Connectivity Support:

Step 1 — Checking the power injector

Power Injector Lights

Power Injector Wires

Rebooting the Subscriber Unit

Step 2 — Checking your router

If you have a router:

If you do not have a router:

Step 3 — Checking your computer

Find your IP Address

If you have a router:

If you do not have a router:

Note to Router Owners:

Email support:

Avoiding Spam

Connectivity Support:

Step 1 — Checking the power injector

Power Injector Lights

Our power injector will have one small light located somewhere on the unit depending on the model of power injector. This light should be lit up and tells us that the injector has electricity to the subscriber unit located on the roof. If you do not see this light please check all the cables that plug into the power injector to ensure each fits snugly into their respective ports. If you still do not see the light please contact technical support for further instruction.

Power Injector Wires

Each power injector will have three plugs. One wire goes from the power injector to the AC outlet in your house. This provides the unit with electrical power.

Another wire comes in from the subscriber unit outside into the house and to a port labeled Data and Power Out. This wire provides electricity and data to your subscriber unit.

Finally there should be a wire that goes to your router or computer from a port on the power injector which would be labeled Data In. This wire provides internet access to your network.

Please ensure these three wires are plugged into their proper ports.

Rebooting the Subscriber Unit

If everything looks ok we recommend you reboot the subscriber unit as a precautionary measure. You can do this by unplugging the AC adapter from the wall for 30 seconds then plugging it back in. The subscriber unit will take up to 1 minute to reconnect to our network, so please give it some time before you go to the next step. If this step does not fix your internet connection please continue to step 2.

WARNING:
Please be extremely cautious when handling our power injector. This device is designed to inject electricity into a cable and improper configuration of the device can cause permanent damage to your computer or router by an electrical surge. Please never unplug any of the connectors from the power injector unless you are directed to by a Grey Bruce Telecom technical support representative.

Step 2 — Checking your router

Most houses now have a router which allows them to have multiple devices in the house connected to their internet connection. If you are not sure if you have a router the simplest way to tell is if you have more than one computer on the internet then generally you will have to have a router to connect them all. If you are still not sure look for a small box about 5 inches by 6 inches which may be made by some popular companies such as Linksys, D-Link, 3com, SMC, Netgear and GNet. A router will have 4 to 8 small lights on the front of it and around the same number of ports on the back.

If you have a router:

Router Lights
Most routers will have a few lights located on the front of the unit which will inform you of the status of the device. One of these lights, usually labeled WAN or Internet should always be lit up or flickering. This tells us the router is getting a proper connection to our subscriber unit.

There should also be four lights each which should represent a port on the back labeled the same. Most router companies will call these ports LAN 1, 2, 3 and 4. These 4 ports are there for a computer to plug into so it can get internet access. If your computer has a wire running to your router it should plug into one of these ports. Please make sure that a light on the router is lit for every computer that you have plugged into it. So if you have a computer plugged into LAN 2 and 4 on the router ensure the lights for LAN 2 and 4 are lit.

If these lights do not look lit, please check each wire going into the router to ensure is fits snugly into its respective port.

Wireless Connections
If you are running wireless from your computer to your router and are having trouble we highly recommend replacing the wireless link with a wired one temporarily for troubleshooting purposes. When you are running wireless it adds a level of complication that cannot be easily diagnosed.

Rebooting the Router
If you still do not have access to the internet please reboot your router by unplugging the AC adapter from the wall. Please wait 30 seconds before plugging it back in. After 30 seconds you may also be required to reboot each computer you have to allow them to refresh their settings from your router.

If you do not have a router:

Please continue on to the next step.

Step 3 — Checking your computer

Check to see if your computer has a connection

Find your IP Address

Windows XP/2000

Click on Start
Click on Control Panel
Click on Network Connections

If you have a desktop with a hardwire, click on Local Area Connection

If you have a laptop or are wirelessly connected, click on Wireless Network Connection

Click the Support tab

Windows Vista

Click on Start

Click on Control Panel

Select Network and Internet, then Network and Sharing Center, and click Manage network connections from the list of tasks.

If you have a desktop with a hardwire, click on Local Area Connection

If you have a laptop or are wirelessly connected, click on Wireless Network Connection

Click the Support tab

A list of information will appear under the heading Connection Status. If there is no information under this header please contact Grey Bruce Telecom technical support for further instructions.
In this list you should see an IP Address, Default Gateway and Subnet Mask. We are looking specifically for the IP address. What the IP address is and what you need to do depend on whether or not you have a router.

If you have a router:

The IP address should look similar to 192.168.x.x.

Similar?
If the numbers do look similar and the internet still does not work it is suggested you contact the place of purchase for your router to get instructions on how to check if your routers settings are configured properly for internet access.

Not Similar?
If you cannot find this number this signifies a communication problems between your router and your computer. If you do see an IP address and it does not look in any way similar to that number, this too could signify either an incorrectly configured computer or a communication problem between your computer and your router. If either of these situations occurs please contact Grey Bruce Telecom technical support for further instruction.

NOTE: Your computer will lose its settings if your router is turned off. Careful! Please leave your router running all the times.

IF your router is powered down:
• Safely power down all non-Grey Bruce Telecom equipment connected to the router
• Turn on the router, wait 30 seconds
• Turn back on all non-Grey Bruce Telecom equipment connected to the router

If you do not have a router:

If the IP address matches the IP address given to you by our installers at the time of installation and your internet still does not work or your ethernet adapter has an IP address and Subnet Mask of 169.254.x.x and 255.255.0.0 please contact Grey Bruce Telecom technical support to continue with the troubleshooting.

If all your devices have the label 'Media State Media Disconnected' then there is a connection problem between your computer and our subscriber unit. Please check the cables between your computer and our power injector. If the connections look ok and are connected tightly in their port please contact Grey Bruce Telecom technical support to continue with the troubleshooting.

Note to Router Owners:

If you wish for Grey Bruce Telecom to help you setup your router over the phone, this will be a chargeable service call to 1-866-840-2858. However we do offer a Technical Support Plan for phone support, or a Full Service Plan which includes on-site visits for anyone who wishes to have us fully support their internal network.

Also be aware that since we cannot possibly know every model of router on the market, it is important that you please keep any documentation or software you received when purchasing your router. This may be required to help support your router if a problem arises.

Email support:

Before calling our technical support lines, please check the settings in your email client. In Microsoft Outlook, click on tools and then email accounts. After clicking on this, click on view or change existing accounts. This will bring up a window containing your email accounts. Double click on your account. This will bring up a window containing all of your settings. Make sure your incoming and outgoing servers are set correctly. They are supposed to be set to mail.gbtel.ca for incoming and mail.gbtel.ca for outgoing. Make sure you are not trying to use the SSL security protocol for outgoing mail. There will be a checkbox at the bottom of the page to disable or enable this. Please make sure it is disabled.

Once this has been verified, please try using our online webmail application. To use it click on the following link (www.gbtel.ca/squirrelmail) and try to log in using your GBTel username and password. Make a note of any error messages if this is not successful.

In some versions of Microsoft outlook, there is a test account setting button. Please click on this button and make note of any tasks that fail. This will determine where your email issue lies.

ping mail.gbtel.ca -t this will begin a continuous ping to our mail servers. IF you receive a reply, it means you can find our server but cannot connect. If you receive a request timed out or destination host unreachable message, it means something is stopping you from making a connection to us.

Once these steps have been verified, please call our technical support lines and one of our customer service agents will be more than happy to help you. Please have your username and password ready for them.

Avoiding Spam

1. Avoid posting your e-mail address on public message boards or newsgroups.
   Spammers run programs that harvest e-mail addresses from these sources. The good news is that many online forums are now designed so that they don't expose e-mail addresses.

2. Disguise your e-mail address on your Web page.
   A recent study showed that one of the main ways spammers collect e-mail addresses is by scraping them off of public Web pages. The good news is that the same study also demonstrated that even simple means of disguising your e-mail address, such as writing 'someone at gbtel.ca' instead of 'someone@gbtel.ca' was effective at keeping spammers at bay.

3. Create a dummy e-mail account for public posting.
   If you find that you need to post to newsgroups or other public forums, we suggest creating a secondary dummy mail account, either on your mail server or on Yahoo Mail, and use that address when posting to the Web or signing up for online services. You can change dummy addresses when one starts attracting too much spam.

4. Don't use Hotmail/AOL/MSN as your primary mail provider.
   Many spammers just flood all common usernames on widely-used mail systems (e.g. mike45, mike46, etc.) If your main e-mail address is currently on Hotmail, MSN, AOL, Earthlink, or any other major national mail provider, you may want to think about getting a less visible e-mail address to minimize your exposure to spam.