Wavefront Moves to Visi

Having recommended wavefront.com to many of you and having "set-up" your email and web browsers to use wavefront.com, I feel some obligation to "help" in changeover to the new services of visi.com. Please call or ask me to "come over" to help you make these changes if you want - NO FEES FOR DOING THIS!!!

I will try to place some helps/advise (for those of you that will "changeover" yourself) on this page as I figure out how this "business buyout" will affect us as internet users. It seems to be OK!

Dialup

Username

EmailAddress

WebPage

Top

Locater

This is the biggest concern because one day you may find that your email just does not work (when the old telephone numbers at wavefront are no longer applicable).

At the least, it would seem wise to access the web site (at the left) with all the telephone numbers at visi and write them down somewhere. Don't wait until you no longer can get "online" to deal with this.

It has not been made clear when this telephone change is required but you better be ready. It seems that you will receive an email message first and then "it happens". BE READY!!!

I also am not sure when the new telephone numbers will begin to work for you either. You will have to judge this yourself!

The best advise I can give is to continue to use the old telephone numbers, have the new ones (new account setup) all ready to go, and change things when it becomes necessary (when you can't get "online" anymore).

• You will have to open FreePPP Setup (little telephone in the top menu bar of your computer) and create a new account for Visi.com (or Vector) (examples are shown on a web page at the left) and type in the new required telephone numbers, username.ppp, password, etc. (See Phone Numbers at the left.) (I have set you up on Macintosh FreePPP.)
  
• You should also open up TCP/IP (from the FreePPP Setup) and type in the DNS numbers (209.98.98.98) (add this set of numbers at the bottom of your list - do not delete the old numbers) and the DNS name (visi.com) (again, add this name at the bottom of your list - do not delete the old names). Make sure you get to the bottom of the list (use the arrow key to do that). (See DNS Servers at the left.) (I have usually used Macintosh, TCP/IP to set you up. You may have the older Macintosh, MacTCP setup though! Make sure the top item is not MacPPP but FreePPP.)

  See My Setup Windows
  

When your wavefront dialup stops working, all it takes is to switch accounts in the FreePPP Setup to the new Visi.com (vector) account and life should go on.

Item 2: Usernames

I have been told that unless there is an exact username in the visi.com data base, that you will be able to retain your current username and password (WHEW!!) (I, personally, have been informed that my username will have to change - have any of the rest of you had similar requests?)

Item 3: Email

Your email address (for now) can be either "username@wavefront.com" (no change) or "username@visi.com" (they will run an alias on the server that will direct your "wavefront" mail to the "visi" mail box). But.......
You will have to reconfigure your "email client" (for most of you - Eudora) to the new mail server at visi.com in order to receive your mail that has been sent to "wavefront" or "visi" addresses. (See Email Config at the left!)

This change will be required when your account is changed over to VISI - read your email carefully and regularily!

Personal Opinion: All of this is not exactly clear for several reason I expect:
1- They haven't figured it all out yet and/or/plus/(your choice)
2- I suspect there is some reluctance at visi to accept the wavefront users under their old agreement with wavefront since the vector/visi rates are higher. I'm not sure when these higher rates will become a demand but for right now they are trying to keep it a "congenial" relationship so they don't lose too many of you as customers. I'm going to start looking for another ISP to recommend for you!

Aside:
I also have received some "less than respectful" communication from visi.com which makes me just a little wary of "wholeheartedly" recommending that you "automatically" make this "changeover". If you want to talk about this, give me a call. If you want to make a change, there may be "better places" for your account at this time!

Item 4: Web Sites

Most of this is my responsibility since I manage the web sites for many of you. If you want to know how the web sites will work, I will go over it with you. Basically, the web site can remain:

http://www.wavefront.com/~username/
but the following will be better
http://www.visi.com/~username/

In reality the visi address is the real one and the wavefront address is only a pointer (an alias). I recommend that the address should be changed in all references to your web site. The old one will work but it is not clear as to "how long" it will continue to work so it is best to make the change in all your references. (Just like the 651 area code for some of us).

I have to change the server that I access to place the web pages (I have already begun to do that for some of you - I still have alot of my own web sites to do also.)

Macintosh Ideas
Back to Handy

I hope some of this helps - send an email - call - I'll be glad to help!
David Thomas