What makes iNYC Wireless's high-speed Internet different from other broadband products?

Two aspects of iNYC Wireless's high-speed Internet access service make our product unique:

Your building's own "gateway"

Other Internet service providers sell a direct connection between residents and a network operations center, sometimes located a significant distance from your building and creating the potential for slower connections. iNYC Wireless's building-centric architecture is based on the placement of an Internet access "gateway" in every building we serve, bringing the Internet "on-ramp" right to your door. This gateway offers building residents a level of service and security on a par with a well-managed corporate LAN. In addition to the various Internet service features of our gateway, having this device on the premise allows us to provide enhanced security and firewall features, web caching of popular web sites for increased speeds, Domain Name Service (DNS) and Network Address Translation (NAT), all designed to maximize the security and speed of your connection.

A wireless LAN

We connect the residents of the buildings we serve with a technology known as "Wireless LAN". This approach provides high-speed Internet access to every apartment and most of the common areas of a building. The convenience and cost savings to residents are extraordinary. Desks can be moved without re-cabling, laptop users have complete freedom to sit in any room of their apartment while maintaining a full speed Internet connection, and cosmetic damage to hallways and apartments is avoided.

Taken together, these services offer an integrated product that goes far beyond what is available with a cable modem or DSL Internet connection.

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Exactly what is the function of iNYC Wireless's in-building IP gateway?

Our Internet gateway provides a number of services that increase the security and performance of our high-speed Internet connection. These services:

• Automatically provide an IP address, and other necessary connection information to a user's computer (DHCP).
   

• Locally convert the names of websites
  (i.e., www.website.com) to the numbers a computer needs to actually converse with these sites (DNS).
   

• Protect a user's data and computer from Internet hackers by hiding the IP address it is using (NAT).
   

• Speed up web access by maintaining a local copy of frequently accessed data (caching).
   

• Make the provision of ancillary services possible. These may include backup facilities for your PC, content filtering, and many other useful utilities to be offered in the near future. To maintain the high quality of our service, the gateway also monitors the stability and adequacy of the incoming high-speed connection and checks to see that no problems exist with our in-building transmitters. The gateway itself is designed to be monitored remotely, allowing iNYC Wireless to react immediately to service affecting issues. If the high-speed connection to the building is lost, or the gateway itself fails, service technicians are automatically dispatched. To ensure consistent high-speed connections and compliance with our Acceptable Use Policy, bandwidth usage is proactively monitored and supplemented as necessary to maintain the highest quality connections.

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How fast is an iNYC Wireless connection?

Not all Internet connections are of the same quality and there are several factors that may influence the speed and quality of your connection, including the size of the high-speed circuit, the distance to the Internet "points of presence" (POP's) and the performance of some standard Internet functions. iNYC Wireless has considered all of these factors and engineered our solution to give you the fastest response times possible.

All of our buildings are connected with at least one T-1 (1.5MBit/Sec) circuit. This T-1 is a full bandwidth point-to-point circuit, connected to all of the major Internet "points of presence" via the shortest routes possible.

This very high-speed connection is capable of downloading an 8 MB video in 43 seconds as compared to 18 minutes using a dial-up modem. Uploading and downloading of large files or graphics happens almost instantly.

Additionally, our in-building IP gateway, which is connected to your PC at up to 1MBit/Sec, performs two additional functions that substantially speed up your Internet access: domain name service and web caching. Domain name service is like the Yellow Pages of the Internet, converting web site names like www.iNYCWireless.com to IP addresses (e.g.., 209.67.50.203), which are the "telephone numbers" of the Internet. Doing this lookup locally at high-speed, rather than over the Internet, substantially speeds up your access. Also, our gateway provides a web cache, which is a local copy of large amounts of recently accessed Internet data. This local copy greatly speeds the display of frequently accessed data, such as popular portal start pages, or pages that any networked user has accessed recently.

Cable modem-based service providers claim they offer 10Mbit/sec connection speeds, but they actually provide this 10MBit/Sec connection to the "head-end", or node, where their service connects (and may serve hundreds of subscribers), and not to your building or your computer. In reality, you are sharing this bandwidth with your entire neighborhood. Your actual speed, especially at times of peak usage, may be significantly lower than that of a iNYC Wireless connection. Likewise, DSL services share a connection between a very large number of users, and are also sensitive to a number of factors, including distance from the telephone company's central office, and the condition of the wires in your building.

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What are the advantages of iNYC Wireless's wireless LAN technology?

iNYC Wireless uses a "state-of-the-art" industry standard technology known as IEEE 802.11 Wireless LAN ("Wi-Fi") to connect your PC to the Internet. This technology offers you a number of significant advantages:

• No wiring of your apartment is required. You can use your PC or laptop computer in any part of your apartment without being "tethered" to a wall by a data cable. In the case of a laptop, you don't even need a power cable. You can carry your laptop from your desk to the couch or kitchen table, or anywhere in your home without losing your connection.
   

• Laptops can roam within common areas of the building. Many buildings have access available in public areas, such as laundry facilities, recreational areas and board rooms. Internet connectivity for all subscribing building residents is available in these areas.
   

• Minimal vertical building wiring is required. The wired "backbone" of the iNYC Wireless LAN distribution system does not require the installation of conduit in your building. As a consequence, it is rarely necessary to drill through the floors of your building, avoiding a process which can be quite disruptive to residents.
   

• The Wireless LAN technology iNYC Wireless employs has been adopted for public Internet access and is now doing for mobile Internet access what the cellular telephone did for voice communications. Industry leaders including Lucent, Cisco, 3Com and Nokia are now installing similar wireless LAN Internet "cells" in airports, convention centers and hotels throughout the country. As further innovations emerge in this technology, iNYC Wireless will be able to bring enhanced products and services right to your computer. Many manufacturers, are, or soon will be, manufacturing computers and other Internet enabled devices with this wireless capability included.

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What security does your service provide?

By default, our building gateway implements Network Address Translation (NAT), also known as IP Masquerade, to hide your computer from the outside world. This technology assigns your computer a special IP address that will only allow access to your computer through the gateway, providing a very effective "firewall" between your computer and the rest of the world. In certain circumstances it may be desirable for an individual to defeat this firewall to allow access from outside the building. See the next question "Can I connect to my office LAN?" for details.

The Network Interface Card (NIC) that iNYC Wireless provides supports hardware implemented 40 Bit DES encryption. At your request, we will use a customer selected password to implement this feature. Please call for more details.

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Can I connect to my office LAN?

Many office LANs utilize a type of encryption known as IPSec. This security mechanism requires that you have an IP address that is both permanent (fixed) and can be accessed from the Internet (routable). iNYC Wireless offers this service as an option. You need to bear in mind that having a fixed, routable IP address makes it more important that you pay special attention to the security of your own machine since use of a routable IP address will bypass the built-in security features offered by iNYC Wireless's gateway.

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I have more than one computer. Can I connect them all?

iNYC Wireless service is keyed to the wireless NIC installed at the time you set up your service. If you have both a laptop and a desktop machine, you can move your NIC from one machine to the other, providing service to either machine at no additional charge. If you want to use both (or several) machines simultaneously, we will make additional accounts available to you at a reduced monthly rate. In this case, each additional computer requires its own wireless NIC.

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Do you provide e-mail and other Internet services?

Every iNYC Wireless account comes with one E-mail box with 5 Megabytes of storage. Additional E-mail boxes are available as an option. iNYC Wireless provides you with the software and services needed to utilize all of the functionality of the Internet with the tools you are accustomed to.

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Will I need to keep my current ISP account?

There is no reason for you to maintain another Internet access account. If you need to utilize the Internet when you are traveling, dial-up service from iNYC Wireless is available as an option at extremely competitive rates. If you are an AOL user, and you want to keep your customary AOL user interface, AOL sells a discounted service called "bring-your-own-access" for those who wish to access their content without using AOL's dial-up facilities. Please contact AOL directly for more details about this service.

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What other services does iNYC Wireless provide?

Our IP gateway offers us the opportunity to present a constantly expanding number of services.

Home Area Networking: The wireless LAN connection can be used to attach multiple PCs and even printers and other peripherals without requiring data wiring.

Data Backup Service: We will provide an automated utility that compresses, encrypts and transfers user selected data automatically on a scheduled basis. The data collected will be stored on the local LAN server, and transferred nightly to a remote backup location.

Virus Scanning: We will be offering our customers the ability to scan their incoming e-mail and file downloads to detect viruses.

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What customer service and support do you provide?

We provide all iNYC Wireless customers with a customized version of Netscape Communicator. This application suite includes a web browser, an E-mail client, a Usenet news reader and an HTML editor and publisher. Extensive on-line and phone support is available on all of the components of Netscape Communicator Suite. Should you require additional help with iNYC Wireless equipment or services, we maintain a highly trained customer support help desk that is staffed between the hours of 09:00 A.M to 09:00 P.M. and can be reached at
800-370-5110.

*NOTE: iNYC Wireless provides only limited support for browsers other than Netscape Communicator or wireless NIC's not purchased from iNYC Wireless.
Our entire network is constantly monitored, right up to the equipment in your building. If there is a problem with any part of our infrastructure, our network management staff will know about it before you do. Should you have difficulty with your wireless PC connection, our customer support staff will diagnose your problem, and quickly resolve it. In the unlikely event of the failure of the wireless NIC in your PC, we will make arrangements for a replacement.

For billing and other administrative questions, our account services department is available weekdays, from 9:00 am to 5:30 p.m. (EST), at 800-370-5110. You can also e-mail us at info@iNYCWireless.com

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Who will install your equipment on my PC?

iNYC Wireless has a team of highly trained technicians who will come to your home and install your iNYC Wireless service. Our technician will install and test your wireless NIC and configure your E-mail and browser. iNYC Wireless installations can be scheduled Monday through Friday from 9:00 am to 10:00 p.m., and Saturdays from 9:00 am to 5:00 p.m.

Our installation technician will not leave your home until you are completely satisfied with your iNYC Wireless high-speed Internet access.

The wireless NIC itself is a standard PC Card, much like any other device that fits in a laptop's PC card slot. For a desktop computer,

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