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Zone Alarm: Sudden Loss of Internet Access Problem
Posted: July 14, 2008
Microsoft Update KB951748 is known to cause loss of internet access for ZoneAlarm users on Windows XP/2000. Windows Vista users are not affected. Fix from Zone Alarm and Microsoft.

Internet users could be banned over illegal downloads
Added: July 11, 2008
People who illegally download films and music will be cut off from the internet under new ... [more].

Bandwidth Increase Scheduled for August 2008
Updated: July 23, 2008
The new target date for the circuit to be upgraded from 12 Mb to 20 Mb is July 25, 2008. Plans have finally been approved by the building engineers in Sacramento where the point-to-point equipment will originate, and Martin Metals has been hired to build the bracket which will secure the equipment to the building.

This will help overall speed of the network and improve overall performance. For gamers and video downloaders, this will improve downloads.

Based on steady growth, we anticipated a need for more bandwidth back in November 2007. While our telco who provides us bandwidth was on-board to supply more, we needed approval from the building managers in Sacramento before securing the point-to-point antenna atop a 17-story building. It was a 6 month "adventure", but we finally got all the approvals we needed to more forward.

Help Desk
News & Updates

New Bandwidth Switch-Over Scheduled for 10-11 am on August 15th.
Posted: August 13, 2008
The move to the new bandwidth circuit will happen August 15th between 10am and 11:00 am. During this time, customers may experience an outage.

Bandwidth Testing Complete!
Posted: August 9, 2008
The backhaul between Sacramento and Vacaville has completed testing and the phone company will turn on the new bandwidth circuit on Thursday, August 14. During the circuit change-over, Internet access (and email) will be unavailable for approximately 30 minutes. We do not have a time of day at present, but will post information here once we have it.

Upgraded Bandwidth Installed and in Testing!
Posted: August 1, 2008
The point-to-point wireless backhauls between Sacramento and Vacaville have been installed and we are testing the link speed and stability. The testing phase should be concluded by August 6th, and if all looks good, we should have the additional bandwidth on-line by the end of next week!

Password Reset of All Solano Wireless Emails Accounts
Posted: July 25, 2008
Last week, several emails circulated "claiming" to come from Solano Wireless Internet. These emails were fake. The emails "required" that you provide your email address, password, date of birth and other personal information or your account would be terminated. This form of spam is called "phishing" and is best explained at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phishing. 

We already have your relevant information on-file and would never send out an email asking for your credit card number, email login or other personal data. This is one method hackers use to gain access to your personal information and/or steal your identity. When the expiration date of your credit card on-file with us has expired, we may send you an email requesting "only" the new expiration date (no other account identifying information). If you need to supply a new credit card, we require that you download a new credit card authorization form from our website and fax/mail it back.

If you ever receive an email "claiming" to come from Guacamole Press or Solano Wireless Internet requesting such information, please forward it to support@solanowireless.com and then delete it. The same is true for any email you receive "claiming" to come from your bank, credit card company, Paypal, eBay, Social Security Administration, other governmental agency, etc. requesting your personal information and/or login information. When in doubt, please call and confirm the email with the party in question.

In the interim, we have had to disable the webmail access for all Solano Wireless Internet customers until all customers have changed their email password. This will be a painful process, but needs to be done. Several customers did respond to the fake emails and have allowed the spammers access to the webmail portal to send out thousands of spam messages per minute.

To update your email password, please contact the Office during normal business hours. Once all email addresses have been changed, we will enable the webmail feature again.
 

Smoke from California Fires Affecting Signal Strength
Posted: July 7, 2008
The smoke from the numerous California wildfires is affecting signal transmission quality. As much as 3 dBm loss in signal strength has been observed in customer antennas connecting to mountain-top transmitters. The same effect has not been seen for those connected to neighborhood relay towers.

Wildfires' smoke, ash chokes Northern Californians (from CNN.com)

San Francisco Bay Area winds patters (from the USGS)

Snow and Ice Cause PG&E Outage on Mountains
Posted: January 22, 2008
The recent storm has downed PG&E power lines atop Mt. Vaca, affecting service to customers connected to Vaca North and Berryessa Peak towers.

Mt. Vaca tower
1/23/08 Morning

Mt. Vaca tower
1/23/08 Afternoon

Massive Denial of Service Attack (DoS) Hits Network
Posted: May 8, 2008
Wednesday Evening at approximately 7pm a massive DoS attack took down the network. Technicians identified the sources to be coming from the Vaca South transmitter. Service to all other transmitters and relays was restored. Multiple sources have been identified and isolated but technicians are still finding more sources. What is a DoS?