WCVT Receives National Recognition as Smart Rural Community

Win A $75 Gift Certificate To Misty Knoll Farms

Try Faster Internet Free For 60-Days

WCVT In The Community

Business Spotlights

And The Winner Of One Free Month Of High-Speed Internet Service Is...

Two To View — A Couple Of Amazing Videos You Don't Want To Miss

Go Pinterest-ing! - Cool Stuff To Pin On Your Pinterest Boards

Hacker Alert - Another Data Breach At A Big Retailer

This Month's FAQ - Can The Facebook Messenger App Take Control Of My Phone

Short Tutorial - How To Correctly Make A Hashtag

East Charlotte Tractor Parade - Sunday, October 12th- East Charlotte h

Mad Dash – Sunday, October 12 - Waitsfield

Rocktoberfest: A Festival of Beer, Bacon and Bands – October 18 – Basin Harbor Resort

Easy Halloween Costumes For Kids

Sweet And Savory Pumpkin Recipes

Has Your Vehicle Been Recalled?

Advice That's Right On The Money

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It's October, which means pumpkins are showing up all over. Before you start carving jack o'lanterns for your home, carve out a few minutes to review this issue. It begins with an overview of a massive retail data breach, carried out by hackers as malicious as any Halloween ghouls. Make sure you're reviewing your payment card accounts regularly! To really get in the spirit of October, check out the easy-to-make fall centerpieces in the Pinterest section, pumpkin recipes and costume ideas in Sites of the Month, and the time-lapse video of a giant pumpkin growing. Speaking of growth, it's important to keep learning more about social media and other online topics. This issue includes an explanation of the recent brouhaha surrounding the Facebook Messenger app and teaches you what to do (and not do) when making a hashtag.

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
Aaron, Adam, Amanda, Eric, Kris, Phil, Richard, Seth, and Scott

Waitsfield and Champlain Valley Telecom Receives National Recognition as Smart Rural Community

Waitsfield and Champlain Valley Telecom (WCVT), is one of 13 communities nationwide to be honored with the title Smart Rural Community by NTCA -The Rural Broadband Association. NTCA cited WCVT’s advanced fiber communications services and collaboration with local leaders in education, manufacturing and health care as keys to its success. WCVT achieved this recognition in a competitive process conducted by NTCA this past summer. Applications from communities across the country were reviewed by a panel of experts from a variety of fields.

WCVT was honored with an award for deploying advanced technologies and leveraging those technologies to enable innovation in the areas of economic development and commerce, education, enhanced health care, government services, security and energy use. “We are pleased and excited to accept this award,” said Gregg Haskin, president and CEO of Waitsfield and Champlain Valley Telecom. “We have worked hard with our local leaders to ensure that our citizens have access to advanced communications and the many benefits those services enable. We look forward to building on our success for many years to come.”

The NTCA Smart Rural Community initiative recognizes and celebrates the efforts of rural telecommunications providers and their communities to deliver technologies that make rural communities vibrant places in which to live and do business. The goal of the initiative is to foster the development of Smart Rural Communities throughout rural America by recognizing trailblazers and providing resources to assist broadband providers and connected industries.

Kurt Gruendling, V.P. Marketing and Roger Nishi, V.P. Industry Relations accept the NTCA Smart Rural Community award from NTCA CEO Shirley Bloomfield

Win A $75 Gift Certificate To Misty Knoll Farms

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. Congratulations to Diane Cushman, last month’s winner of a $50 gift certificate to Boyer's Orchard in Monkton. This month we have another great prize for you, and best of all it's just in time for Thanksgiving! So be sure to enter for your chance to win a $75 gift certificate to Misty Knoll Farms in New Haven. The drawing will take place on October 15. 

Click here to enter for your chance to win.

Try Faster Internet Free For 60-Days

When was the last time you upgraded your Internet speed? Times have changed and many households now need more Internet speed to handle more users and more devices. Now you can get a lot more Mbps for just a little more money! Choose the high-speed Internet plan with the download/upload speeds that best meet your household’s needs and try it free for 60 days! While not currently available to all of our Internet customers, we can currently reach approximately 60% of our subscribers with higher speed packages. To find out if higher speeds are available at your location, click here. Give us a call at (888)-321-0815 or e-mail us to learn more.

WCVT In The Community

WCVT Helps With New Bristol Green Playground Project
The new playground that is being constructed on the town green in Bristol has been in the works for several years. The Bristol Downtown Community Partnership and the Bristol Recreation Department have been doing an amazing job spearheading the effort. WCVT was proud to donate people power and monetary assistance to the worthy project. For more information on this community project, visit http://bristolrec.org/bristol-green-playground-project.

Bristol Harvest Festival  
Thank you to everyone who stopped by our booth at the Bristol Harvest Festival. It was another great year and we had several employees on hand giving away apples from Boyer's Orchard in Monkton, to those that came by. We truly enjoy meeting our customers face-to-face and what better place than at a great community event such as the Harvest Festival. See you next year!

Children's Halloween Party - Friday, October 24th in Bristol  
Waitsfield and Champlain Valley Telecom in conjunction with the Bristol Recreation Department will be hosting a children's Halloween party on Friday, October 24th from 4:30 p.m. – 6:00 p.m. at Holley Hall in downtown Bristol. The event is free of charge and open to children of all ages. Refreshments including pizza and healthy snacks will be available. Parents or guardians are asked to accompany their children. For more information, please contact Lorraine Keener at 496-3391 or email lkeener@wcvt.com.

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 Alan Jones at 496-8328 or via email ajones@wcvt.com to see if we can lend a hand.

Business Spotlights

Peanut & Mouse – Waitsfield
Peanut & Mouse is located in the beautiful Mad River Valley and specializes in eco-friendly toys, clothing, and gifts for babies and children. Owners Jill Rickard, a former corporate attorney, and her husband Martin Veit, a wilderness therapy guide for True North, traded their busy city life for the crisp Vermont mountain air in 2013 and never looked back. They believe the best toys are those that encourage imagination, creativity, and a sense of adventure, and that childhood is better with fewer bells and whistles. Peanut & Mouse is located in the Mad River Green Shopping Center. Call them at 583-3669 or visit them online at www.peanutandmouse.com.

Yarn & Yoga – Bristol
Yarn & Yoga is just what it sounds – a yarn retail shop and yoga studio. Started by a group of seven women drawn together through their love of knitting, yoga, and community. Yarn & Yoga is a manifestation of their vision for a yarn shop, a yoga studio, and a unique gathering and educational space in which to unwind. Their larger mission is to create a healthy business that provides both its founders and customers with meaning, fulfillment, and happiness for years to come. Yarn & Yoga is located at 25A Main Street, in lovely downtown Bristol. Call them at 453-7799 or visit them online at www.yarnandyoga.com.

And The Winner Of One Free Month Of High-Speed Internet Service Is...

Congratulations Nancy Kerwin for being this month’s winner of one free month of high-speed Internet service. Nancy's name was chosen at random from customers who completed our monthly Green Mountain Access technical support surveys.

Each month, one name is selected at random from customers who complete our online technical support or new user surveys. Survey requests are sent out via e-mail to customers after calling technical support or establishing new service. So be sure to fill out those surveys!

Two to View — A Couple Of Amazing Videos You Don't Want To Miss

Watch A Giant Pumpkin Glow
click here for video

Check out this incredible time-lapse video that shows a pumpkin grow from a small seedling to become a 636-pound entry in a fair.

Apple Ad Parody From IKEA
click here for video
Get ready to grin! This very funny commercial for the printed IKEA Catalogue describes it as a "bookbook" with amazing new technology.

Go Pinterest-ing! - Cool Stuff To Pin On Your Pinterest Boards

Pinterest is a pinboard-style photo-sharing website that allows users to create and manage theme-based image collections such as events, interests, and hobbies. Users can browse other pinboards for images, 're-pin' images to their own pinboards, or 'like' photos. Here are some links to some:

Retro Calculator Adds Up To Cool Memories
http://www.pinterest.com/pin/291537775852262622/

You'll Fall For These Festive Fall Centerpieces
http://www.pinterest.com/pin/291537775852262680/

Coconut Hot Chocolate & Whipped Coconut Cream
http://www.pinterest.com/pin/291537775852262723/

You haven't started pinning on Pinterest yet and you want to get started? To learn more visit http://about.pinterest.com/en or to sign up, go here https://pinterest.com/join/signup/.

Hacker Alert - Another Data Breach At A Big Retailer

Last month, Home Depot announced that hackers had broken into its in-store payments systems in what could be the largest known breach of a retail company's computer network. The total number of card numbers stolen at Home Depot from April to September 2014 could top 60 million. By comparison, the 2013 breach at Target affected 40 million cardholders.

How can this happen? Hackers scan merchants' networks for ways to gain remote access, such as through outside contractors who have access to a computer network. Once they find that opening, they install malware that is undetectable by antivirus products. The Department of Homeland Security and the Secret Service estimates that more than 1,000 U.S. businesses have been infected with malware designed to siphon payment card details from cash registers in stores. Home Depot is offering free identity protection and credit-monitoring services to any customer who used a credit or debit card at any of its affected stores. Read more from Home Depot at this link...

https://corporate.homedepot.com/MediaCenter/Pages
/Statement1.aspx

Retailers, banks, and card companies have responded to the breaches by speeding the adoption of microchips in U.S. credit and debit cards. That technology helps make transactions more secure. Home Depot says it plans to have chip-enabled checkout terminals at all of its U.S. stores by the end of this year. As a matter of routine, closely monitor your payment card accounts and report unusual activity to your issuing bank.

This Month's FAQ - How Can I Turn Off Facebook's Notification Sounds?

Question: I've heard some people have privacy concerns about the standalone version of the Facebook Messenger app. Can this app really take control of my phone?

Answer: In mid-2014, Facebook rolled out the Facebook Messenger app, a standalone version of that social network's instant chat feature, which users accessed separately on their mobile devices (i.e., without launching the full Facebook app). That rollout prompted renewed interest in a December 2013 article by Sam Fiorella (circulated widely in August 2014) that warned potential Facebook Messenger users that the app's Terms of Service (TOS) "requires the acceptance of an alarming amount of personal data and direct control over your mobile device." Rumors started circulating that Facebook could use the app to surreptitiously take over users' smartphones to take photos or even make phone calls. According to Facebook, those fears do not reflect reality. "If you want to send a selfie to a friend, the app needs permission to turn on your phone's camera and capture that photo," the company said in its message to users. "We don't turn on your camera or microphone when you aren't using the app." In other words, the Facebook Messenger app absolutely CANNOT do these things without YOU initiating them. It needs the permission in advance so that when you ask it to do these things, they work.

Short Tutorial - How To Correctly Make A Hashtag

The A hashtag is a phrase or keyword that is preceded by a pound (#) symbol and used by the micro-blogging community to create a thread of conversations around a specific theme or topic. Its purpose is to categorize topics, bring ideas together, inspire exchange, and encourage others to join in. When you make a new hashtag, follow these guidelines:

• Keep it brief. You only need to add a # before a word to make it a hashtag. The best hashtags are those composed of a single word or a few letters. Twitter experts recommend keeping the keyword under 6 characters.
• Use only numbers and letters in your keyword. Hyphens and dashes will not work.
• Don't use spaces. Hashtags do not support spaces. So if you're using two words, skip the space between them.
• Don't use special characters. Hashtags only work with the # sign. Special characters like "!, $, %, ^, &, *, and +" will not work.
• Don't start with or use only numbers. For example, hashtags like #123 or #123yo won't work. Numbers can be used at the end, as in #SXSW14. In addition, don't use more than two hashtags in your post. It goes against social media etiquette.

East Charlotte Tractor Parade - Sunday, October 12th - East Charlotte

The 14th annual East Charlotte Tractor Parade will take place on Sunday, October 12th at 1:00pm. This is a great event with up to 200 tractors parading down Spear Street in East Charlotte. There will be an open air market with food and crafts, a kids area with free games, free parking with hay-ride shuttles, and a whole lot of fun for the entire family. For more information, click here.

Mad Dash – Sunday, October 12 - Waitsfield

The Mad Dash features 5k and 10k running races along Meadow Road and North Road in Waitsfield. For more information and a link to register visit www.madriverpath.com. All proceeds from the event benefit the Mad River Path Association.

Rocktoberfest: A Festival of Beer, Bacon and Bands – October 18 – Basin Harbor Resort

An end off the year celebration from Basin Harbor. Experience the best Vermont beer (teaser: Heady Topper is participating!), Dakin Farm bacon and local bands, kids activities and a BHC bonfire to celebrate the end of our 128th season. For more information or to order tickets, visit: http://www.basinharbor.com/event/rocktoberfest2014/

Easy Halloween Costumes For Kids

http://www.diynetwork.com/decorating/easy-homemade-halloween-costumes-for-kids/pictures/index.html?i=1

If you haven't yet figured out what your kids will be for Halloween, you should be able to scare up some great ideas at this site. The costumes are adorable and can be put together pretty easily, even if you aren't the crafty type.

Sweet And Savory Pumpkin Recipes

http://allrecipes.com/recipes/fruits-and-vegetables/vegetables/squash/winter-squash/pumpkin/

Pumpkin is the "in" ingredient this time of year, so join the fun by browsing through this collection of pumpkin recipes. You'll find Harvest Pumpkin Soup, Pumpkin Turkey Chili, Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins, Double Layer Pumpkin Cheesecake, and more.

Has Your Vehicle Been Recalled?

http://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/owners/SearchSafetyIssues

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration makes it easy to check whether any vehicle recalls apply to you. Simply enter the model year, make, and model and do a quick search. You can also enter a Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) to get more detailed repair information.

Advice That's Right On The Money

http://www.smartaboutmoney.org/

It pays to know as much as you can about money and you can learn a lot here. This site offers financial advice and information for all stages of life including calculators, quizzes, articles on hot topics, and an extensive resource library.

Thanks for your business! Best regards,
GMA Tech Support Team
Green Mountain Access
Mechanicsville Rd Hinesburg, VT 05461
802-496-8598(local)

Green Mountain Access | Tech Support | Newsletter Archive

(We have used our best efforts in collecting and preparing the information published herein. However, we do not assume, and hereby disclaim, any and all liability for any loss or damage caused by errors or omissions, whether such errors or omissions resulted from negligence, accident, or other causes.)

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