Welcome
Well, another financial year is almost over, and it's been an eventful one here at iiNet. We've moved office and tripled the number of full-time employees on our staff, all in order to continue to provide what we feel to be the finest Internet access and support in the state. And it would seem that many customers agree, with our userbase doubling and our services expanding more and more into the corporate and educational areas.

As we enter the last half of 1997, our plans for growth continue to be implemented, with an extra sixty lines to be added every month to keep up with increased user demand. It looks like there are interesting times ahead, and we hope you'll see them through with us.

iiNet in South Australia
In June 1996, we established a branch of iiNet Technologies in South Australia. iiNet (SA) was a separate company, partly owned by iiNet (WA), and ran independently to our Perth operations. The company quickly established itself as a leading Internet Service Provider in the state, being able to draw on over three years of previous experience of setting up and maintaining connections to the Internet from our Perth operations.

In late April of this year, iiNet (SA) was purchased by Ourworld Global Network, a Sydney based company, in order to form the backbone of their South Australian operations. This sale was approved by all the owners of iiNet (SA), and continues to trade under the name of iiNet Technologies, but iiNet (WA) no longer has any control over their operations. This sale has allowed us to focus our attention on our West Australian customer base, which is one of the most dynamic and rapidly expanding in the country, and our experience in South Australia has prepared us for any future interstate expansion that may occur.

New Modems, New Rotary
For the last few months, we have been trialling new technology which will allow our clients to have higher speed and higher quality connections to our modems. After many tribulations, and a lot of feedback from our clients who decided to try the experimental rotary, we have settled on the most stable and effective configuration, and are ready to open the rotary to the public.

The new rotary number is (08) 9278-0999, and has 180 lines on it, currently all configured for 33.6K, with room for expansion. This rotary currently consist of Cisco AS5200 server modems, providing a much higher quality of connection than ordinary analogue phone lines.

Please note - these new lines should be used with PAP logins only. If you wish to use these new numbers with your system, please refer to these pages:

Windows 3.11:	http://www.iinet.net.au/support/win16/tips/pap.html
Window 95:	http://www.iinet.net.au/support/win95/tips/pap.html
Macintosh:	http://www.iinet.net.au/support/macintosh/tips/pap.html

And for details on how to change the number you dial to connect to iiNet, please see the following web pages:

Windows 3.11:	http://www.iinet.net.au/support/win16/changenumbers/
Window 95:	http://www.iinet.net.au/support/win95/changenumbers/
Macintosh:	http://www.iinet.net.au/support/macintosh/changenumbers/

These pages explain how to add the 9 to the old numbers (see the next article), but the principle is exactly the same. If you have any problems, please call us on (08) 9322-7773, or just reply to this email or write to support@iinet.net.au for further advice.

New Phone Numbers
This is just a reminder to all our users that they must change the phone numbers that they're dialling, as we move into the new Australian numbering plan. Below are our rotary numbers, both old and new:

PLEASE NOTE - The following numbers are located in the Perth CBD. If you're more than 10km from the Perth CBD and are worried that dialling may not be a local call for you, you might like to check with Telstra on 14111222.

N/A		      	(08) 9278-0999		Perth, digital 33.6K
(09) 461-4000    ->   	(08) 9461-4000		Perth, 28.8K/33.6K
(09) 461-4100    ->    	(08) 9461-4100		Perth, 33.6K
(09) 322-5432    ->   	No longer in use	Perth, 28.8K
(09) 322-4449	 ->	(08) 9322-4449		Perth, 28.8K, 15 min

PLEASE NOTE - The following numbers are NOT located in the Perth CBD. Please ensure that they are a local call before using them, checking with Telstra if necessary on 14111222.

(09) 307-5801    ->  	(08) 9307-5801		Padbury, 14.4K
(09) 586-1866	 ->	(08) 9586-1866		Mandurah, 28.8K
(09) 257-2775	 ->	(08) 9257-2775		Kalamunda diverter
(097) 915-115	 ->	(08) 9791-5115		Bunbury, 28.8K
(097) 27-2929	 ->	(08) 9727-2929		Capel diverter

As always, and as we've stated previously, if you have any questions on the costs of calls, they should be directed to Telstra by dialling 14111222. Also, please note iiNet's revised voice and fax numbers, all Perth CBD:

    iiNet Sales and General Enquiries    (08) 9214-2222
    iiNet Customer Support               (08) 9214-2222
    iiNet Fax                            (08) 9322-6660

We've put together some brief instructions on how to accomplish this change in your software for the most commonly used computer operating systems:

Windows 3.11	http://www.iinet.net.au/support/win16/changenumbers/
Windows 95	http://www.iinet.net.au/support/win95/changenumbers/
Macintosh	http://www.iinet.net.au/support/macintosh/changenumbers/

If you have any problems or queries regarding this matter, please do not hesitate to contact iiNet Support via email to:

support@iinet.net.au

And for those interested in how the new Australian numbering plan works, please point your browser towards:

http://lobby.austel.gov.au/NUMBER/numplan/GEOCHANG.html

Webtrack - Safer Surfing for Minors
As seen recently on the news, iiNet has launched a system whereby schools which have permanent or semipermanent connections to the Internet through us can have objectionable websites filtered out, to prevent their students being exposed to material of an adult or otherwise inappropriate nature.

This system, called Webtrack, monitors all data requested by the school's computers and checks it against a massive list, which is updated weekly. If the requested page, file or newsgroup is on that list, it is automatically blocked, and a warning message appears on the computer that requested it. This method bypasses the traditional problems of less sophisticated systems in the way that it blocks particular pages rather than entire domains which may contain useful information. Of course teachers are able to email requests to have the particular sites added or removed from the system.

Webtrack gives teachers and students alike a greater level of confidence in web browsing, knowing that the risk of coming across offensive material is drastically reduced. It is also another step towards preventing prosecution under the recent WA legislation which states that supervisors must take reasonable steps to ensure that minors under the age of 18 do not have access to undesirable material.

The system costs $1200 to set up, and then $800 per annum. There is a 30 day evaluation available. For more details, please contact us.

Online Games at iiNet
For some time, iiNet has maintained three online game servers. These are available for use exclusively by users of Internet Service Providers who are on the Western Australian Internet Association Peering Exchange here in Perth (for details of this, see http://www.waia.asn.au/Issues/Peering/), guaranteeing fast response times for the players. Firstly, there is a Quake server at:

quake.iinet.net.au

There is also an iiNet Quakeworld server. For those using Quakeworld, it should show up at the very top of the list of servers when starting the program, as it has the lowest ping time. It's currently running the Thunderwalker Capture the Flag system, which requires other files - for more details, please see:

http://www.planetquake.com/thunderwalker/twctf.html

Kali is a system which emulates an IPX-SPX network over the Internet, allowing many multiplayer games such as Doom, Duke Nukem 3D and X-Wing VS Tie Fighter to be played. iiNet has a Kali server, at:

kali.iinet.net.au

Details about Kali are available from their home page, at:

http://www.kali.com/

Additionally, we will soon have informative web pages on these services available, with information specific to iiNet. Please note that these servers are here as a complimentary service to our clients, and that we can't provide free telephone and email support for them.

Credits
Thanks to the contributors to this newsletter - Chris Brown, Kim Davies, Deanne Godfrey, Martin Livings, Michael Malone, Michael O'Reilly, and Niall Young.