Important News for our Subscribers!
Please check our home page regularly for important news announcements!

Our home page and your My Lighthouse Page login will be the source of communications for you!

Lighthouse no longer sends out all user emails. With all the Spam and Junk emails that try to copy our formats we have decided to eliminate bulk emails in order to give you better and more reliable communications.

CURRENT NEWS:  

July 16, 2008:
Summer Specials to get you faster Internet!
Lighthouse is offering special discounts for the summer to help your budget. We have dropped the price of our LightWave Canopy SM units $100.00 with plans starting at just $14.95 a month. No one has lower priced High-speed service than Lighthouse! We also have special pricing on WildBlue for rural Cloverland Electric Cooperative Members. Cloverland Members save $499.00 on WildBlue during this summer special from Lighthouse and Cloverland. We have more coverage coming this summer and a new exciting system that will be launching soon! Lighthouse has faster service in more places and we will cover even more areas in 2008. Watch for more news!

May 9, 2008:
Are you receiving "bounced" emails you did not send?
The Spammers have come up with a new way to get junk to your In Box. Spammers can be evil geniuses, and their latest trick is to make you think you're being hacked. To sneak their e-mail messages past network filters that have blacklisted them, spammers find (or even guess at) your e-mail address and put it into the "From" line. When the spam gets sent to an address that's no longer active, you get the bounceback (called "backscatter.") According to a May 5 article in Computer World, backscatter only accounts for 2 or 3 percent of spam now, but is a growing concern. As always, Lighthouse is aware and we have Postini, our filtering comapny, working to tag these emails as Junk. It is not as easy as you may imagine but we are confident they will solv this newest issue shortly.

April 15, 2008:
Lightwave is the lowest priced High-speed service:
Starting at just $14.95 a month, Lightwave Canopy Wireless covers more area in the EUP than any other service and is about half the price per month of any competitive product. Lightwave is a proven service with almost five years of service. It is the most secure and reliable  service available anywhere with coverage in Sault Ste Marie, St Igance, Dafter, Rudyard, Kincheloe/Kinrosss and DeTour. No one has more coverage and the price is unbeatable! With everyday items getting more expensive, Lightwave is still economical and can help you save on the bottom line. Call today for more information on our High-Speed Wireless that leads the area and the nation for service and pricing!

April 10, 2008:
Lighthouse will be at the Sault Spring Show:
Lighthouse will be offering the opportunity to try out our LightPhone Digital Phone Service at the Spring Show this Friday and Saturday. You can call anywhere we connect in the world for up to three minutes to test our new LightPhone service. This service offers a number of plans including Unlimited Calling in the US for only $24.95 a month and very low International rates. We will have our staff on hand to answer any questions on LightPhone or any of our services. Plus we will be giving away free popcorn during the show. Come on down to the Norris Center; Spring Show admission is FREE this year. The Spring Show runs Friday night from 5PM to 9PM and Saturday from 10AM to 6PM. Stop in and say Hi! The weather forecast is not too good so come indoors and browse around the Norris Center. If you’re a Lighthouse Subscriber we have a free gift for you! See you there!

March 19, 2008:
Anti-Virus Firms Scrambling to Keep Up
Sophistication of Viruses and Other Threats Poses Big Challenges for Companies, Consumers
By Brian Krebs
Washingtonpost.com Staff Writer
Wednesday, March 19, 2008; 11:12 AM
The sheer volume and complexity of computer viruses being released on the Internet today has the anti-virus industry on the defensive, experts say, underscoring the need for consumers to avoid relying on anti-virus software alone to keep their home computers safe and secure.
Approximately 5.5 million malicious software programs were unleashed on the Web last year, according to AV Test Labs, a German company that measures how quickly and accurately anti-virus products detect the latest malicious software, also known as "malware." That volume, AV said, forced anti-virus firms to analyze between 15,000 and 20,000 new specimens each day -- more than four times the daily average they found in 2006, and at least 15 times as many the company recorded in 2005. In the first two months of 2008 alone, AV Test found more than one million samples of malware spreading online.
Read the rest of this article at:
Lighthouse recommends using updated Anti-Virus and Anti-Spyware tools to keep your system running properly. If your system is slow or experiencing problems the most common cause today is Spyware or Virus intrusions.
Read the rest of this article at:
www.washingtonpost.com
Lighthouse recommends using updated Anti-Virus & Anti-Spyware tools to reduce the possibilty of problems.
If your system is slow or experiencing problems it is commonly caused by Spyware or Virus intrusions.

March 4, 2008:
Lighthouse Announces Cisco Certification:
Lighthouse.Net is proud to announce that we are now Authorized by Cisco, the leader in networks and business communications. Lighthouse has been selected as a Cisco Certified Partner! We have completed extensive training and can now provide unparalleled support to local business. We use Cisco everyday to provide fast reliable networking for your Internet. Now we have all the resources and training to provide the very best solutions available for your business. Our Cisco Certification includes the new Small Business Products like Voice over IP Telephone to save on high phone company costs. Call us today to see how we can help your business!

January 23, 2008:
New Improved LightSpeed:
We are launching a new and improved version of our popular LightSpeed Accelerator for 2008. This new version increases web browsing up to 7X faster than a standard connection. That is the fastest accelerator available! It is also now compatible with Windows Vista and Macintosh! This new LightSpeed is faster than the current version with more operating system options and better image quality. Even better we are still offering this service to our subscribers for just 99 cents a month! That’s $3.00 off the normal $3.99 monthly price!
If you use a dialup connection, have a WildBlue Valu Pak or use 802.11 wifi to connect to the Internet; LightSpeed will improve your browsing speed. We even offer a 30 day money back guarantee so there is nothing to lose! Over 1,000 of our subscribers have enjoyed the previous LightSpeed and they will be upgraded to the new version for free! If you don’t have LightSpeed on your dialup connection and want faster service, this is the best value around!

January 18, 2008:
WildBlue Available:
WildBlue is available again! If you are in a rural area where our LightWave or LightWire can’t reach you, WildBlue is the answer! We had hundreds of WildBlue subscribers and many more wanting to get this service when WildBlue announced they were closing our area for new subscribers in 2007. Now WildBlue has announcd the reopening our area for additional subscribers. This service can bring you faster Internet at monthly prices comparable to cable and other services. It is the very best solution for rural subscribers who want to get faster service and you can get it locally from Lighthouse! Call us today to get more information on Wildblue, don’t wait because you may miss the opportunity if this area fills up again!

January 2, 2008:
NETSCAPE USER NOTICE:
AOL to End Support of Netscape Navigator
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: December 29, 2007
Netscape Navigator, the world’s first commercial Web browser and the starting point of the Internet boom, will be pulled off life support Feb. 1 after a 13-year run. Its current caretakers, Time Warner’s AOL, decided to end further development and technical support to focus on developing the company as an advertising business. Netscape’s use dwindled with Microsoft’s entry into the browser business in the 1990s, and Netscape all but faded away after the birth of its open-source cousin, Firefox. In recent years, Netscape has been little more than a repackaged version of Firefox, which commands about 10 percent of the Web browser market, with almost all of the rest going to Internet Explorer. People will still be able to download and use the Netscape browser indefinitely, but AOL will stop releasing security and other updates on Feb. 1. Mr. Drapeau recommended that the small pool of Netscape users download Firefox instead. Edited content

December 21, 2007: 
Sending Email Reminder!: If you are having an issue with sending email including “554 Refused”, “blacklisted” or “The message could not be sent because one of the recipients was rejected by the server” please turn on authentication in your email client setup. All users require Email authentication to send mail. If you have not updated your settings from our notifications on this website starting in October you will receive these messages and be unable to send email. In order to secure email and reduce Spamming we require that all email users authenticate to our server for sending lighthouse.net or sault.com email. If you are using Outlook Express the instructions for turning on authentication are listed in the “About Lighthouse” tab under “News” dated on October 22, 2007. If you need assistance with this change, just call our free Internet support and they can assist. A reminder; as stated in our all user email September 20, 2007, we will no longer send “All User Emails”. All important information will be posted for our subscribers on the Lighthouse.Net Homepage. Please check it frequently for important news and notices that can affect your service.

December 10, 2007: 
New LightWave Site in DAFTER!: Lighthouse.Net, the areas leading Internet Service Provider, is proud to announce the launch of another new LIGHTWAVE Wireless High-speed Internet Service site. Lighthouse working in cooperation with Cloverland Electric Cooperative in Dafter, Michigan is now providing the first widely available High-speed Internet Access in the area using Motorola’s new Canopy 900MHz system. Motorola’s proven wireless Canopy system will allow businesses and residents of the area to receive competitively priced, secure and reliable High-speed Internet for as low as $14.95 per month. The Dafter installation is on the Cloverland Electric tower located just of I-75 on M-28. The coverage area extends around the area for miles and even farther where clear line of sight to the tower allows extended connections, allowing residents there the first opportunity to connect to a true Broadband connection at reasonable prices.

December 2, 2007: 
Holiday Hours: Lighthouse wishes all our subscribers a safe and Happy Holiday season. Our office will be closed on Monday December 24th and Tuesday December 25th for the holiday. We will have telephone technical support for our subscribers on both days. We will also be closed on January 1st, News Years Day.

November 23, 2007: 
Required Email Changes: All Lighthouse subscribers are required to add "authentication" in their email client to send mail through our servers. This new security measure will improve the reliability of our email service and secure your connections for email. All subscribers and email users are required to make this change immediately.

 November 5, 2007: 
Notice for ALL E-MAIL users!
Lighthouse will soon be changing our email servers to require authentication for all email users. This added security will protect you from having your email account used for Spamming without your knowledge. We all hate junk email and this change will help stop the spread of Spam. In anticipation of this change we need all users to change their email clients to use authentication. This is a simple “check” in the box for authentication on your email client. in Outlook Express under “Tools” chose “Accounts”, select the email account (click once to highlight) then click “Properties”, under the Properties Screen choose “Servers” tab, near the bottom of this screen put a check in the box for “My Outgoing Server Requires Authentication” (just authenticate and not secure). If you use other email clients just look for the “authentication” box or you can use the Help provided by the program. As always, if you are having problems or need assistance, just call our telephone technical support.

October 22, 2007: 
Email Authentication Notice!In order to resolve issues with subscribers who have computers that are sending Spam without their knowledge we have implemented a change for Outgoing Emails. Effective immediately any user that is trying to send Email to more than 5 recipients email addresses at once will have to have Authentication selected on their client. Subscribers who send more than 5 will have to set their email client to authenticate for the Outgoing sever; in Outlook Express under “Tools” chose “Accounts”, select the email account (click once to highlight) then click “Properties”, under the Properties Screen choose “Servers” tab, near the bottom of this screen put a check in the box for “My Outgoing Server Requires Authentication” (just authenticate and not secure). You can then send email as normal to multiple recipients.

October 18, 2007:
LightPhone saves on phone bills! Our new LightPhone Digital Telephone Service is a huge success and a bonus offering for our High-speed customers. LightPhone has a variety of plans starting at just $9.95 a month with calling in the US, Canada and Puerto Rico included for these low prices. There are also very low International calling rates. Anyone who does much calling or wants to do more can save big over telephone company costs. We have subscribers who have CenturyTel and AT&T local service saving right now and Charter customers are even adding our LightPhone service! Check out LightPhone to save on your phone bill! Lighthouse continues to bring more services and expand our offerings to you. 

October 13, 2007:
The new Lighthouse website is live!
This new site has information on all of our products & services. Lighthouse offers more today than ever and this site will showcase all the options we have. Lighthouse provides more services in more places than anyone for the area. Our coverage is growing all the time and new services are added continually. The new site features a single login with security for subscribers to access all the features and new products that Lighthouse offers. The main account login will have access to account information, New Personal Webpage, New Webmail, Postini filtered emails, the New LightPhone and more. The simple single login makes using the new site as simple as possible for our subscribers. Email accounts will only have their New Webmail and Postini filtered email accessible. Lighthouse has added a “security code” that has to be entered to access the information for accounts and emails. This new security feature helps protect Lighthouse subscriber's information from being accessed by anyone who does not have their username and login. The security feature stops web bots and crawlers from running unlimited attempts at accessing information. Lighthouse values the integrity of our subscriber’s information and we want all of our users to be as secure as possible when using our service.

September 18, 2007
Celebrate with us on Friday!
You are invited to our 10 Year Celebration! This Friday the 21st from Noon to 5PM we will have prizes and drawings, food, beverages and smiles. Come in and see our office or visit with the staff. We want to thank every Lighthouse subscriber for their support. We have expanded many services and added a lot of new products for our subscribers. We will be launching our new LightPhone Digital Telephone Service on Friday with free gateways for anyone signing up. We will also be launching our new secure webpage with more information and products. Come see us on Friday!

August 20, 2007
Lighthouse.Net Funds New LSSU Scholarship
Local Internet provider, Lighthouse.Net, committed to fund a scholarship for the next three years at Lake Superior State University in celebration of its 10 year anniversary. The purpose of the $2,500 annual scholarship opportunity is to assist full-time students pursuing a four-year degree in Computer Science.Lighthouse.Net of Sault Ste. Marie, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Cloverland Electric Cooperative, employs three LSSU graduates and provides an internship program for LSSU students enrolled in the Computer Sciences program.

“We’re very fortunate to have a university the size and quality of Lake State in our community. The economic and educational benefits are immeasurable,” says General Manager Steve Mason.

To obtain an application, go to www.lighthouse.net or www.cloverland.com. The 2007/08 application deadline is September 14, 2007

June 27, 2007
New look, New Services!
Lighthouse is launching a new and improved website! Our new look will include a secure login to help protect our subscribers from unauthorized access or hacking of passwords. The new site will also have account information available as well as our new Personal Webpage with a simple to use template for setting up your own personal website. This new site is designed for both dialup and high-speed users. It has more information on our company and services so you can learn more about all the things we offer. The new site is planned for launch for July so watch for the change and current news!

March 02, 2007
Internet Settings
Lighthouse wants to remind all of our subscribers to be sure that your computers Internet settings are correct. We have had some users with incorrect Internet settings, some from using out dated CD's for installing their connection. Lighthouse has not issued or used a setup CD for over five years. Please discard any old Lighthouse setup CD's immediately. Make sure that your Internet connection is set to automatically obtain DNS from Lighthouse. Prior Domain Name Server numbers can cause problems with surfing. If you require DNS numbers for your router or system the proper numbers are: Primary DNS-69.216.168.2 and Secondary DNS-65.43.19.26. Please be sure that you are not using any other DNS numbers. If you have any questions, call our free telephone Internet Support for assistance.
We also want to remind everyone to have Anti-Virus & Anti-Spyware programs loaded and updated on your computers. It is very important to install and update these programs in order to keep your computer running properly. Spyware is one of the biggest problems on the net today and can cause slow computer operation, pop ups, redirects and allow others to access to sensitive information on your computer among other issues. Our Computer Service Department can clean up your system and help you avoid future problems by installing preventative software. We offer this service to our subscribers at a discounted labor rate. As your local ISP, we are here to help.

January 15, 2007
TEN YEARS OLD! 
Lighthouse.Net is celebrating its Tenth Anniversary in 2007! This is a huge milestone for any company in today’s Internet Market. It’s the classic tale of David versus Goliath. Lighthouse has thrived while huge National ISP’s like AOL and Prodigy dropped out of the internet business. National and local competitors have faltered as changes in the industry leave many behind. For over a decade, Lighthouse has kept pace with new technologies, improved services and offered competitive pricing, competing with the bigger nationwide companies. Lighthouse has High-speed and Broadband service available locally in more places than any other company. We have a top notch local staff with friendly support and a complete array of services. All this has combined to make Lighthouse the leader in Internet services in the area. Even though we are the “little guy” compared to big cable and telephone companies, we have provided better service at better pricing than the “big guys”. The big telephone and cable companies seem to have lost personal service and concern for customers in their quest for profits. Lighthouse is focused on customer service and reliable competitively priced Internet services.
These past Ten Years have lead to new horizons of faster Internet service and more products than ever before. Lighthouse will continue to lead the way in 2007 with MORE High-speed coverage areas. We will offer new services for our subscribers, a new web look, improved customer support, additional staff to provide on-site support services and MUCH MORE! We want to take this opportunity to thank all of our loyal subscribers for helping us to meet this milestone and we encourage you to tell your friends about Lighthouse. With more people switching to Lighthouse everyday, we are able to continue to grow and provide more High-speed services to more areas! Our Tenth Anniversary will mark the expansion of improved services to all our subscribers.
Thank you all!