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 FAQs. If you've got a common question, chances are someone has asked it before. Get the help you need (while remaining anonymous).

FAQs.
DSL
Dial-up
Internet Fraud
LiteSpeed™ Dial-up
 Spyware
Virus
Spam
 Glossary

Click the plus sign next to the question to expand and reveal the answer.

    DSL:
  • What is DSL?
    • DSL (digital subscriber line) is the latest in next-generation technology allowing for the transmission of voice, video, and data over existing copper telephone lines at incredible megabit speeds. DSL is dedicated, high-speed bandwidth which uses existing phone lines, without tying them up. You can access the Internet while using the same line for voice or fax. In addition, you stay connected -- no more dialing up or waiting for a free phone line. Simply put, a DSL connection transforms your phone line into a high-speed digital link. This link is capable of providing you with all the traditional services you're accustomed to while simultaneously providing you with continuous high-speed access to the Internet 24 hours a day. DSL's use of the existing infrastructure makes it cheaper to install than other services which require the laying of additional cable.
  • How fast is DSL?
    • DSL is available in a spectrum of speeds. Whether you're a home user or a business, DSL offers high bandwidth performance at a price you can afford. Most DSL offerings start at a minimum of 5X faster than dialup and can go to 30X faster. It depends on the phone companies offerings.
  • How does DSL compare to cable modems?
    • Cable modems attach to the cable TV network connection in a home or business. The potential bandwidth estimates for this new technology range upwards of 30MB from the service provider to the subscriber. However, cable networks are inherently different in design than telephone networks. Cable networks are broadcast oriented -- meaning that each subscriber in an area receives the same signals as all others in that area. DSL runs on the existing telephone network which is circuit oriented -- meaning that each connection is independent of all others. Since DSL connections are independent, the bandwidth available to the end user is more consistent and secure.
  • What does DSL cost?
    • DSL pricing varies considerably depending upon the DSL carrier, the level of opus:interactive service you've chosen, the speed you've chosen, etc. In addition, there are setup fees, as well as the cost of a DSL device to consider. When paying for DSL, you are paying two fees -- one for the actual circuit (including the speed you receive) and one for your Internet access (throughput, e-mail, etc.)When ordering DSL, you should consider both the speed required and the traffic expected on the connection (your throughput). If you are unsure of how much throughput you will use, take your best guess.
  • What's the catch?
    • DSL is so new that it is not available in all areas. It is also distance-sensitive; the speeds available to you will depend on your location. In order to maximize our customers' access to DSL, opus:interactive works in partnership with a variety of DSL carriers -- Qwest, Verizon, and CenturyTel. Since DSL is such a new technology, there are still occasional glitches to be worked out. For mission critical business applications, such as a web site handling financial transactions, we recommend you choose frame relay, have opus:interactive host your web site for you, or co-locate a server at opus:interactive's data center.
  • What hardware does my computer need for DSL?
    • Typically, all you need to begin using your DSL line is a NIC (network interface card) or a USB port, and a DSL modem. The DSL modem connects your DSL line to the NIC or USB port on your computer.
  • How close to the phone company do I need to be?
    • Three miles is the longest acceptable distance from the phone company's central office or remote telephone switch location. Beyond that, data rates begin to degrade. Typically this distance is large enough to include most people in any given area.
  • Can the phone company use my existing phone line, or will they need to install a new one?
    • This question depends in part on the results of a line test. In general, if your DSL carrier is your phone company, your DSL service will be added to your existing phone line.
  • How do I order DSL?
    • Opus:interactive works with DSL circuits provided by Qwest, Verizon, and CenturyTel. The speeds and carriers available to you will depend on your location. To order DSL, contact our customer service team to check availability for your address and phone number. If you are placing your own order with Qwest or Verizon, be sure to tell them that opus:interactive is your ISP.
    • Also,Our friendly, knowledgeable Internet service representatives can determine whether DSL is available at your location and help you pick the plan that's best for you. Simply call Monday through Friday between 8am and 9pm at 503-972-6690 or 888-678-7001 for information or to place your order. Please have your promotional code ready when you call. You may also visit www.opusinteractive.com to check for current cost-saving promotions and to place your order, be sure to enter you promotional code when filling out the online form at www.opusinteractive.com/getdsl.
  • What happens after I place my order?
    • Once you've ordered DSL, there are a number of things which must happen before you're up and running. DSL access is not instant so you can expect some delay before you're able to use the service. Your customer service representative can give you an idea of the amount of time you'll need to wait. This process also varies depending upon your local phone company (Qwest, Verizon, or CenturyTel).
        • Here's how it works:
      • You or opus:interactive will place your DSL order.
      • Your line is provisioned.
      • Your phone company will provision your existing phone line for the additional service similar to adding voice mail service to your phone line.
      • DSL hardware is installed and configured to connect to opus:interactive.
      • Your phone company will send you a box containing your DSL device, line filters, installation instructions, etc. to your location.
      • Once you receive this box and your DSL device is installed on your computer, you'll need to call opus:interactive's technical support team (888-678-7001 or 503-972-6690) so that we can help you with your configuration.
  • How will I be billed?
    • If your DSL carrier is Qwest or Verizon, the service is added to an existing phone line and the DSL service will be billed on your regular phone bill. In this case, opus:interactive will bill you for our services separately. If your DSL carrier is CenturyTel all of your costs will be billed by opus:interactive. All opus:interactive services are month-to-month contracts. See our billing policy for additional information regarding this topic.
  • What if I have other questions not covered here?
    • You may call our customer care department at 888-678-7001 or 503-972-6676 for more DSL information or you may email sales.
    Internet Fraud
  • What types of Fraud or Scams are out there?
    • Fraud on the Internet includes, but is not limited to: fraudulent or fake web sites, untrustworthy websites, phishing (fishing) for personal information with fraudulent emails, Online auction frauds (buyers and sellers), increased Nigerian 419 Advance Fee Fraud, Lottery Advance Fee Scams, Business Opportunities & Work from Home Scams, International Modem Dialing and Cramming, and credit card fraud.
  • What is PHISHING (fishing)?
    • Phishing is a high-tech scam that uses spam or pop-up messages to deceive you into disclosing your credit card numbers, bank account information, Social Security number, passwords, or other sensitive information. For more information visit http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/alerts/phishingalrt.htm.
  • What are fraudulent or fake web sites, untrustworthy websites?
  • What are online auction frauds - buyers and sellers?
    • Four in ten buyers and half of sellers claim they have encountered problems with Internet auctions. The most common problem for buyers is late delivery. Other problems include receiving items that are different than those promised, items arriving in damaged condition, and never receiving the items at all. Sellers report problems such as late payment, non-payment, buyer's changing their minds, checks bouncing and buyers using stolen credit cards.
  • What is Nigerian 419 Advance Fee Fraud?
    • Nigerian 419 Advance Fee Fraud broadly follows the following steps.
      1. An individual or company receives a letter or fax from an alleged "official" representing a foreign government or agency;
      2. An offer is made to transfer millions of dollars in "over invoiced contract" funds into your personal bank account;
      3. You are encouraged to travel overseas to complete the transaction;
      4. You are requested to provide blank company letterhead forms, banking account information, telephone/fax numbers;
      5. You receive numerous documents with official looking stamps, seals and logo testifying to the authenticity of the proposal;
      6. Eventually you must provide up-front or advance fees for various taxes, attorney fees, transaction fees or bribes;
    • Other forms of 4-1-9 schemes include: c.o.d. of goods or services, real estate ventures, purchases of crude oil at reduced prices, beneficiary of a will, and recipient of an award and paper currency conversion.
  • What are Lottery Advance Fee Scams?
  • What are Business Opportunities & Work from Home Scams?
  • What is International Modem Dialing?
    • It's a scheme some Web sites use to trick consumers into paying to access "free" Internet content. Often, the sites claim to be "free" or advertise that "no credit card is needed," then prompt the user to download a "viewer" or "dialer" program. Here's the catch: Once the program is downloaded to the user's computer, it disconnects from the Internet and reconnects using another phone number - a domestic long distance, international or 900 number - at rates between $2 and $7 a minute. For more info visit http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/alerts/modmalrt.htm.
  • What is Cramming?
    • Cramming refers to unexplained charges on your phone bill for services you never ordered, authorized, received, or used. Sometimes a one-time charge for entertainment services will be crammed onto your phone bill. Other times, monthly recurring charges are crammed onto your phone bill. Cramming of monthly recurring charges falls into two general categories: club memberships, such as psychic clubs, personal clubs, or travel clubs; and telecommunications products or service programs, such as voice mail, paging, and calling cards.
    Spyware:
  • What is Spyware?
    • Spyware is any technology that aids in gathering information about a person or organization without their knowledge. On the Internet (where it is sometimes called a spybot or tracking software), spyware is programming that is put in someone's computer to secretly gather information about the user and relay it to advertisers or other interested parties. Spyware can get in a computer as a software virus or as the result of installing a new program. Data collecting programs that are installed with the user's knowledge are not, properly speaking, spyware, if the user fully understands what data is being collected and with whom it is being shared. However, spyware is often installed without the user's consent, as a drive-by download, or as the result of clicking some option in a deceptive pop-up window.
  • Is a cookie spyware?
    • The cookie is a well-known mechanism for storing information about an Internet user on their computer. However, the existence of cookies and their use is generally not concealed from users, who can also disallow access to cookie information. Nevertheless, to the extent that a Web site stores information about you in a cookie that you don't know about, the cookie mechanism could be considered a form of spyware.
    Virus:
  • What is a virus?
    • In computers, a virus is a program or programming code that replicates by being copied or initiating its copying to another program, computer boot sector, or document. Viruses can be transmitted as attachments to an e-mail note or in a downloaded file, or be present on a diskette or CD. The immediate source of the e-mail note, downloaded file, or diskette you've received is usually unaware that it contains a virus. Some viruses wreak their effect as soon as their code is executed; other viruses lie dormant until circumstances cause their code to be executed by the computer. Some viruses are benign or playful in intent and effect ("Happy Birthday, Ludwig!") and some can be quite harmful, erasing data or causing your hard disk to require reformatting. A virus that replicates itself by resending itself as an e-mail attachment or as part of a network message is known as a worm.
  • How do I know if I have a virus on my computer?
    • Run a virus protection software that has been updated with the latest virus definitions. An example of this software is PC-cillin which can be found at www.trendmicro.com.
  • What if a virus is detected?
    • Follow the instructions provided by your virus software and call a computer technician for virus removal.
  • What if I my computer is locked up and I can't run my virus software?
    • Call a computer technician for virus removal.
  • Does opus:interactive block these viruses?
    • All email accounts @opusnet.com and @theoregonshore.com are protected by our sophisticated MailFoundry and IronPort virus and spam protection appliances. These appliances intercept all email before it reaches you and searches it for spam and/or viruses. If the email contains a virus, it is quarantined on our servers so it can not cause damage to your computer. If the email is suspected of being spam (unwanted junk email), it is held on our server for five days until it is automatically deleted. These appliances also protect our email servers by removing email borne viruses. Virus definitions are checked and updated many times per day. However, no virus protection system is 100% accurate, so you are always advised to install your own virus protection software on your PC.

      opus:interactive partners with MailFoundry and IronPort email appliances for a complete World Class spam and virus free email system.

      For more information visit www.mailfoundry.com and www.ironport.com.

      Pricing:
      Per email account    FREE
      Per domain    $25.00/Mo.

    Spam:
  • What is Spam?
    • Unsolicited e-mail, often of a commercial nature, sent indiscriminately to multiple mailing lists, individuals, or newsgroups; junk e-mail.
  • Does opus:interactive block spam?
    • Yes.
  • How effective is opus' spam filtering?
    • opus:interactive continues to work towards becoming a no-spam zone and has taken significant steps to limit the quantity of spam delivered to our customers whose email is hosted on our servers. Our aim is to reduce the level of spam by more than 90%. We currently block over 250,000 spam messages per week.
  • What does opus use to filter the spam?
    • We use Imail along with Declude JunkMail. This solution is 90%+ effective in spam blocking. We have been working with the Declude software for years now and are experts in this area. We are VERY satisfied with Declude.
  • How does it work?
    • We weight each message based on failed tests and then delete heavy weighted messages as SPAM. The lower weighted messages get marked up with a header note which can then be filtered by each user depending on the level of spam blocking they want. The lower the weight, the more false positives. In other words if you set it really sensitive you may have to create a SPAM folder and monitor what gets put in there to make sure you aren't deleting anything you want to keep.
  • Do I have to have my email filtered for Spam?
    • Some customers may want opus:interactive to not filter their email for spam. We can exempt individual mail accounts from the scanning process on customer request. Please email support@opusnet.com to be removed from filter.
  • Does opus ever delete legitimate email?
    • One of the unfortunate side-effects of working hard to make spam go away is that sometimes legitimate mail gets blocked. We work extremely hard to make sure this doesn't happen. If you suspect that e-mail is being incorrectly filtered please report it to opus:interactive as soon as possible. Messages quarantined by our sieve filter system are reviewed for false positive indications of spam. You should email support@opusnet.com as well if you think that legitimate emails are not reaching you and you wish to recover them.

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