Acceptable Use Policy

WiFires Acceptable Use Policy

All business and residential WiFires Internet customers (the “customer,” “user,” “you,” or “your”) and all others who use the Service must comply with this Policy. Your failure, or others’ failure, to comply with this Policy could result in the suspension or termination of your or their Service accounts. Therefore, you should take steps to ensure that others you permit to use your Service are aware of this Policy and agree to abide by it. If you are unwilling to comply with this Policy, you must immediately stop all use of the Service and notify WiFires so that it can close your account. This policy is in addition to, and supplements, all other WiFires agreements.
This Policy applies to your use of the Service if you are a business or residential WIFIRES Internet customer who accesses WiFires -provided services inside or outside of your premises or in public places using an WIFIRES account.
WiFires may revise this Policy from time to time by posting a new version on the web site at getWiFires.com/AUP or any successor URL(s) (the “WIFIRES Web site”). WiFires will use reasonable efforts to make customers aware of any changes to this Policy, which may include sending email announcements or posting information on the WIFIRES Web site. Revised versions of this Policy are effective immediately upon posting. Accordingly, customers of the Service should read any WiFires announcements they receive and regularly visit the WIFIRES Web site and review this Policy to ensure that their activities conform to the most recent version.
I. Prohibited Uses and Activities
In general, WiFires prohibits uses and activities involving the Service that are illegal, infringe the rights of others, or interfere with or diminish the use and enjoyment of the Service by others. For example, these prohibited uses and activities include, but are not limited to, using the Service, Customer Equipment, or the WiFires Equipment, either individually or in combination with one another, to:
A. Conduct and information restrictions
undertake or accomplish any unlawful purpose. This includes, but is not limited to, posting, storing, transmitting or disseminating information, data or material which is libelous, obscene, unlawful, threatening or defamatory, or which infringes the intellectual property rights of any person or entity, or which in any way constitutes or encourages conduct that would constitute a criminal offense, or otherwise violate any local, state, federal, or non-U.S. law, order, or regulation;
post, store, send, transmit, or disseminate any information or material which a reasonable person could deem to be unlawful;
upload, post, publish, transmit, reproduce, create derivative works of, or distribute in any way information, software or other material obtained through the Service or otherwise that is protected by copyright or other proprietary right, without obtaining any required permission of the owner;
transmit unsolicited bulk or commercial messages commonly known as “spam;”
send very large numbers of copies of the same or substantially similar messages, empty messages, or messages which contain no substantive content, or send very large messages or files that disrupts a server, account, blog, newsgroup, chat, or similar service;
initiate, perpetuate, or in any way participate in any pyramid or other illegal scheme;
participate in the collection of very large numbers of email addresses, screen names, or other identifiers of others (without their prior consent), a practice sometimes known as spidering or harvesting, or participate in the use of software (including “spyware”) designed to facilitate this activity;
collect responses from unsolicited bulk messages;
falsify, alter, or remove message headers;
falsify references to WiFires or its network, by name or other identifier, in messages;
impersonate any person or entity, engage in sender address falsification, forge anyone else’s digital or manual signature, or perform any other similar fraudulent activity (for example, “phishing”);
violate the rules, regulations, terms of service, or policies applicable to any network, server, computer database, service, application, system, or web site that you access or use;
B. Technical restrictions
access any other person’s computer or computer system, network, software, or data without his or her knowledge and consent; breach the security of another user or system; or attempt to circumvent the user authentication or security of any host, network, or account. This includes, but is not limited to, accessing data not intended for you, logging into or making use of a server or account you are not expressly authorized to access, or probing the security of other hosts, networks, or accounts without express permission to do so;
use or distribute tools or devices designed or used for compromising security or whose use is otherwise unauthorized, such as password guessing programs, decoders, password gatherers, keystroke loggers, analyzers, cracking tools, packet sniffers, encryption circumvention devices, or Trojan Horse programs. Unauthorized port scanning is strictly prohibited;
copy, distribute, or sublicense any proprietary software provided in connection with the Service by WiFires or any third party, except that you may make one copy of each software program for back-up purposes only;
distribute programs that make unauthorized changes to software (cracks);
use or run dedicated, stand-alone equipment or servers from the Premises that provide network content or any other services to anyone outside of your Premises local area network (“Premises LAN”), also commonly referred to as public services or servers. Examples of prohibited equipment and servers include, but are not limited to, email, web hosting, file sharing, and proxy services and servers;
use or run programs from the Premises that provide network content or any other services to anyone outside of your Premises LAN, whether for personal or commercial use;
service, alter, modify, or tamper with the WiFires Equipment or Service or permit any other person to do the same who is not authorized by WiFires;
C. Network and usage restrictions
use the Service for operation as an Internet service provider or for any business, other legal entity, or organization purpose (whether or not for profit);
restrict, inhibit, or otherwise interfere, regardless of intent, purpose or knowledge, with the ability of any other person to use or enjoy the Service (except for tools for safety and security functions such as parental controls, for example), including, without limitation, posting or transmitting any information or software which contains a worm, virus, or other harmful feature, or
impede others’ ability to use, send, or retrieve information;
restrict, inhibit, interfere with, or otherwise disrupt or cause a performance degradation, regardless of intent, purpose or knowledge, to the Service or any WiFires (or WiFires supplier) host, server, backbone network, node or service, or otherwise cause a performance degradation to any WiFires (or WiFires supplier) facilities used to deliver the Service;
resell the Service or otherwise make available to anyone outside the Premises the ability to use the Service (for example, through the WiFires network), in whole or in part, directly or indirectly, with the sole exception of your use of the WiFires network in accordance with its then-current terms and policies;
connect the WiFires Equipment to any computer outside of your Premises;
interfere with computer networking or telecommunications service to any user, host or network, including, without limitation, denial of service attacks, flooding of a network, overloading a service, improper seizing and abusing operator privileges, and attempts to “crash” a host; or
II. Customer Conduct and Features of the Service
You are responsible for your own compliance with this Policy. You are also responsible for any use or misuse of the Service that violates this Policy by anyone else you permit to access the Service (such as a friend, family member, or guest.)
WiFires recommends against enabling file or printer sharing unless you do so in strict compliance with all security recommendations and features provided by the manufacturer of the applicable file or printer sharing devices. Any files or devices you choose to make available for shared access on a home LAN, for example, should be protected with a strong password or as otherwise appropriate.
In all cases, you are solely responsible for the security of any device you connect to the Service, including any data stored or shared on that device. It is also your responsibility to secure the Customer Equipment and any other Premises equipment or programs not provided by WiFires that connect to the Service from external threats such as viruses, spam, and other methods of intrusion.
Use of inappropriate content and transmissions
WiFires reserves the right to refuse to transmit or post, and to remove or block, any information or materials, in whole or in part, that it, in its sole discretion, deems to be in violation of Sections I or II of this Policy, or otherwise harmful to WiFires network or customers using the Service, regardless of whether this material or its dissemination is unlawful so long as it violates this Policy. Neither WiFires nor any of its affiliates, suppliers, or agents have any obligation to monitor transmissions or postings (including, but not limited to, email, file transfer, blog, newsgroup, and instant message transmissions as well as materials available on the Personal Web Features as defined below) made on the Service. However, WiFires and its affiliates, suppliers, and agents have the right to monitor these transmissions and postings from time to time for violations of this Policy and to disclose, block, or remove them in accordance with this Policy, any other WiFires Agreements, or applicable law.
Inappropriate electronic mail
The Service may not be used to communicate or distribute email or other forms of communications in violation of Section I of this Policy. As described below in Section III of this Policy, WiFires uses reasonable network management tools and techniques to protect customers from receiving spam and from sending spam (often without their knowledge over an infected computer).
WiFires is not responsible for deleting or forwarding any email sent to the wrong email address by you or by someone else trying to send email to you. WiFires is also not responsible for forwarding email sent to any account that has been suspended or terminated. This email will be returned to the sender, ignored, deleted, or stored temporarily at WiFires sole discretion. If you cancel or terminate your Service account for any reason, all email associated with that account (and any secondary accounts) will be permanently deleted as well.
If WiFires believes in its sole discretion that any subscriber name, account name, or email address (collectively, an “identifier”) on the Service may be used for, or is being used for, any misleading, fraudulent, or other improper or illegal purpose, WiFires (i) reserves the right to block access to and prevent the use of any of these identifiers and (ii) may at any time require any customer to change his or her identifier. In addition, WiFires may at any time reserve any identifiers on the Service for its own purposes.
Instant, video, and audio messages
Each user is responsible for the contents of his or her instant, video, and audio messages and the consequences of any of these messages. WiFires assumes no responsibility for the timeliness, mis-delivery, deletion, or failure to store these messages. If you cancel or terminate your Service account for any reason, all instant, video, and audio messages associated with that account (and any secondary accounts) will be permanently deleted as well.
Personal web pages and file storage
As part of the Service, WiFires may provide access to personal web pages and storage space through personal web pages and online storage features (collectively, the “Personal Web Features”). You are solely responsible for any information that you or others publish or store on the Personal Web Features. You are also responsible for ensuring that all content made available through the Personal Web Features is appropriate for those who may have access to it. For example, you must take appropriate precautions to prevent minors from receiving or accessing inappropriate content. WiFires reserves the right to remove, block, or refuse to post or store any information or materials, in whole or in part, that it, in its sole discretion, deems to be in violation of this Policy. For purposes of this Policy, “material” refers to all forms of communications including text, graphics (including photographs, illustrations, images, drawings, logos), executable programs and scripts, video recordings, and audio recordings. WiFires may remove or block content contained on your Personal Web Features and terminate your Personal Web Features and/or your use of the Service if we determine that you have violated the terms of this Policy.
III. Network Management
WiFires manages its network with one goal: to deliver the best possible broadband Internet experience to all of its customers. High-speed bandwidth and network resources are not unlimited. Managing the network is essential as WiFires works to promote the use and enjoyment of the Internet by all of its customers. The company uses reasonable network management practices that are consistent with industry standards. WiFires tries to use tools and technologies that are minimally intrusive and, in its independent judgment guided by industry experience, among the best in class. Of course, the company’s network management practices will change and evolve along with the uses of the Internet and the challenges and threats on the Internet. The need to engage in network management is not limited to WiFires. In fact, all large internet service providers manage their networks. Many of them use the same or similar tools that WiFires does. If the company didn’t manage its network, its customers would be subject to the negative effects of spam, viruses, security attacks, network congestion, and other risks and degradations of service. By engaging in responsible network management including enforcement of this Policy, WiFires can deliver the best possible broadband Internet experience to all of its customers.
WiFires network management activities may include (i) identifying spam and preventing its delivery to customer email accounts, (ii) detecting malicious Internet traffic and preventing the distribution of viruses or other harmful code or content, (iii) temporarily lowering the priority of traffic for users who are the top contributors to current network congestion, and (iv) using other tools and techniques that WiFires may be required to implement in order to meet its goal of delivering the best possible broadband Internet experience to all of its customers.
IV. Data Consumption
WiFires is not currently applying a monthly data consumption threshold to WIFIRES Internet accounts. If the company changes that approach, it will post a new version of this Policy as described above and make other appropriate notifications to customers. WiFires is providing versions of the Service with different speed and data consumption thresholds, among other characteristics, subject to applicable Service plans.
V. Violation of this Acceptable Use Policy
WiFires reserves the right to immediately suspend or terminate your Service account and terminate the Subscriber Agreement if you violate the terms of this Policy or the Subscriber Agreement, or if anyone else you permit to access the Service violates this Policy. WiFires does not routinely monitor the activity of individual Service accounts for violations of this Policy, except for determining aggregate data consumption in connection with Section IV of this Policy. However, in the company’s efforts to promote good citizenship within the Internet community, it will respond appropriately if it becomes aware of inappropriate use of the Service. WiFires has no obligation to monitor the Service and/or the network. WiFires and its suppliers reserve the right at any time to monitor bandwidth, usage, transmissions, and content in order to, among other things, operate the Service; identify violations of this Policy; and/or protect the network, the Service and WiFires users. WiFires prefers to inform customers of inappropriate activities and give them a reasonable period of time in which to take corrective action. WiFires also prefers to have customers directly resolve any disputes or disagreements they may have with others, whether customers or not, without WiFires intervention. However, if the Service is used in a way that WiFires or its suppliers, in their sole discretion, believe violates this Policy, WiFires or its suppliers may take any responsive actions they deem appropriate under the circumstances with or without notice. These actions include, but are not limited to, temporary or permanent removal of content, filtering of Internet transmissions, and the immediate suspension or termination of all or any portion of the Service. Neither WiFires nor its affiliates, suppliers, or agents will have any liability for any of these responsive actions. These actions are not WiFires exclusive remedies and WiFires may take any other legal or technical actions it deems appropriate with or without notice.
WiFires reserves the right to investigate suspected violations of this Policy, including the gathering of information from the user or users involved and the complaining party, if any, and examination of material and data on WiFires servers and network. During an investigation, WiFires may suspend the account or accounts involved and/or remove or block material that potentially violates this Policy. You expressly authorize and consent to WiFires and its suppliers cooperating with (i) law enforcement authorities in the investigation of suspected illegal violations, and (ii) and system administrators at other Internet service providers or other network or computing facilities in order to enforce this Policy. Upon termination of your Service account, WiFires is authorized to delete any files, programs, data, email and other messages associated with your account (and any secondary accounts).
VI. Copyright
WiFires is committed to complying with U.S. copyright and related laws, and requires all customers and users of the Service to comply with these laws. Accordingly, you may not store any material or content on, or access, share or disseminate any material or content over, the Service (or any part of the Service) in any manner that constitutes an infringement of third party intellectual property rights, including rights granted by U.S. copyright law. WiFires provides an independent method for copyright owners to communicate information about alleged infringements to us, and for us to inform our customers about them: as described below, WiFires complies with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. You may receive alerts if your Service account is identified by a copyright owner as having been used in connection with acts of alleged copyright infringement.
What is WiFires DMCA policy?
Owners of copyrighted works who believe that their rights under U.S. copyright law have been infringed may take advantage of certain provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 (the “DMCA”) to report alleged infringements. It is WiFires policy in accordance with the DMCA and other applicable laws to reserve the right to terminate the Service provided to any customer or user who is either found to infringe third party copyright or other intellectual property rights, including repeat infringers, or who WiFires, in its sole discretion, believes is infringing these rights. Grounds for removal or termination include but are not limited to deleting or altering author attributes, copyright notices or other copyright management information unless expressly permitted in writing by the author or owner. WiFires may terminate the Service at any time with or without notice for any affected customer or user.
How do copyright owners report alleged infringements to WiFires under the DMCA?
Copyright owners may report alleged infringements of their works that are stored on the Service or the Personal Web Features by sending WiFires authorized agent a notification of claimed infringement that satisfies the requirements of the DMCA. Upon WiFires receipt of a satisfactory notice of claimed infringement for these works, WiFires will respond expeditiously to either directly or indirectly (i) remove the allegedly infringing work(s) stored on the Service or the Personal Web Features or (ii) disable access to the work(s). WiFires will also notify the affected customer or user of the Service of the removal or disabling of access to the work(s).
Copyright owners may send WiFires a notification of claimed infringement to report alleged infringements of their works under the DMCA (but not the Copyright Alerts System) to:
WiFires / DMCA Notifications
Email abuse@getWiFires.com
Copyright owners may use their own notification of claimed infringement form that satisfies the requirements of Section 512(c)(3) of the U.S. Copyright Act. Under the DMCA, anyone who knowingly makes misrepresentations regarding alleged copyright infringement may be liable to WiFires, the alleged infringer, and the affected copyright owner for any damages incurred in connection with the removal, blocking, or replacement of allegedly infringing material.
If you receive a DMCA notification of alleged infringement as described above, and you believe in good faith that the allegedly infringing works have been removed or blocked by mistake or misidentification, then you may send a counter notification to WiFires. Upon WiFires receipt of a counter notification that satisfies the requirements of the DMCA, WiFires will provide a copy of the counter notification to the person who sent the original notification of claimed infringement and will follow the DMCA’s procedures with respect to a received counter notification. In all events, you expressly agree that WiFires will not be a party to any disputes or lawsuits regarding alleged copyright infringement.
If a notification of claimed infringement has been filed against you, you can file a counter notification with WiFires designated agent using the contact information shown above. All counter notifications must satisfy the requirements of Section 512(g)(3) of the U.S. Copyright Act.
Revised and effective: June 5, 2016

 

    1. NLOS (Non-Line-of-Sight) Challenges

    In the license-exempt and lightly-licensed fixed wireless broadband space, operators must live with the modest power limits set by regulators. Whether in the USA, Canada, are anywhere else, regulatory regions require wireless technology in these frequency bands we are permitted to use to operate at greatly reduced power relative to those operators like mobile carriers who hold expensive licensed bands. The reasons for this go back many years, but the crux of the issue is that these bands were never expected to support commercial broadband plays, but rather were expected to be used by all the common indoor and very close range wireless devices that have become pervasive in our lives today, such as Wi-Fi, baby monitors, garage door openers, etc. The exceptions include 3.x GHz bands, but even these are granted very limited output power for fear of interfering with adjacent license band licensees like satcom companies. Despite this, technologists have been able to make lemonade out of lemons, and now thousands of operators around the world are serving millions of customers around the world – especially in rural areas where choices are few – with community-saving high speed internet. But common technologies like Wi-Fi and its proprietary derivatives can only do so much; Wi-Fi capabilities are modest when it comes to outdoor obstructions like trees. The result is that areas with lovely forests (and even a few trees in a wireless path), while nice to live around have been impossible to service with any kind of broadband speeds today’s streaming users demand. You see (again, this will be remedial for some of you),
    wireless signals weaken over distance – a process called “attenuation.” This attenuation occurs in a step-like manner, where enough attenuation means the signal drops to progressively lower and lower levels, with each level down reducing the ability of the signal to deliver less and less speed (megabits). These levels are called “modulations.” Top modulations might be able to deliver 80 megabits or more, but by the time distance and trees continue to attenuate the signal, one might be in a modulation that can only deliver 1 or 2 Mbps, and eventually nothing at all. With trees in the way, low power signals are both scattered (reflection) and absorbed by leaves, modulating the signal down to useless levels. In the wireless business we categorize this sort of radio path obstruction as a foliage-related non-line-of-sight problem (NLOS). Tree-based NLOS is the primary reason keeping most WISPs from being able to connect a majority of the customers in their footprint who want their service; it is a massive business problem, not just a technical one. Those who can beat NLOS — or at least deal with it much more effectively — win in the marketplace.

    In the wireless world we measure these signal levels in decibels (dB). The way the science works, -3 dB attenuation (loss) means you’ve lost half your power. Conversely, +3 dB (gain) means your power is double. And it’s exponential, so a loss of 6 dB is catastrophic in terms of delivering effective high speed internet. To use an analogy, imagine you are driving down the interstate at 80 mph. If you lost half your power (3dB), you are down to running at 40 mph. Lose another 3 dB (or 6 dB total) and now you are down to 20 mph. So in the wireless world, we might say 80 mph is like 80 dB, but 77 dB is like 40 mph and 74 dB is like 20 mph. That’s not going to get you anywhere fast – and your competitor still driving 80 will crush you in the market if your job is to delivers goods down the highway. And guess what? Your job IS to deliver “goods” down the “highway” – broadband down the information superhighway.

    This is where LTE comes in. Unlike Wi-Fi, LTE was designed for outdoor wireless, not indoor wireless local networks. As a more advanced technology designed specifically for outdoors, LTE signals are able to hold higher modulation levels in the face of more foliage. LTE also does a better job of collecting all the various reflections off leaves and still making sense of the signal.

    LTE does such a better job in fact that it holds about a 7 dB advantage over Wi-Fi on a per modulation basis — remember that’s more than double and double again. With that massive advantage it can easily cope with foliage-based NLOS that will literally render competitive technologies useless, unable to connect. WiFires LTE lets you deliver much higher speeds to your NLOS-impacted customers where your competitors maybe can’t service them at all. This means many more potential customers for every tower you install.

     

    1. Standards

    The NLOS benefits alone are enough to drive most fixed wireless operators delivering broadband commercially to move to LTE if they deal with foliage-based NLOS, but there is another reason why such users should care a lot about LTE: standards. This is also a reason cities and towns, must care about it. We are all carrying LTE-enabled devices in our purses and pockets. LTE, in just a few short years, has displaced all other old school mobile technologies. When you see that “4G” icon appear on your smart phone, that’s LTE. The mobile operators have invested billions to upgrade their networks to LTE because it gives them much more speed at distances the old 3G methods could deliver. But that’s not the only reason, the global drive for all mobile carriers to use LTE for its technological advantages also means the entire globe is unifying around a single standard. It’s an explosion in innovation. Just consider the amount of Wi-Fi prompted revolutionary innovations for what and how we can connect things inside just over the space of ½ a generation. We can’t imagine living with it, just ask your kids!

  • Fixed wireless

    Fixed wireless broadband may not be a household term just yet, but it’s definitely a term worth learning.  Simply put, fixed wireless provides broadband internet access to a single location through radio waves, eliminating the need for phone or cable lines.

    Why haven’t more people heard of fixed wireless?  Probably because it’s frequently confused with satellite internet service.  There are some similarities between the two.  Both satellite and fixed wireless require a dish or antenna.  Both provide high speed internet connection without using phone or cable lines.  But that’s about where the similarity ends.  Here’s a look at the important differences.

    Weather

    Most everyone knows that satellite doesn’t handle certain weather conditions very well.  Because the signal has to travel through the entire atmosphere and back, it might not even be your local weather that causes the problem, but a storm many miles away.  This is not an issue with a fixed wireless connection.  Fixed wireless towers are land-based, and about as tall as the average cell phone tower, so clouds or rain won’t interfere with the signal, and the signal covers a shorter range, so a storm in the next state will have no effect on your service.

    Latency

    One of the biggest differences between fixed wireless and satellite is the amount of latency, or lag.  This is how long it takes information to be sent or received over your connection.  When it comes to latency, lower is always better.  With satellite, a signal must travel from the dish to the satellite, then back down from the satellite to the provider’s servers and on to the internet.  All that distance adds up to high latency, which can cause even a high speed connection to be sluggish.  With a fixed wireless connection, the signal only travels from the antenna to the nearest tower, which is usually within about 10 miles.  The shorter distance means that fixed wireless has about the same latency as a cable or DSL connection, and will run just as quickly.

    Latency isn’t just important for gamers – although anyone who’s ever played World of Warcraft or Call of Duty will tell you it makes all the difference in the world.  Just as a gaming session needs low latency to prevent timing out or dropping, many business applications also require that quick response time.  VoIP phone services, video conferencing, and streaming audio or video are all difficult, if not impossible, to run on a connection with high latency.

     

    Data Caps

    Satellite companies enforce data caps – limits on the amount of data any one connection can use in a given period – in accordance with a document called a “Fair Access Policy”.  Essentially, this policy states that some customers use the internet more than others, and that is unfair, so each customer is allowed only so much data in a given time frame.  Usually, it’s something like 5-20GB per month, but you can be allowed more if you confine your internet activities to the hours between 2am and 8am or if you pay an extra fee.  When you reach your data limit, the provider reduces your connection speed significantly, sometimes to the level of dial-up.  This is highly impractical for any company that needs constant, reliable internet access to do business.  Even a small business with only two or three computers could easily reach some of the lower data limits with just a few large files.

    Most fixed wireless providers do not enforce any data caps.  Therefore, you can download or upload large files (software, updates, large email attachments, etc.), run a VoIP phone system, stream music in your office, or use internet-based applications and databases as much as you need to in order to keep your business running at its best.

    Price and Contracts

    In internet service, just like anything else, everyone wants the most for their money.  In almost all cases, fixed wireless broadband costs less than a comparable satellite connection, in both monthly charges and installation fees, and without the long-term contracts that satellite companies use.

    Satellite may be more well-known, but fixed wireless broadband is more reliable, with low latency, no data caps, and lower cost.  It’s a big step up, and a great choice for business.

    WiFires Communications LLC is your first choice for unified communications and connectivity services in North East Texas & South East Oklahoma including Lamar, Red River & Choctaw Counties. Contact us today for the internet, voice, or data center solution that is right for you.