Knock, knock... Who's there? Tricker-treaters dressed as princesses, vampires, mini-rock stars and pirates will soon be knocking at your door to perform tricks for treats.

Get into the spooky spirit of Halloween with these bewitching web sites.

Check out this Halloween web site for great costume ideas, scary movie reviews, free e-cards, local haunted house information, mummy recipes, safety tips and more.

• http://www.halloween-online.com/

Where and when was Halloween first celebrated? What is the legend behind Jack-O-Lanterns? Learn more about the history of Halloween traditions from the History Channel.

• http://www.historychannel.com/exhibits/halloween/main.html

A teacher and parent guide to having a terror-ific Halloween with their students and children.

• http://k-6educators.about.com/library/weekly/aa101099a.htm

For a limited time, you can get Socket's SpeedRacer^SM ADSL at a special, reduced price*. Upgrade your dial-up account for high-speed Internet and experience a whole new kind of Internet connection.

ADSL offers users:

• A direct connection to the Internet. No dialing. No busy signals. No kick-offs.
• No need to purchase a second phone line.
• Be on the phone and on the Internet at the same time.
• Increased download/upload capabilities of 768k/128k.
• Up to 25 to 50 times faster than a regular dial-up connection.

If Southwestern Bell is your local telephone company, you could get all of these advantages of ADSL access for a reduced monthly price.

Call 1-800-SOCKET-3 or e-mail adsl@socket.net for more details about how you can take advantage of this special deal on Socket's SpeedRacer^SM ADSL.

Curious to know if your home qualifies for DSL Internet? Fill out and submit a Pre-Qualification Form.

*Offer expires December 20, 2003. Offer subject to availability.

Socket often attends a variety of trade shows in the communities we serve. At these business exhibitions, our Socket representatives look forward to meeting our Socket customers who have questions regarding their Internet service needs.

Socket welcomes you to these upcoming showings. During these events, you could win great give-a-ways and prizes!

Jefferson City Business Showcase 2003
Thursday, October 9
8:30 a.m.- 6:30 p.m.
Firley YMCA
525 Ellis Boulevard, Jefferson City, Missouri
Show Special: NO set up fee on Socket's business PriorityDSL^SM Internet accounts.

Jefferson City Medical Group
Saturday, October 18
9:00 a.m.- 2:00 p.m.
JCMG Medical Building
1241 West Stadium Boulevard, Jefferson City, Missouri

It's nothing new. From the beginning of time, there have been bad people to threaten the safety of our everyday lives... pirates, train robbers, gangsters, thugs, evil villains, even that bully who steals innocent kids' milk money.

In today's technology driven world, the evildoers are called hackers and their target is the valuable information on your personal computer (PC).

Over the last decade there have been numerous innovations that combat these data thieves who eagerly take advantage of software loopholes and unguarded entrances. The creation of firewalls, anti-virus programs, spyware detectors, encryption tools and data erasers have helped protect vulnerable and highly desired business and government information.

But, what about the normal home user? There are several easy and FREE ways to protect your computer from being hacked, infected, or abused.

1. Check Windows Update and Office Updates regularly. Users who run Windows ME, 2000 and XP can set up automatic updates - follow the steps provided for protecting your PC. To get updates for Microsoft office, you will need to have your Office Installation CD in your CD drive.

   These updates from Microsoft provide significant security enhancements as well as stability and performance improvements.

    

2. Use complex passwords and change them regularly. Passwords should have at least seven characters. Use a combination of letters and numbers. A good example would be uiop12. This will make it tougher for anyone to gain access to your accounts. But, if you are a forgetful person, make sure you have it available somewhere safe, so you can look it up.

    

3. If you are operating Outlook or Outlook Express as your mail center, use the current version or one with the Outlook Security Update installed. The update and current versions patch numerous vulnerabilities.

    

4. Buy anti-virus software and keep it up-to-date by downloading updates from their web sites. Norton Anti-virus is an extremely popular package. If you are not willing to spend money, try Grisoft AVG Free Edition.

    

5. Install a personal firewall. Unlike anti-virus software that detects viruses and worms already on your computer, firewalls stop threatening material before they even reach your computer.

   You can purchase the most reliable firewalls from your local general or computer store for under $100. Or you can download free firewall software from the following company web sites: SyGate, ZoneAlarm or Tiny Software.

    

6. Join a respectable e-mail security list, such as Symantec's virus alert list. Or make Microsoft's Security Bulletins web page one of your most frequently visited sites.

    

7. Regularly check out the alerts on Socket's Virus Information support page. To help you maintain proper upkeep of your computer system, Socket has recently added a Virus Information page to our Web site. Go to http://support.socket.net/virusinfopage/ to find out how to identify and remove the viruses currently affecting millions of computers world wide.

    

8. Be skeptical of things on the Internet. Do not assume e-mail "From:" a particular person or company is actually from that person or company until you have further reason to believe its reliability. Furthermore, do not assume that an attachment is what it says it is, even if it's from "support" or sounds urgent for you to open.

    

The more time you take today protecting your computer from viruses, worms and hackers with these easy habits, the less time and money you will have to spend repairing the damage they can cause in the long run.

Protect your computer today!

Thank you to all our Socket customers who helped make our September S.P.A.M (Sending Patients A Message) Fundraiser a great success!

Over 500 people donated to the Ronald McDonald House Charities of Mid-Missouri by adding Socket's anti-spam filter to their Socket e-mail account. The S.P.A.M. Message Board also received over 50 good wish messages from people all over the country! Socket will take these messages and bind them in a booklet. The Sending Patients A Message booklets will be given to the hospitalized children and their families of the Mid-Missouri Ronald McDonald House.

Through November, you can view all the heartwarming messages on Socket's S.P.A.M Message Board.

Thank you all for supporting the seriously ill children of the Ronald McDonald House!

We are listening...

At Socket, we believe that our innovation originates from the needs and desires of our customers. If you have suggestions on how we can improve your experience with Socket Internet, please contact us at openears@socket.net. We also encourage our customers to fill out our satisfaction survey at www.marketing.socket.net/survey.

Satisfied customers have sent us e-mail messages to thank our employees for a job well done. If you have had an exceptional experience with our support staff or with Socket's Internet services, in general, please tell us about it at kudos@socket.net. We always appreciate your comments, especially the good ones!

We hope you enjoy receiving our monthly newsletters, now nicknamed The Socket Connection. We are always searching for new ideas on subject content to improve its value to you, our customer. If there is anything you would like to see different in this newsletter, or you enjoyed reading about a particular article, please let us know at Connection_Editor@socket.net.

If you do not wish to receive this newsletter in the future, please e-mail us at dontwantnonewsletter@socket.net.