 |
 |
|
The
following Heartland
Net disclosures
are in reference to the FCC Open Internet Rules. Service
Offerings Heartland Net via
the Heartland Net brand
directly offers broadband ISP services through NETINS in its
markets. Please visit the Heartland
Net website to check availability, speed options and pricing. Performance INS
is the internet upstream provider for Heartland Net. INS offers a
speed test site to any user or customer. It can be accessed here: INS Speed Test
or http://netins.net/speed.htm
These
tests are heavily dependent on a customer's home network
configuration, modem, and computers, and therefore do not reflect
the performance of the Heartland Net network
only. Your
Internet Service Speeds Heartland Net provides
residential and commercial customers with a variety of high speed
Internet plans from which to choose, ranging from our initial tier
(with download speeds up to 6 megabits per second
("Mbps"), and upload speeds up to 512 kilobits per second
("kbps")) to our top tier (with download speeds up to 50
Mbps, and upload speeds to 25 Mbps). Heartland
Net provisions
its customers' modems and engineers its network to ensure that its
customers can enjoy the speeds to which they subscribe. However, Heartland Net does not guarantee that a customer will actually achieve those
speeds at all times. Without purchasing an expensive, dedicated
Internet connection, no Internet Service Provider ("ISP")
can guarantee a particular speed at all times to a customer. Heartland Net advertises its speeds as "up to" a specific level based
on the tier of service to which a customer subscribes. The "actual" speed that a
customer will experience while using the Internet depends upon a
variety of conditions, many of which are beyond the control of an
ISP such as Heartland
Net.
These conditions include: 1.
Performance of a customer's computer,
including its age, processing capability, its operating system, the
number of applications running simultaneously, and the presence of
any adware and viruses. 2.
Type of connection between a customer's computer
and modem.
For example, wireless connections may be slower than direct
connections into a router or modem. Wireless connections also may be
subject to greater fluctuations, interference and congestion. Heartland
Net does not recommend wireless modem connections for use
with its higher speed tiers as many wireless connections do not
perform at the speeds delivered by these tiers. 3.
The distance packets travel (round trip time of
packets)
between a customer's computer and its final destination on the
Internet, including the number and quality of the networks of
various operators in the transmission path. The Internet is a
"network of networks." A customer's connection may
traverse the networks of multiple providers before reaching its
destination, and the limitations of those networks will most likely
affect the overall speed of that Internet connection. 4.
Congestion or high usage levels at the website or
destination.
If a large number of visitors are accessing a site or particular
destination at the same time, your connection will be affected if
the site or destination does not have sufficient capacity to serve
all of the visitors efficiently. 5.
Gating of speeds or access by the website or
destination.
In order to control traffic or performance, many websites limit the
speeds at which a visitor can download from their site. Those
limitations will carry through to a customer's connection. 6.
The performance of the modem you have installed.
Modem performance may degrade over time, and certain modems are not
capable of handling higher speeds. This is the reason that Heartland
Net,
like all other ISPs, advertises speeds as "up to" a
particular level, and does not guarantee them. There are other speed tests that
measure Internet performance. We have provided links to a few of
these sites below for your reference. Please note, however, that all
speed tests have biases and flaws. Each of these tests measures
limited aspects of an ISP's speed and therefore must be seen as a
guide rather than definitive measurements of performance. ·
http://netalyzr.icsi.berkeley.edu ·
http://www.broadband.gov/qualitytest/about/ Latency Latency
is another measurement of Internet performance. Latency is the time
delay in transmitting or receiving packets on a network. Latency is
primarily a function of the distance between two points of
transmission, but also can be affected by the quality of the network
or networks used in transmission. Latency is typically measured in
milliseconds, and generally has no significant impact on typical
everyday Internet usage. As latency varies based on any number of
factors, most importantly the distance between a customer's computer
and the ultimate Internet destination (as well as the number and
variety of networks your packets cross), it is not possible to
provide customers with a single figure that will define latency as
part of a user experience. Congestion
Management Heartland Net does
not implement any congestion management techniques. Heartland Net operates our network to accommodate the necessary
traffic requirements. In the event of congestion, all traffic is
classified as best effort. Our congestion management approach will change over time, as we
continue to study and enhance our practices and as new technologies
emerge. In the meantime, we will continue to invest in our network
in accordance with our normal course of business operations, which
includes installing technology that will increase the speed and
capacity of our services. Content,
Applications, Service and Device Providers As
a full service Internet Service Provider, Heartland
Net delivers a variety of Internet-based applications. These
include:
Heartland Net does
not discriminate any customer traffic. Heartland
Net utilizes the network management techniques that are equal
and standard across all user applications. We do not modify our
network to make our directly served applications perform better than
applications a user would access over the general Internet. For
example, Heartland Net does
not manipulate our network to perform better for customers accessing
Heartland Net email servers
versus Heartland Net customers
accessing Google’s gmail. The
network management practices employed by Heartland
Net do not differ between our directly offered applications
to those general applications offered over the Internet. Security
Measures In
the event of Denial of Service (DoS), Distributed Denial of Service
(DDoS) attack, spoofing or other malicious traffic, Heartland
Net will implement inbound and outbound filtering on specific
hosts. These actions will be performed to ensure reliability and
availability of the Heartland Net Network.
These actions will not be utilized for normal Internet applications
and traffic. NOTE:
INS may perform this action on behalf of Heartland
Net equipment that is managed by INS. Privacy
Policy
Heartland
Net has provided this privacy
statement in order to demonstrate our firm commitment to your
privacy. The following policy discloses our information gathering
and dissemination practices for Heartland
Net. Information
Heartland
Net is the sole owner of the
information collected on its website. Viewer
Privacy
Heartland
Net does not collect personal
information such as names, e-mail addresses, postal addresses, or
telephone numbers. Since we do not collect any personal information
on this Web site, we do not share any personal information with any
third parties nor do we use any personal information for any
purposes. IP
Addresses
As
noted above, we do not collect any personal information on this Web
site. We do, however, collect and store information about your
Internet connection when you visit our Web site to read or download
information, such as reports, news, etc. We use this information to
track Web site use, measure site traffic, and improve site
navigation and information. We collect information that identifies: ·
The name of the domain
you access the Internet with. ·
The type of web
browsing software you use to view our site. ·
The date and time of
your access. ·
The platform you are
using (i.e. Windows, Macintosh or Unix). This
information is never sold, given or disclosed to third parties. This
information is used internally to administer our web site, provide
better services to the public, and provide aggregate traffic
statistics to Heartland Net staff. No personal
information is collected. Hyperlinks
Additionally,
this site contains links to other sites. Heartland
Net is not responsible for the
privacy practices or the content of such Web sites unless operated
directly by Heartland Net.
We encourage you to note when you leave our website and read
the privacy statements of each website that collects personally
identifiable information. Acceptance
and Jurisdiction
By
using this service, you agree that you have read, understand and
will abide, and be bound, by the terms of this Web Site Privacy and
Policies ("Terms"). If you do not agree to these Terms,
please do not use the Heartland
Net web site. These Terms
shall be governed in all respects in accordance with the laws of the
State of Heartland
Net reserves the right to
change, modify or update this statement at any time without notice. Contacting
Heartland Net
If you
have any questions about this privacy statement, the practices of
this site, or your dealings with Heartland
Net, you may contact us at the
following: Heartland Net Phone:
712-379-3001 Fax:
712-379-4000 |