BITS User Manual Welcome

Welcome

THE B.I.T.S. Story

The parent company BTS, Inc. (Business Tele-communication Systems, Inc.) has been around for more than 17 years selling and maintaining telephone systems throughout the Midwest.

B.I.T.S. (Business INTERNET Tech. Systems) became a reality in November of 1995. With the hard work of Shorty Grudzinski, Jon Bokelman, and Stan Mallory, BTS started offering Internet service to the community.

In February of 1996, JoAnne Harders joined the staff , soon to follow was Stacy Mallory.

Sites were soon opened in other communities, including North Platte, Central City, and Kearney. The Kearney service is marketed through Tim Loewenstein, Sr.

We would like to extend a welcome to everyone joining the Internet community and BITS.

We hope to extend to you the best service possible.

Acceptable Use Policy

The following information is to help the user understand what is acceptable use, what is unacceptable use, what are the user's responsibilities, and what are the consequences of misuse.

Acceptable Use

The following represents a guide to acceptable use of Internet resources provided by BITS. It is not intended to identify all acceptable uses, but to indicate those uses which are clearly consistent with the purposes of the resources of BITS.

1.	Respect for the rights of others including the rights of privacy and freedom from harmful and/or offensive intrusions.
2.	Respect for intellectual property rights as legally protected by copyright and license to programs and data as well as contractual obligations.
3.	Respect for the integrity of the computing system. Questions as to what is or is not an acceptable use should be directed to BITS. BITS may at any time make a determination as to whether or not a particular use is or is not consistent with the purposes of BITS computing system and is therefore acceptable or unacceptable.

Unacceptable Use

The following list characterizes unacceptable use. It is not intended to identify all unacceptable uses, but to indicate the types of uses which are clearly inconsistent with the purposes of these resources at BITS. Such use is subject to remedial action.

1.	Commercial purposes of any type without prior written approval of BITS.
2.	Personal financial gain in any form without prior written approval of BITS.
3.	Violation of copyrights, software license agreement, and/or patent protections.
4.	Libeling and/or slandering of others.
5.	Unsolicited advertising.
6.	Use for the purpose of promoting or procuring pornography.
7.	Using electronic mail for unauthorized fund-raising.
8.	Use of visuals and sounds which may be offensive and/or disruptive to others.
9.	Violation of computer system security.
10.	Attempt to gain unauthorized access, whether successful or not.
11.	Any violation of Federal and/or State laws.
12.	Misrepresenting your identity and/or account in any manner.
13.	Creating and/or willfully disseminating computer viruses.

All unacceptable uses are also a violation of your responsibilities as a user.

User Responsibilities

By using BITS computing and Internet resources you are agreeing as a condition of use to accept personal responsibility for considerate, ethical and responsible behavior in your use of the available resources.

1.	You are responsible for the security of your account. It is your responsibility to protect your account with a password which will protect it from unauthorized use and to change that password as frequently as you think necessary. If you discover that someone has made an unauthorized use of your account, you are to report the intrusion to BITS and to change your password. BITS assumes no responsibility for the security of your account.
2.	You are responsible to make any back-ups of electronically stored data which you have created or maintain. BITS assumes no responsibility for lost or corrupted data.
3.	You are responsible to report any weakness you discover in the security of thecomputing resources to BITS. You are not to explore a weakness on your own as this may be interpreted as intentionally tampering with BITS computing resources and be treated as a violation of criminal law. If you wish to assist in resolving a security weakness in the system, you should contact BITS for authority to act and for further instruction.
4.	You are responsible to clearly and accurately identify any on-line communication including messages, sentiments and declarations as coming from you. If you are acting as the authorized agent of a business or organization, the communication must be identified as coming from that business or organization.
5.	You are responsible to take steps to avoid being a victim or an unwitting distributor of computer viruses or other destructive computer programs. BITS assumes no responsibility for avoidance of or for the impact of computer viruses or other such destructive programs.

Consequences of Misuse

Misuse of BITS computing and Internet Resources may result in one or more of the following consequences which may be implemented at the discretion of BITS.

1.	A written warning.
2.	Cancellation of user's account with BITS.
3.	Financial restitution to the seminary for funds owed and or expended because of misuse.
4.	Referral to civil authorities for prosecution.

Warnings

BITS reserves the right to monitor and record user activities without notice upon learning of possible unacceptable use and/or violation of the user's responsibilities. BITS may provide the results of such monitoring to appropriate civil authorities. BITS reserves all rights to cancel a user's account for violation of policy without prior written warning.

Personal Webpage Policy

Policy

BITS-Business INTERNET Tech. Systems recognizes the important relationship between informational exchange and personal World Wide Web publishing. Therefore, BITS is allowing personal users and non-profit organizations the privilege of publishing Webpages on our Internet server. However, BITS does not endorse the content of such personal pages. Opinions and viewpoints expressed on a personal Webpage are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of BITS. Persons and/or organizations who publish Webpages on BITS server must comply with the provision of BITS Acceptable Use Policy and are subject to its consequences.

1.	User Responsibilities
	You are required to have an approved account on BITS Internet server before you are eligible to publish Webpages.
	You are to be aware that your Webpages are accessible to the general public.
	You are responsible to insure that your Webpages are distinctly different from the official Webpages of BITS these include, but are not limited to: www.gionline.net, www.kearney.net, www.nponline.net, www.cconline.net, and www.webbits.net. Webpages should not give the impression that they are official BITS publications in any form or manner. You shall not use graphic representations of BITS or any other official seal and/or logo on your Webpages.
	You are responsible to respect the intellectual property rights of others. A personal Webpage is an electronic publication. It is your responsibility to avoid unauthorized use of material protected by copyright and license laws.
	You are responsible to investigate the copyright status of published material in any medium and to obtain written permission as required.
	You are solely responsible for the performance and maintenance of your Webpages. BITS personnel are not available to assist you with the configuration of your resources or personal computer systems.
	You are expected to be self-policing and to protect your use privilege by notifying BITS immediately at joanneh@gionline.net if any violation(s) of any BITS policy are observed.
2.	File Space
	File space is restricted to 1 MB and shall not exceed this amount. If your Webpage should exceed this amount BITS has the right to delete any part of your Webpage exceeding the allotted 1 MB. If you desire more space than specified for a personal or non-profit organization, contact BITS for further information.
3.	BITS Homepage Links.
	It is BITS intention to link any personal Webpages to its official Webpages. Personal Webpages will be linked to the official Personal Webpages link and Non-profit organizations will be linked to the official Non-profit Organization Webpages link. If you request a link other than outlined above, please contact joanneh@gionline.net to initiate the process for consideration of a homepage link. BITS, in its sole discretion, shall determine the appropriateness of your request.

Legal Agreement

Terms and Conditions

1.	Access to the Internet
	You understand, except for information, products, or services clearly identified as being supplied by BITS, neither BITS or any of their affiliates operates or controls any information, products, or services on the Internet in any way. You assume total responsibility and risk for your use of BITS services and the Internet. Neither BITS nor any of its affiliates make any express or implied warranties, representations or endorsements whatsoever including without limitation warranties of title or noninfringment, or the implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose or confidentiality) without regard to any merchandise, information or service provided through BITS or on the Internet generally, and they shall not be liable for any cost or damage arising either directly or indirectly from any such transaction. It is solely your responsibility to evaluate the accuracy, completeness and usefulness of all opinions, advice, services and other information, and the quality and merchantability of all merchandise provided through BITS Internet service or on the Internet generally.You understand further that the Internet contains unedited materials, some of which are sexually explicit or may be offensive to you. You access such materials at your own risk. BITS and its affiliates have no control over and accept no responsibility whatsoever for such materials.
2.	No Warranties.
	The service is provided on an "as is" and "as available" basis without warranties of any kind, either expressed or implied, including but not limited to warranties of title, noninfringment or implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose or confidentiality.No advice given by BITS or their affiliates or their agents or employees shall create a warranty. Neither BITS or any of their affiliates warrants that the service will be uninterrupted or error free or that any information, software, or other material accessible on the Internet is free of viruses, worms, Trojan horses, or other harmful components. Under no circumstances shall BITS or any of their affiliates, agents, or employees be liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, special , punitive or consequential damages that result in any way from your use or inability to use the service or to access the Internet or any part thereof, or your reliance on or use of information, services or merchandise provided on or through BITS or the Internet, or that result from mistakes, omissions, interruptions, deletion of files, errors, defects, delays in operation, or transmission, or any failure of performance. If you are dissatisfied with the BITS service, or with any terms, conditions, rules, policies, guidelines, or practices of BITS or any of its affiliates in operating those services, your sole and exclusive remedy is to discontinue using those services.
3.	Limited Liability
	Any liability of either BITS or any of their employees or agents, including without limitation to any liability for damages caused or allegedly caused by any failure of performance, error, omission, interruption, electrical surge/damage/interference, deletion, defect, delay in operation or transmission, communications line failure, or destruction of or unauthorized access to, alteration of, or use of records whether for breach of contract, tortuous behavior, negligence, or under any other legal theory shall be strictly limited to the amount paid by you to BITS for the calendar month in which the action arose.

Technical Support Policy

It is our goal to help all of you become more comfortable with your Internet service, and at the same time get our hurried pace somewhat back to normal. One of the largest increases we've seen is in the technical support area. We are working on a new technical support project we implemented on 3/1/97.

We will make available the tools and resources to make it easier for you to understand what happens to your computer when you run Internet software and to help you troubleshoot any problems you may encounter.

Here are the items we have available:

1.	A tutorial, troubleshooting guide, and a list of FAQ's (frequently asked questions). These will be available both on the web and in written form.
2.	Training sessions and seminars.
3.	An e-mail box specifically for technical support questions.
4.	Additional and better availability of Technical Support Staff.
5.	Any technical support policies and times of the day you can expect responses to your questions.
6.	And possibly an online technical support forum for you to exchange questions and answers with other users.

We would like to see comments from those of you who have items you would like addressed. Whether it be an item you would like to see included in the tutorial, training session or troubleshooter. Even an idea you think would be helpful to this project.

We in no way want to discourage our customers from contacting us directly, and hope the changes to come will actually make each one of you more comfortable with your Internet service. With these changes we will be applying a charge of $9.95 per incident for phone support. (The onsite charge of $19.95 still applies) If it is determined that the support is needed because of a problem relating directly to our service there will be NO CHARGE.

The decision was made to start a tech. support charge in order to balance the costs involved with all the new updates and changes. By the time we have the new Tech Support policy in place we will have you heavily armed with all the tools you will need. And remember, we will have the tech support e-mail box for any questions you may have at no charge. It just won't be as timely as the phone call.

Unmetered vs. Unlimited

We provide UNMETERED access, this is not the same as UNLIMITED.

Although we don't charge you a "per hour" fee, we do reserve the right to limit your hours "per session". This means if you are logged on for 6 or more hours in a single session, you run the risk of getting bumped. When we periodically monitor the system and see you on for that many hours we assume you either have forgotten to sign off, or you are maintaining your online position so you don't have to hassle with logging in later. In order to be fair to all of our customers (including you) and allow equal chance to log on, to a sometimes very busy service, we may bump you.

BITS $ Bucks

For those of you who have not yet taken advantage of this promotion, it is simply a $5.00 credit to your account for every person you refer who signs on with us for service. Just let us know or have the person mention that they heard about our service from you and we will credit your account. It's that easy!! For those customers who have paid in advance, the $5.00 will appear as a credit on your first bill after your pre-paid period is up.

Software Distributed and Supported

BITS will provide a user manual when your account is activated, along with software for the following platforms:

	(Microsoft Internet Explorer version 3.0c) for Windows 3.1 and Windows 3.11
	(Microsoft Internet Explorer version 1.0) for Macintosh systems 7.1 or higher
	(Microsoft Internet Explorer version 3.0) for Win 95 (On-site Installs Only)

BITS will provide support under the technical support policy guidelines for the following software:

	Microsoft Internet Explorer for Windows 3.1x, Windows 95 and Macintosh
	Netscape 2.0 and higher for Windows 3.1x, Windows 95 and Macintosh
	Eudora Light e-mail for Windows 3.1x, Windows 95 and Macintosh

BITS will not provide support for any software downloaded or obtained from other sources whether registered, shareware, freeware or beta versions. It is the users responsibility to obtain technical support from the appropriate vendor.