Questions:

• Why Connect to the Internet with Cyberia?
• How much does Cyberia cost?
• What is the difference between Cyberia and AOL?
• What is a Proxy Server? Does Cyberia use one?
• How can I monitor what my children view on the Internet?

Answer:
York's Internet Specialist
Cyberia is the leading and longest operating provider of Internet services in York County. We have been helping members of the York community get online since June of 1993.

Focused on the Internet
Our only business is the Internet, which means we are able to focus all of our energy toward providing you with the highest quality and most reliable connection available. Cyberia has a real understanding of the Internet and we are always adding new services that make the Internet easier and more convenient for our customers.

We Make it Easy
Our friendly and knowledgeable staff has the skills and experience to answer any of your questions and provide you with the best possible technical support if you run into any problems. Our customized software package makes getting connected to the Internet simple.

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Request a free brochure Question:
How much does Cyberia cost?

Answer:
Please Click Here for Cyberia's Pricing Information.

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Request a free brochure Question:
What is the difference between Cyberia and AOL? (Is it like AOL?)

Answer:
National online services like America Online, CompuServe and Prodigy have a lot to offer in the way of chat rooms, online games, and proprietary online content (forums, databases, etc.). If that is what you are looking for, the national services usually do a good job at providing these services and putting them all together in a nice convenient package.

If, on the other hand, you are primarily interested in access to the Internet and all of the services and information that the Internet has to offer, you will usually find that a direct connection through a local provider like Cyberia is much faster, more reliable, and much more flexible than the national services.

With Cyberia, we act as your direct pipe to the Internet. When you are connected through us, your computer is actually live on the Internet. Cyberia's direct connection offers a lot of benefits:

• Your e-mail is instantaneous and not batched for future processing.
• You can run ANY Internet compatible application.
• You do not have to worry about busy signals.
• You do not have to wait on hold for hours to get support.
• You can register and use a domain name (yourbusiness.com) for your business communications.

Answer:
There are no proxy servers at Cyberia
At Cyberia, we believe you should be able to surf the Net directly without having to go through a proxy server. When you connect with our system, your computer is directly connected to the Internet and we do not put any "bottleneck" systems between you and the Internet.

What is a proxy server and why is it a bottleneck?
A proxy server is a machine that some providers install which exists between you and the Internet and acts as your agent for surfing the net. When you request a Web site, the server will either go out and download the site to its local hard drive before sending you the information or send you previously stored information from its hard drive.

Many providers who do not have enough actual bandwidth to the Internet to support the amount of customers they have will setup a proxy server and even market them as an added-value service that will speed up your connection. Be careful with proxy servers: they almost always act as a bottleneck because of the amount of information being sent to them. Imagine if everyone connected to an ISP had to use the processing power of the same machine to surf the Web instead of the processing power of their own computers.

An average visit to a Web site may open up as many as 10 sessions from your Web browser to bring in information from that site. If you had 100 people trying to pull up different Web pages via a proxy server, that server may have to open up as many as 1,000 simultaneous sessions in order to bring the required information from the Web. As you can see, the proxy server can quickly and easily slow down the path between you and new content on the Internet.

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Request a free brochure Question:
How can I monitor what my children view on the Internet?

Answer:
There is a lot of concern about the nature of information that is available to children online. Several programs have popped up to try to deal with this situation. Before we list some of the more popular applications which are available, you should know Cyberia's position on the problem and the solutions that these products provide.

First, you should know that the amount of information available on the Internet is increasing at an approximate rate of 1% per day. This means that it is extremely difficult for any product to give you a 100% safety level. Many of these programs have lists of sites that they think are questionable. This means that, for the most part, you are relying on their editorial staff to decide what your children should and should not see.

Blocking out individual sites can create large data files of blocked sites and some of these companies have taken to blocking out an entire block of sites from a single provider due to the contents of a few pages on that site. For example, one company blocked all sites listed on "The Well" because some of the customer's sites listed on The Well were questionable.

This means that the programs which are currently available often give parents a false sense of security. Cyberia's position is that parental supervision is the best way to protect your children. Put the computer in a public room in your house where there is a lot of traffic, explain to your children what they should and should not do online, and consider using a program like Disk Tracy to check up on them from time to time.

NetParents is a good Web site to find information of interest to parents with young children.

Popular Products:

• CyberPatrol
• CyberSitter
• Disk Tracy
• Net Nanny
• SurfWatch