February E-Newsletter

We think you'll find the information contained in this newsletter to be a valuable tool for enhancing your Internet experience. As always, we appreciate your feedback and suggestions. Please send your thoughts, comments or questions to newsletter@gmavt.net.

The Green Mountain Access Team
Adam, Amanda, Eric, Kris, Phil, Richard, Seth and Scott

Company News

Win a $50 Gift Card To The Mad River Barn

Each month, we raffle off a prize from a local business, so be sure to enter your name every month for your chance to win. This month we are raffling off a $50 gift card to the Mad River Barn in Waitsfield. To be entered into the raffle, simply click the link below and leave your name and contact information. The drawing will take place on February 19th.

Click here to enter for your chance to win

President's Day Office Closing

Please note our Customer Service and local Technical Support office will be closed on President's Day, Monday, February 18. As always, our afterhours Technical Support will still be available on the above dates, so please don't hesitate to call at: 1-888-321-0815 or email support@gmavt.net if you need assistance.

Looking For A Better Phone System For Your Business? Hosted IP Phone Service Is Your Solution

A reliable and efficient phone system is essential for your business to stay connected to your customers. You don’t want to think about it too much; you just want it to work so you can focus on your business. With Hosted IP Phone Service, you don’t have to purchase, set up, or maintain your own phone system; we take care of that for you. Instead, you get a powerful, business-class phone system with expanded capabilities and mobile options that will grow with your business.

For more information on our Hosted IP Phone service, visit www.wcvt.com or contact Kris Merchant at 802-496-8554

Adding More Devices? Make Sure Your Wi-Fi is Ready

If you added more devices recently, it's probably time to look at your Wi-Fi. While the standard Wi-Fi gateways do a pretty good job of covering the average sized home, depending on the number of devices and size, layout, and construction of your home, it may be time to look at a new solution to increase your overall Wi-Fi coverage and performance. Whole Home Wi-Fi from Green Mountain Access uses multiple Access Points to expand coverage to every part of your home and cover all of your devices.

Better Coverage Eliminates Dead-spots
Whole Home Wi-Fi improves coverage throughout your home and maximizes device connection speeds. Need additional coverage? No problem, simply add additional access points to increase coverage and eliminate “dead” spots.

How Much Does It Cost?
Whole Home Wi-Fi is just $10.90* per month and includes two AirTies 4920ac Wi-Fi access points (two access points cover the majority of installations). If needed for your specific installation, additional Wi-Fi access points can be added for $5.45* per month for each additional access.

Want To Learn More?
For more information, watch our video below or visit http://www.wcvt.com/services/wi-fi/residential to learn more about our Whole Home Wi-Fi or business Wi-Fi solutions.

*Whole Home Wi-Fi equipment requires Green Mountain Access high-speed Internet service and a modem/router. One-time $100 installation fee applies.

Get Faster Internet And Make The Whole House Happy - Try Our Faster Speeds Free for 60-Days

How many family members are typically online at your house and what are they doing? Streaming movies and TV shows? Downloading music? Playing games? Connecting on Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter? Times have changed and many households now need more Internet speed to handle more users and more devices.

If your speed is no longer adequate, you may be experiencing annoying slowdowns such as video buffering. Fortunately, you can get a lot more Mbps for a just a little more money!

To find out if higher speeds are available at your location, click here. Give us a call at 888-321-0815 or email us to learn more.

WCVT In The Community

A Year Of Helping Our Local Communities

For three generations, giving back to the communities we serve has always been an important part of who WCVT is. In 2018, WCVT employees volunteered over 2,858 hours…(1,133 paid and 1,725 unpaid) that adds up to 119 days! That time was spent in a variety of ways, including helping children learn how to read, serving meals at senior centers, setting up for the Special Olympics, picking and harvesting vegetables at the Vermont Youth Conservation Corps, helping at local schools and more.

On top of our volunteer efforts, WCVT donated over $30,000 to charities, organizations and to those in need through our Contributions Program in 2018. The mission of the Contributions Program is to donate monetary and “in kind” gifts (labor and/or materials) to assist charities in the areas of health, education and community service.

As we welcome in 2019, we’d like to share some of the ways we supported our communities in 2018 through donations by our Contributions Program.

• Eunice B. Farr Incentive Awards – six $1,000.00 scholarships awarded to graduating seniors at the six public high schools in our serving area
• Local food shelves
• WCVT Giving Tree
• Joslin Memorial Library Restoration Project
• United Way
• Local Volunteer Fire Departments
• Ambulance Services
• Town Events – Bristol, Richmond, and Warren 4th of July Celebrations
• Addison County Readers
• Vermont Cancer Survivor Network
• Waitsfield Children Center
• Vermont National Guard
• Area Humane Societies and Pet Rescue Organizations
• Girls on the Run
• Neighbor Helping Neighbor
• American Heart Association
• Employee Birthday Contributions
• …and many more!

Being a local business means that our customers are also our neighbors and friends. At Waitsfield and Champlain Valley Telecom, we feel strongly that community involvement is not just a nice thing to do; it is the right thing to do. If you have a community service project in the making and are looking for help, contact Lorraine Keener at 496-8379 or via email lkeener@corp.wcvt.com to see if we can lend a hand.

Community Events

Winter Market - Sunday, February 3 - Mad River Taste Place

Come see many of your favorite local vendors at winter market at the Mad River Taste Place. This event takes place from 11:00am to 2:00pm. For more information, visit https://www.madrivervalley.com/event/winter-market-at-the-mad-river-taste-place-8.

Bolton Backcountry Carnival – February 9-10 – Bolton Valley Resort

It's back on!  Native Endurance is excited to host North America's only 24-hour backcountry ski and splitboard race at Bolton Valley, Vermont as part of the Bolton Backcountry Carnival.  The race will be held February 9-10, 2019, and will offer two challenging courses - a daytime loop in Bolton's backcountry, and an overnight loop on Bolton's groomed terrain.  Not into the full 24-hour thing? No sweat - check out the "Three Hour Tour" division on Sunday or put together a relay team of two or four and enjoy the camaraderie! Participants will compete for the most vertical feet skied in their respective division.  Randonnée (alpine touring/skimo racers),  tele skiers,  and splitboarders are welcome to test their endurance in Bolton Valley's incredible backcountry terrain. For more information and to register, visit www.boltonvalley.com

Local Artisan Market - Saturday and Sunday, February 16-18 - Rumbles Kitchen, Lincoln Peak at Sugarbush

Join Sugarbush in celebrating the local artists of Vermont and New England during their Local Artisan Market event series. Meet the artists and purchase their work. For more information, visithttps://www.sugarbush.com/event/local-artisan-market-02182017/.

Guided Snowshoe Trek - Every Saturday and Sunday - Mad River Glen

Join one of MRG's staff Naturalists every Saturday and Sunday at 10:30am for a guided snowshoe trek tailored to your interest in the ecology and wildlife of Stark Mountain. The outings and content varies each week depending snow conditions and participants. Learn about the hardwood forests of the Green Mountains as well as our resident moose, bear, deer, fisher, coyote, red fox and more! Easy to moderate difficulty. For more information, visit https://www.madriverglen.com.

Tutorial / FAQ

Stay Alert -Phishing Email That Appears To Come From Netflix

Scammers want your personal information, and they'll do just about anything to get it. One popular method is known as phishing, which is when the bad guys send you fake information to try and get you to give them your real information. There are many ways they can do this, and one of them is sending you email messages that appear to be from companies you do business with, such as Netflix.

Here's how the scam works: You receive an email message that looks like it's from Netflix and even has the Netflix logo. The message contains a link for you to update your payment details. When you click the link, you end up on a page that has nothing to do with Netflix and everything to do with the scammer collecting your credit card number.

If you get such an email and you're not sure whether it's really from Netflix, keep in mind the following protection strategies:

• Examine the email closely. Multiple spelling and grammar errors can be a clue that the email isn't legitimate, as can a salutation that doesn't include your name (such as "Dear Sir").
• Don't click the link. Instead, contact Netflix directly to find out if they really need you to update your payment information.
• Keep in mind Netflix's own policy of never requesting personal information via email.
• Report phishing to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) at http://ftc.gov/complaint. You can also report it to Netflix by emailing phishing@netflix.com.

Short Tutorial / FAQ - Can My Facebook Cover Be A Video Instead Of A Photo?

Question:  I don't have a smart TV but I want to use streaming services such as Hulu and Netflix. Can I still do it?

Answer: Yes, you can. A smart TV is one that incorporates an operating system/platform that allows you to access, manage, and view online and network-based media content without the need to connect to a streaming media player (such as a Roku). To use streaming services without a smart TV, you simply need to connect your regular TV to a streaming media player such as a Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, or Google Chromecast. In effect, these devices turn a regular TV into a smart TV.

Whether an older TV can work with a streaming media player depends on what kind of connection ports it has. If it has an HDMI port, then it will work with most players. If it doesn't have an HDMI port but it has RCA ports (red/white/yellow), then you can get a Roku Express+, which includes composite audio and video connectors (and cable) found on most older televisions as well as an HDMI connection.

Sites of the Month

Good Movies to Watch

https://agoodmovietowatch.com/
Perfect for late winter, this site helps you find movies and shows to watch on Netflix and Amazon Prime. Narrow your selections by "top" or "latest," or search according to mood, genre, or staff picks. After you watch the movie, you can comment to help others make good choices.

Easy Photo Editor

https://pixlr.com/x/
Need a quick and easy photo editor? Try Pixlr X. Just upload a photo and adjust the user-friendly controls to change your image in any way you want. You can even add text. Then save to your computer to use in a project or share with friends.

Instant Pot Recipes

https://www.delish.com/cooking/g3951/instant-pot-recipes/
This site shares 53 "old favorite" recipes you can make much faster in your Instant Pot -- from entrees such as chicken soup and beef chili to side dishes including risotto and mashed potatoes. When you find ones you love, use the social media links to share with friends.

Trusted Health Information

https://medlineplus.gov/
It's still early enough in the year to make good on your New Year's resolutions. If one of them is staying healthy, this site is for you.
Explore the extensive Health Topics section to find information about many wellness subjects. Watch video tutorials to learn more about your health conditions.

More...

Two to View - A Couple Amazing Videos You Don't Want to Miss

How To Train Like A Samurai - Kiyomoto Ogasawara represents the 32nd generation of his family to offer training in yabusame (archery on horseback).

Basketball Team Gets Surprise Fans - Taking good sports behavior to a new level, two high school basketball players rally fans to support the opposing team.

Go Pinterest-ing! - Cool Stuff to Pin on Your Pinterest Boards

No-Sew Sock Snowman Craft
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/82612974395741877/

Mandarin Slices With Salted Chocolate
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/291537775876195803/

Hearty Slow Cooker Potato Lentil Soup
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/291537775876195878/

You haven't started pinning on Pinterest yet and you want to get started? To sign up, go to www.pinterest.com.

Free Featured Apps - These Three are Well Worth the Look

Tastemade
Ready for some foodie fun? Discover new dishes, watch video shows, follow along with instructions, and save your favorites. Learn More Here: https://www.tastemade.com/

Puppr
Forget about expensive puppy training. Get Puppr and take your pup through the easy lessons. Includes a built-in clicker. https://www.puppr.app/

Chicken Pox
In this game, you're a chicken in a vehicle. Can you avoid crazy animals and get to the finish line before your fuel runs out? Learn More Here: http://www.chickenpoxgame.com/