presentation, baking and dessert skills. Salary related to experience. Call (204) 884-2301 or e-mail enresort@granite.mb.ca

For Sale - Starcraft Starmaster 6, 3-way fridge, propane stove, hard top, sleeps 6, awning included. Asking Price $1000.00 OBO. Call 1-204-475-0799

Wanted To Buy - School Bus suitable for conversion to camper. Must be safety certified. GM preferred. Call 1-204-474-0799.

Now available - classified advertising. We've been asked routinely for rates on advertising your site in the Granite Business Directory, or methods to place a simple ad on the internet. This is our newsletter so it makes sense to put those ads here. Advertising rates for the first 2 months will be very reasonable - free! Starting April 1 the rate will be $5.00 per ad. The ad will remain on-line. The Granite Newsletter is published monthly, but previous months newsletters remain available for viewing. Hypertext links and e-mail links will not only be available, but encouraged. Load up a picture in your user area and we will link to the picture for ad purposes. To place an ad in the Granite Newsletter, send information to webmistress@granite.mb.ca. The ad must be submitted electronically. Ads via snail mail will be charged an extra $10.00 processing fee.

If you've got your business site ready for viewing and want a little more exposure, place a link along with your logo and Site Description in the Granite Business Directory for $10.00 per month or $100.00 per year. Granite offers a Site Marketing Program that includes submittal to 100 search engines and suggestions for meta tag inclusions on your page for only $75.00. The meta tags help push your site to the top of the search engines. If you're doing this yourself, remember to repeat the submittals at least once a year to keep your site fresh in the search engines.

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Members Forum

Are you tired of people telling you your phone line is always busy. Internet Call Manager Is the Way To Go. Don't Pay for a Second Phone Line When ICM. Is 1/3 of the cost. For more Information Please View

Our members have been busy this month. Check out some of these new sites created by our membership:

Some of our members use the space provided to them for personal pages: hobbies or keeping in touch with family and friends. A great many of our members are doing business through their space, and many are very successful. Iron Horse Sales got their first sale within hours of going on-line! Remember: Granite allows businesses to use their personal space for business purposes. There are no added charges for doing so.

If you don't feel ready to design your own website, or need something a little more elaborate, Granite would be pleased to discuss your website needs. Web Page Design is a large portion of our business.

If you update your homepage with something you'd like to share, please e-mail the webmistress and we'll post the address here.

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Network Manager’s Report

 Problems

INTERNET - Very few problems were reported by MBnet. The most serious problems occurred with the router that supplies Manitoba with its Internet access lost power. Two attacks to Manitoba sites, about a week apart, caused poor performance.

LAC DU BONNET - A brief outage occurred on April 24, 1998 when the new phone lines where added.

WHITEMOUTH - Service was interrupted on April 29, 1998 when new modems were installed. The modems are not performing as expected and new and the supplier is sending out a new rack of modems.

EASTMAN FREENET - No problems to report.

Upgrades

LAC DU BONNET - Three new phone line where add in April. More will be added as required.

WHITEMOUTH - Nothing planned for May.

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Check out our previous newsletters:

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