News

Yesterday, the American Cable Association launched a campaign designed to create awareness of the real cause for rising TV costs. The campaign, TV Ransom, rightfully lays the blame at the feet of corporate broadcasters and their increasingly excessive demands to retransmit content.

For more information, follow the link: TV Ransom

Due to “Sun Outages” some TV signals may experience signal degradation from October 4th until October 12th.

Signal degradation can cause pixelated picture, picture freezes and/or audio distortions, and they can last anywhere from 5 to 15 minutes.

The interruptions do not affect all channels and are an unavoidable side effect of content providers using satellite down-links to distribute their TV Channels. To read more, go to the following link:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_outage

  Two days ago, the FTC released a report that showed just how fast Identity Thieves can obtain and use your identity. The study consisted of the FTC posting fake IDs on websites popular with Identity Thieves. It took nine minutes before the information attracted attention. There were at least 1,200 attempts to use the fake identities and the attempts ranged from trying to buy pizza to online dating subscriptions.

The report also advocated the use of two-factor authentication. While it isn’t a perfect system, it does help. Two-factor authentication is a system that uses two forms of verifying your identity in order to alleviate the issue of “easy” identity theft. For example, to login into one account you would be required to enter your password and a code that is sent to your phone. This form of authentication has been long established in the gaming community and has seen a recent surge of use in other industries, such as banking.

There is nothing that can be done to make your identity totally safe from theft, and despite the hassle many feel using two-factor authentication it is one of the better ways of protecting your identity.

See the report here.

ValuNet’s Jacob went down to Soden’s Grove to show the students from Logan Avenue school our bucket truck during STREAM Day.

March 31st is World Backup Day. Help make sense of what is a potentially confusing topic, we recommend this article:

The Beginner’s Guide to PC Backup

Remember that regular backups not only help recover from equipment failures, but also malware and ransomware.

Congratulations to all our Holiday Open House Prize Winners!

	Carol, Kindle Fire Winner!	Johnny, Kindle Fire Winner!
Melissa, Roku Streaming Stick Winner!	Ken, Smart TV Winner!	Lee, Year of Gigabit Winner!	Siegmar, Roku Streaming Stick Winner!

Due to “Sun Outages” some TV signals may experience degradation over the next ten-day period, from October 2nd until October 12th.

The interruptions do not affect all channels and are an unavoidable side effect of content providers using satellite down-links to distribute their TV Channels. The exact times and duration will vary and usually last for only 5 to 10 minutes occurring in the mornings and early evenings. To read more go to the following link:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_outage

ValuNet customers can enjoy HBO for free from 6am Friday, October 7th to 6am Monday, October 10th. Viewers will be able to see the first two episodes of the new HBO series Westworld and the premiere of their widely anticipated comedy Divorce. They can also preview HBO’s movie lineup with Paper Towns, The Martian and Spy. Plus, HBO’s movie premiere of Ride Along 2. HBO channels start at channel 400. See what HBO is all about!

The FTC issued a warning concerning what information your phone may be sharing with a rental car when you sync up with its on-board system.

https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/blog/what-your-phone-telling-your-rental-car

It was recently announced that as many as 900 million Android devices are subject to a collection of vulnerabilities collectively referred to as “QuadRooter”. It turns out that, though the vulnerabilities exist, it might not be as bad as all that. Read the article below for additional details.

QuadRooter Vulnerability: 5 Things to Know About This Android Security Scare

No exact date has been mentioned, but in the next couple of weeks they’ll be getting rid of their free stream service. The paid service appears to be continuing unchanged. Read the article below for more details.

http://mashable.com/hulu-ending-free-service/