 Frequently Asked Questions
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Q How do I signup?
A Signup is accomplished through this website. Open (or click) the services menu (or button) on any page of this website and click on the service you want. A page briefly describing the services will come up with a signup button on it. Click the signup button to start the signup process.
You will need to have your credit card information handy and you will have to invent a username and password for your account, both between 6 to 8 characters long. I would also be useful if you had a printer connected to your computer because the last step of the signup process gives you all you account setup data. You should print out a copy of that page and keep it for your reference when setting up your computer.
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Q How do I contact TheMACisp?
A The following is our current contact information. TheMACisp is a division of So What Software, Inc.
By Email: sales@themacisp.net, support@themacisp.net, billing@themacisp.net,
By Phone: Toll Free: 1-800-307-0663 (11am to 3pm PST weekdays only)
By Snail Mail: So What Software, Inc. 18001 Sky Park Circle, Suite A, Irvine, CA. 92614
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Q What's the NINE DOLLAR DIALUP DEAL?
A Simply stated this is a limited time promotional offering that gives you one of our Premium Unlimited Nationwide Dialup accounts for only $9.00 per month for the first 6 months of service.
This offer is good for new subscribers only. First 6 months of service are billed at $9.00 a month. Thereafter, the regular monthly rate of $14.95 applies. This offer cannot be redeemed in conjunction with any other offer. This offer is for dial-up Internet access only. Valid with major credit card orders only. Service not available in all areas. Access fees and other restrictions may apply.
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Q How do I change my password?
A Click the "Login" button on any page of this site and after entering your username and password you will be presented with several utilities for managing you account. Click the button next to the utility titled: "Change Password" and click "Continue". This will open up your password administration interface.
Enter your new password (twice for accuracy) and click "Continue" to change your password.
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Q How do I change my username?
A Usernames are KEY information in our systems that all records use as links. You cannot change a username once established. The only way to accomplish this is to cancel the account with the username you don't want, and then signup for a new account with the one you do want.
Our suggestion is don't change your username. If you don't like the email address that it creates, make another email box with the name you like and use that one instead. The login username is invisible to the world anyway.
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Q How do I setup my additional email boxes?
A Click the Login button on any page of this site and after entering your username and password you will be presented with several utilities for managing you account. Click the button next to the utility titled: "Manage Dialup Email Boxes" and click "Continue". This will open up your email administration interface.
To Create a new email box: click the Create button for one of the Available Email Boxes, Choose an email account name and password and click "Create".
To Modify or Delete an email box: click on the "Modify" button for the email account you want to Modify. Either check the Delete checkbox or enter a new password for the account and click "Modify".
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Q How do I access my personal webspace?
A Every TheMACisp dialup account comes with it's own personal webpage space on our webserver. This space is usually used to diaplay a personal or non-profit organization website. Dialup clients can build and upload most any webpage or group of webpages (site) into this personal webspace area.
If you signed-up with a username of: brumfndl, your personal webspace would appear on the Internet at the URL (Universal Resource Locator): http://www.themacisp.net/~brumfndl.
Accessing Personal Webspace
Webpage building programs all access webpage on an internet server by using FTP (File Transfer Protocol) or Remote Drive methods. A human being is a webpage builder as well and while just writing the HTML code down with a text editor, they still upload their code using FTP or Remote Drive.
 Regardless of how you make webpages the same information is needed to transfer files to your webspace.
All FTP sessions will require four pieces of information minimum: ftp host, username, password and path (directory). Personal Webspace uses a FTP host of ftp.themacisp.net, you will need to enter your username and password and finally the path. The path is illustrated in the diagram to the right and would be specified as: Sites. No slashes just the directory name of Sites, capital letter and all.
Remote Drive is a web bases FTP utility in the Login interface of this site. You can upload files and manage your personal webspace without needing an FTP desktop application.
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Q How do I access my hosted (virtual) webspace?
A Every TheMACisp hosting account comes a personal webpage space as well on our webserver.
This space will contain a link to your virtual webspace where you build you website.
For this example, let's make your domain name: mycompany.com, your virtual webspace would appear on the Internet at the URL (Universal Resource Locator): http://www.mycompany.com.
Accessing Hosted (Virtual) Webspace
Webpage building programs all access webpage on an internet server by using FTP (File Transfer Protocol) or WebDAV methods. A human being is a webpage builder as well and while just writing the HTML code down with a text editor, they still upload their code using FTP, WebDAV or Remote Drive.
 Regardless of how you make webpages the same information is needed to transfer files to your webspace.
All FTP sessions will require four pieces of information minimum: ftp host, username, password and path (directory). Virtuial Webspace uses a FTP host of ftp.mycompany.com, you will need to enter your username and password. The path is not specified for a virtual domain, just leave that blank.
All WebDAV sessions are accomplished either through a web builder or directly from MacOS using "Connect to Server". Just enter your URL: http://www.mycompany.com, your username and password and a drive icon will appear on your desktop for your remote site.
NOTE: Currently WebDAV interferes with some server operations such as htaccess directory password protection and programmatic email code. If you encounter a problem like this, contact support to have WebDAV disabled on your virtual webspace.
Remote Drive is a web bases FTP utility in the Login interface of this site. You can upload files and manage your personal and virtual webspace without needing an FTP desktop application.
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Q How do I access WebMail?
A Click the "WebMail" button on any page in this site, enter your username and password and you gain access to your personal WebMail interface. You can send, forward, reply and receive email with the same capabilities as your desktop email application program.
Especially handy when needing to access email without having your computer with you.
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Q Where can I find my account status and time online for the month?
A Click "Login" on any page of this site and after entering your username and password you will be presented with the utilities menu. At the top you will find your account status and the time online for the month.
This only applies if you are using a number that has a time limitation on it like 150 hours per month, otherwise, the reported time is 0:00 for all unlimited numbers.
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Q How do I change my address or contact phone numbers?
A Click "Login" on any page of this site and after entering your username and password you will be presented with several utilities for managing you account. Click the button next to the utility titled: "Update Contact Information" and click "Continue". This will open up your info administration interface.
Make whatever changes you need in the edit boxes and click "Continue" to update your information.
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Q How do I update my credit card information?
A Click "Login" on any page of this site and after entering your username and password you will be presented with several utilities for managing you account. Click the button next to the utility titled: "Update Credit Card Information" and click "Continue". This will open up your credit card administration interface.
Select your card type, enter your card number and your expiration date written with 4 numbers (ie: January 2002 = "0102"). Click continue and your card will first be verified with the credit bank and then updated in your account record here at TheMACisp.
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Q How is my account billed?
A All billing is by credit or bank card (VISA, MasterCard, American Express or Discover ). Accounts are billed on their monthly anniversary day (month day of signup).
Services are provided on a 1 month minimum basis with no setup fees.
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Q What happens if my credit card is declined for billing?
A Your dialup connectivity will be suspended on your next billing day. Your email and webspace will continue functioning till that day.
TheMACisp will retry your credit card once more on the 2nd of the month and if the card debits, your connectivity will be restored. If the card declines a second time, you need to call billing at:
1-800-307-0663 - 11am to 3pm weekdays PST to get your connectivity restored.
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Q What happens if my credit card expires?
A At the beginning of the month of expiration you will receive an email in your TheMACisp.net email account notifying you that your card is about to expire at the end of the month. You have until then to get your information updated. You can use the update credit card information interface in the Login button on our website or you can call billing at: 1-800-307-0663 - 11am to 3pm weekdays PST to get your information updated.
If you do not update your expiration date or enter a new valid credit card number your account will automatically be cancelled on your next billing date.
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Q How do I cancel my account?
A You may cancel you account at any time by sending an email to billing@themacisp.net stating: "Cancel My Account". Be sure to include your username and password for identification purposes.
A confirmation email will be sent to you when the account is put in the cancellation queue stating:
"Your account is queued for cancellation, no further charges will be made to your credit card."
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Q Can I re-activate a previously cancelled account?
A In many cases the answer is yes as long as someone has not taken your username in the intervening time. Having a sufficiently obscure username will generally assure that you have it available in the future when you wish to re-activate.
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Q The Back buttons in this site don't work.
A You are most probably using The Safari Web Browser versions 1.0 Beta (v48...51). The fix for this is to either not back-up or use Explorer or Navigator or most any other browser that is not a Beta release. We're sure that the Apple Software Engineers are working on it in light of the fact that this browser is still in development.
We have found a few bugs in it ourselves like history.back and history.go not working and button sizing being quite bizarre. Apple has always fixed these little things up before actual v1.0 releases happen, at least most of the time.
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Q I connect OK, but I can't navigate and/or get a "Server Not Found" error.
A This is an interesting one, a possible solution is as follows:
If you have IP addresses in the "name server addr:" box of your TCP/IP control panel, take them out. If you don't have any in for the name servers, put the server IP addresses in:
64.136.173.8
64.136.164.66
It appears that certain versions of "Open Transport" have a problem with accessing certain parts of our network if IP addresses are supplied by your TCP/IP control panel. Normally you should have these addresses in the "name server addr" box of your TCP/IP control panel. In certain versions of OS9 and X there seems to be a matching problem with the Open Transport interface. In these instances removing the IP addresses cures the problem.
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Q When I connect I get an "Authentication Failed" error message.
A This manifestation has many reasons listed in order of likeliness:
1. The username or password is incorrectly entered. Dialup usernames look exactly like an email address: username@themacisp.net. All other username entries for E-mail and FTP are just the username without the @themacisp.net.
2. Your Remote Access and/or TCP/IP preferences are corrupted. The solution to this is to put those preferences in the trash and reenter the information for them again.
3. Your credit card may have declined for the monthly billing in which case your connectivity is interrupted, not your account. If you card has already expired on the other hand, your account is most probably cancelled.
4. Wrong dialup number: Check you dialup number against the ones listed in this site. Area codes through out the US can experience number changes and upgrades from time to time.
5. You could have violated the rules of the road with hi jinx such as spamming, hacking, or otherwise abusing your Internet privileges... I'm sure this does not apply to you however, right?
6. An actual network problem exists (very rare). Check the Network Status Page of this web site for current information about service interruptions or problems in your area.
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Q When use news groups I get an "Authentication Failed" error message.
A You are probably not supplying a username and/or password to the news client. News group access requires your username and password. You must be dialed up to our numbers for news groups to be accessible.
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Q In viewing my personal home page I get an "ERROR 403, file not found".
A This is normal if you have not uploaded an html web page named "index.html" to your personal web space yet. We currently have installed a default page for you so this error should not occur unless you erase the index.html file in your Sites directory.
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Q I connect but I get disconnected a lot and/or get slow speeds.
A Your system is probably experiencing instability. This usually occurs when previous Internet connection software from other ISP's have been installed on your machine. TheMACisp is a traditional configuration and works best with factory default settings for everything. Other Internet software tunes and tweaks settings that you can not access from your MacOS interface and these non-standard settings interfere with a traditional configuration.
The quick fix for this is to enter the Control Panel-TCP/IP dialog box and set it for some connection type other than PPP like Ethernet for example and save that configuration away, closing the dialog. Now, re-open that dialog and set it to the TheMACisp PPP settings and save it away again, closing the dialog box. This refreshes the template used to create your TCP/IP stack and any tweaks that were made before are now set back to factory defaults.
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Q I tried the TCP/IP fix but it still disconnects a lot and/or get slow speeds.
A First thing is to copy down all the settings you have in your Apple-Control Panel-Remote Access and TCP/IP dialog boxes.
Unfortunately your system is still experiencing instability, the grandiose solution is to trash all your preferences and rebuild. Although a bit more work, this is usually the solution that works when other ones fail. Do this through your Macintosh HD icon on your desktop. Open that up and open up the System folder and then open up the Preferences folder and then open up the Remote Access folder where you will find 3 files, two of which you must drag into the trash: Remote Access Connections and Remote Access Preferences. Now, go back one directory level and find the TCP/IP Preferences file, put this in the trash as well. Shutdown and restart your computer.
When your operating system comes back up go to the control panel Remote Access and TCP/IP dialogs and re-enter your TheMACisp setup information.
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Q I connect OK and keep online but my speeds are still slow.
A This can be caused by several different things. The first and easiest fix is to change your modem scripts located in "Control Panel-Modem". These scripts offer you several different configurations for your Mac, some will improve speed at the cost of stability and others will improve stability at the cost of speed, trial and error is the best way to determine which modem script is correct for your situation.
At the heart of this problem is naturally the local phone company lines and systems in your neighborhood and dwelling. To put this another way, 18.45% of all Dial-Up Modem Access Occurs at 48000bps or faster. That means that 82.55% of all Dial-Up Modem Access Occurs 46666bps or slower.
About 80% of Phone-Lines in the US are 56K Capable, About 18% of Phone-Lines in the US are Not 56K Capable. Modem scripts will not change this, it's up to you, your phone company and the PUC to fix bad phone-lines. About 1% of Internal Modems are Defective and need to be exchanged. About 1% of External Phone Cords, Jacks, Modem Cables, etc. are wired wrong or are Defective. The other 80% can grab a 49333 - 53333 bps reliable connection with a 56K modem and the proper modem script.
A source for additional modem scripts for your system can be found at MacaRa Modem Magic Web site.
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Q How can I limit what my kids see on the Internet?
A TheMACisp provides full access to the public world wide web. We do not restrict content or limit our users' access to Internet web sites. We regret the amount of offensive material available on the Internet. TheMACisp urges each user to take appropriate action to limit access to this material as they see appropriate.
TheMACisp provides the following links for your information and use. TheMACisp does not offer technical support, edorse or is affiliated with this company.
www.intego.com
ContentBarrier sets up a protective wall around your Macintosh computer. Its predefined categories let you choose what you don't want your children to see
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Q Why do I get SPAM and how do I stop it?
A Although TheMACisp provides pre-filtering of SPAM (unsolicited email) through spamcop, we can not catch all the SPAM that is out there.
There are some steps you can take to help reduce the amount of junk mail reaching your inbox. You can configure your email program to filter your email as you receive it. email filters will place unwanted email into your Trash folder. In order to do this, you need to identify key words within the unwanted email and then have your email program filter all messages containing these criteria to the Trash. The next time you check your email, your email program will search each message looking for the words that you have specified and move the offending message to the Trash. Although this feature can be extremely useful, you need to be very careful in selecting specific words for your filters, as you may unknowingly filter out mail from your family, friends or business contacts.
One of the most important ways is to NOT reply to spam messages. Spam programs are intelligent. They are programmed with standard dictionary languages and even understand last names. Therefore, if you use your last name in your email address these programs can easily find you. What these programs don't know is whether the address to which they are sending is valid. Once you reply to a spam, you have confirmed to the spammer that your email address is real and is actively in use.
Use discretion when giving out your email address while visiting other sites or registering for on-line contest prizes and other promotions. You should use the same judgment that you use when providing your home address and consider how it may be used. Finally, you need to watch out for the opt-in check boxes. These boxes are usually placed next to questions that ask if you would like to receive information from the Web page owners or their partners. By leaving the box checked, you are agreeing to receive promotional emails from the promoter and possibly other parties.
For more information on junk mail and how to stop it, visit http://www.spamcop.net/.
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Q How can I prevent getting viruses?
A Macintosh users traditionally have had the pleasure of watching all those Windows users scramble to eliminate viruses from their computers on an ever increasing basis while Mac users simply get on with business knowing that these popular viruses only effect Window machines. This does not mean that Macintosh computers are immune to viruses, it's just that not many have been written for the MacOS platform as of yet, this coupled with the smaller amount of networked systems makes Macintosh virus propagation much more difficult.
Computer viruses are nasty and can wreak havoc on your computer. The following steps may not completely protect you from viruses, but they can significantly reduce your chances of being harmed by them:
1) Install anti-virus software on your computer (Highly recommended for Windows Machines).
2) Ensure you update your anti-virus software regularly. At least once a week (Highly recommended for Window Machines).
3) Be very wary of email attachments. Scan attachments before opening them.
4) Do not open or preview messages which may appear suspicious.
5) Back up your essential data to a safe place seperate from your hard drive.
Rule of Thumb: Prepare for the worst.
Helpful Links:
McAfee Anti-Virus Information Site: http://www.mcafee.com/anti-virus/.
Symantec Security Response (Norton): http://securityresponse.symantec.com/.
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Q Does the accelerator support Internet Explorer?
A When the accelerator changes the HTTP proxy settings on the local computer, Safari will be automatically notified. However, proxy settings on Internet Explorer will not be changed automatically. As a result, IE continues to use the old settings.
You should exit Internet Explorer and then restart if any of the following situations occur.
1. With the accelerator enabled, you can not observe any acceleration when using Internet Explorer.
2. You can not browse with Internet Explorer after disabling the accelerator.
By terminating IE and then restarting it, IE is forced to re-read the HTTP proxy settings from the system preferences.
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Q Page cannot be displayed when the accelerator is disabled.
A This problem occurs because Internet Explorer can not recognize the new change of the proxy settings. Please refer to the question "Does the accelerator support Internet Explorer?".
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Q I am unable to start the accelerator.
A The accelerator server may be down or the accelerator software may have become corrupted or another application is listening on the accelerator port (5400 or 5500).
Ensure that the accelerator server is up and running, This may be done by trying to launch the accelerator using a different machine.
Alternately, if the application software may have become corrupted, re-install it.
Finally, if there is another application listening on the accelerator port, change the port that the accelerator listens on.
1. Stop the accelerator.
2. In the accelerator application choose the "Connection" tab.
3. Choose "Advanced...".
4. Change local port to a different value (say 5600);
5. Click "OK".
6. Click "Apply".
7. Start the accelerator.
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Q Does the accelerator support email acceleration?
A No, at this time the Macintosh client only accelerates HTTP traffic.
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Q Does the accelerator have a pop-up blocker?
A Since pop-up blocking is built into the Safari web browser, the accelerator client does not implement this functionality.
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Q Is my accelerator really accelerating?
A There is a simple way to measure this and that's with the Diagnostics utility in SlipStream.
1. Start-up SlipStream.
2. From the menu bar select SlipStream/Diagnostics.
3. Click Get Diagnostic Info.
After a few seconds you will be presented with a test showing a download without acceleration and a download with acceleration showing the download times in milliseconds.
Although Safari is tailor made for SlipStream or visa-versa, the report still shows ***FAILED(4)*** for the "Safari Version" under "Retrieving Safari Information". I guess for right now just ignore this, it does not seem to impeed the operation of SlipStream with Safari in the least.
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Q When I exit SlipStream I can not view webpages in my browser
A Normally when quitting SlipStream it alters your Network System Preferences accordingly so that you can connect to the internet and view webpages without having to run SlipStream. Sometimes SlipStream fails to uncheck this Preference when it closes down, causing the loss of webpage loading ability. Here are the instructions to restore webpage loading ability if it fails after stopping SlipStream
1. Click on your Apple Menu (The blue apple icon in the upper left hand corner)
2. Select System Preferences
3. Select Network
4. In the Show pull down menu select Internal Modem (select Airport if connecting via an Airport)
5. Select Proxies
6. Uncheck Web Proxy (HTTP)
7. Select Apply Now
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Q When I start SlipStream I am prompted for my username and password.
A This situation will occur if you have your Network settings locked. To see if your settings are locked please follow these steps.
1. Click on your Apple Menu (The blue apple icon in the upper left hand corner)
2. Select System Preferences
3. Select Network
If the words "Click the lock to make changes" appear next to the Lock Icon in the lower left hand corner of the window then your settings are locked. Clicking on the Lock Icon and entering in your system administrator username and password will unlock your settings allowing SlipStream to launch without having to prompt for a password.
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