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editor's note

In 1993, the same year Whitney Houston hit the high notes with “I Will Always Love You” and Jurassic Park broke records at the box office, a small dialup service provider called iiNet began in the garage of a Padbury home.

In 2011, it’s pretty clear we’ve come a long way (firing up our 400th DSLAM exchange just last week) and on Sunday October 23rd we finally put the scissors to our fake ID to celebrate 18 years of helping Australians connect better. iiNet staff got in on the fun too, throwing celebrations at our offices over the last couple of weeks including stories from years gone by and big ideas for the years to come.

But October hasn’t been all about birthday parties. We also welcomed visitors to our Subiaco office for the annual iiNet Open Day, worked hard to whip our bundled off-net plans into better shape, released our very first Sustainability Report, plus added some more entertainment value to our fetchtv and Freezone offering.

In other news, iiNet’s cheeky mascots iian and iirene got into the fundraising spirit for this year’s Perth Telethon and limbered up for the Mix 94.5 2011 Grand Mascot Race on October 9th. Here’s how it all unfolded.

Happy birthday to us, happy reading to you.

Josh Nicholson
iiNews Editor
iinewsfeedback@iinet.net.au

iiNet news

iiNet Open Day 2011

We'd like to say a big thank you to the hundreds of guests who made their way to iiNet HQ for Open Day 2011 on Monday 21st October – one of our biggest and best yet.

Tours, workshops and seminars ran all day, with many customers and members of the public joining in for a look behind the scenes at iiNet and advice on how to get more out of their broadband connection.

If you weren't able to get to Open Day this year, don't stress – we'll be uploading seminar videos and workshop presentations to the Open Day website in the coming weeks.

In the meantime, take a look at some snapshots of the action in the Open Day album on our Facebook page.

iiNet Annual Report & Sustainability Report Online

The iiNet bean-counters and our super-creative design folks have put together a spiffy overview of last financial year, plus corporate highlights in the 2011 Annual Report. But this year it's not all about number-crunching.

We've also released our very first Sustainability Report, where we take a closer look at how iiNet get things done from a community, an environmental and a workplace perspective.  It also includes stories from our staff, an overview of our culture, more on our community-based programs and details of our environmental impact. 

Together these reports not only deliver a snapshot of what we've been up to over the past 12 months (that's certainly been a lot), but also an insight to some of the reasons why we do things the way we do.

It's all now available at a shiny new section of our website so take a closer look at what's been happening inside and outside the walls of iiNet HQ this financial year, or flick through our interactive timeline.

Plan Upgrades

Summer's just around the corner, so we've whipped our residential off-net plans into better shape with bigger quotas and better prices when bundled with phone.

As part of the changes, we've introduced more big-value benefits for bundling ADSL1 broadband with phone – like double the download quota and big discounts on your monthly bill.

If you're currently on an ADSL1 Home plan bundled with phone, you'll be automatically migrated to a new-and-improved plan in the next week or two. Plan features and pricings stay the same for those on a stand-alone ADSL1 plan without phone (but you're more than welcome to get in on the act). Just kick back and keep an eye on your inbox for an email with more details.

Click your way through our new-look off-net plans for more info.

support & services

iiNet's Online Safety Series

Public WiFi
While offering a great deal of convenience, surfing the 'net on a public computer or over a public wireless networks (WiFi) can expose you to a heap of virtual germs, making you more vulnerable to theft, fraud and hardware infections.

The latest factsheet to launch as part of the iiNet Online Safety Series provides some handy hints so you don't get caught out next time you're checking emails on the run. Head to our dedicated online safety page to download, print and share. Download our factsheet for more.

Geek Speak – What is an RSS Feed?
RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. As the name suggests, these feeds are really simple and really handy. They allow you to track and receive live news updates from your favourite websites from the one place, so you don’t need to go hunting through a number of websites for information on your favourite things.

Just like you might add an organisation on Facebook or follow them on Twitter, subscribing to an RSS feed helps you keep in touch with news and events as they’re updated. To identify an RSS feed on a website, look for the bright orange internationally accepted symbol for RSS. Information from most feeds is text-based, small in size and can be quickly transferred.

Subscribing to RSS feeds is easy. Simply involves clicking on the orange icon for a prompt to subscribe to a web-based reader (feeds can be added to your Google homepage, for example) or add updates to bookmarks in your browser for quick access.

Safety Watch – Westpac ‘Quick Survey’ Phishing Scam
This month an email scam has been hitting inboxes claiming to be from Australian bank Westpac, with recipients offered a $35 reward for filling out a 'quick and easy' survey.

By following the link within the email, recipients are directed to a Westpac-branded survey which also prompts them to enter a range of personal details and provide credit card details for the $35 payment to be credited to their account.

As with many scams such as this, if it looks too good to be true – it is. In this instance, the email is certainly not from Westpac. Those submitting the fake survey will almost certainly receive a nasty surprise when they next check their credit statement – so if this scam or anything similar lands in your inbox send it to the trash can straight away.

Our Online Safety Series has more information on how you can steer clear of phishing scams like this one, or head to any of the following sites:

• Debunk or confirm shams with Hoax-Slayer or Snopes.com
• Learn from the experts at SCAMwatch and keep an eye on their SCAMwatch radar
• Pick up tips from our Discoveryzone on staying safe online

entertainment & competitions