PRIS

ABOUT YOUR TIME LOG^* (or) HOW WE MANAGE DIAL-UP LINES

About Your Time Log, and How we Manage PRiS Dial-Up Lines

The box to your right (That says "Hi User") tells you how long you have been logged onto the PRIS System. If "User" is not your PRiS Username or account name, just wait for a minute, and it will correct itself. The data given will be wrong until such time as it shows your Username.

Ports in Use
This tells you how many of the Dial-Up ports are currently in use in your town. So long as there are poirts available, you can stay online as long as you want. But use your time wisely: It could impact your connectivity in the rare case that all ports are in demand!

Session Time
If your current session is over 12 hours, PRIS may clear your line, on the assumption that your line was accidentally not disconnected at the end of your session. Your line may also be cleared if there is no detectable activity for 1/2 hour.

Time OnLine Today
This is the amount of time you have accumulated on line today for all connections which terminated after 08:00 AM (PRIS Time). Night / early-morning sessions which terminated before 8:00 AM are not included. This time is used to determine whose line will be cleared, should all lines become busy, to ensure that all members get equitable access to the PRIS system.

Time This Month
This gives an indication of your total connect time since the start of the current month: of particular interest to those who are on the "Limited Use" billing option.

Daily Average
This is the average amount of time you have spent on line each day over the last 30 days. A higher average usage will affect your susceptibility to being logged off, should the system become fully loaded.

Protected Time
During your protected time allottment for the day, you are immune from any line management protocols, regardless of how busy the Internet system gets in your town. See below for a more detailed explanation

Your PRiS Usage (A little bit higher up on the page)
Selecting this option will take you to a web page which will give detailed information about each of your sessions.

About our Equitable Access Robot

PRIS staff constantly monitor line availability in all communities. PRIS attempts to have sufficient Dial-up lines in each community to ensure that your access to the Internet is not obstructed by busy signals, consistent with our goal of providing affordable Internet access. Despite these efforts, our Dial-up lines do occasionally become congested.

In order to ensure that all members have equitable access to the Internet, and in order to ensure that all members are using their connect time wisely, PRIS may log certain members off if all available phone lines are in use.

The following conditions are met if your connection needs to be discontinued:
1) All circuits have been in use for at least 5 minutes.
2) You have exceeded your "Protected Time" by a greater amount than any other member on line at the time.
3) You will have received a warning (at the right of this page) that logoff is imminent.
4) You will receive an e-mail stating the reason for the disconnection. If you did not receive an e-mail, then your line was not disconnected intentionally by us. Call us for tech support: There are a number of things we can suggest that will increase the stability of your connection, even if you have a poor quality phone line!

If these logoffs cause you problems, we recommend that you review your connection habits. Specifically:
1) that business is conducted before pleasure.
2) that necessary large file downloads are done prior to browsing, or at less busy times.
3) that activities which can be performed offline (such as processing mail, or studying accessed web pages) are performed offline.
4) that the line is hung up when not actively in use.
5) that you use your radio rather that your Internet connection for listening to the CBC.
6) that you arrange a time to chat with associates, rather than relying on ICQ to advise you whenever a friend wishes to contact you.
6) that you take advantage of less busy periods.

You can determine when busy periods are likely to occur by referring to [System Utilization Data] for usage patterns in your particular community, and by watching the "ports in use" data on the top line of this page.

You may also wish to enquire about the possibility of obtaining a Broadband Connection from PRiS. Broadband connections are on 24 hours per day, and are an order of magnitude faster than Dial-up connections. Our Introductory offers can be lower-priced that Dial-up, and are definitely less expensive than those of our competitors! Call us for details.

Protected Time

The protected time allotted to each member is determined from the table below. Those members who use the system infrequently are granted more protected time that those who frequently have long connect times. You can increase your protected time by habitually managing your connection wisely.

Your Protected Time
Your Daily Avg Time (from window at right)	Hours Used In Last 30 Day Period	Your Protected Time
less than 1 Hour	less than 30 hr	Unlimited Hrs
1 Hour	30 Hours	7 Hrs
2 Hours	60 Hours	6 Hrs
3 Hours	90 Hours	5 Hrs
4 Hours	120 Hours	4 Hrs
over 4 hours	over 120 hrs	4 Hrs

Your Protected Time is NOT a limit on how long you are allowed to be On-line. Your Protected Time only influences your access at times when all lines are in use. In the event that you do get logged off, you may resume your connection after as little as 15 minutes, should line congestion decrease.