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National Priority

At this time, USFamily.Net currently only offers its patented unlimited priority sytem services in Minnesota and some surrounding areas. This is the best technology available, and it is only available from USFamily.Net.

Until USFamily.Net expands its technology everywhere, you can still enjoy our spam-free email and other wonderful services through standard Internet technologies used by all other Internet service providers, but at better prices and with better features due to our lower overhead and better profit margins.

Our national pool is not a priority system and therefor there are no interruptions, however busy signals are possible, although uncommon. This service is similar to all other Internet service providers.

The National Pool...

Is shared by many national Internet providers.
Is a standard shared internet environment and does not allow for dedicated usage.
Has a 150 hour hard limit per month to prevent abuse of the shared environment.
Is unlimited in that there are never extra charges, but does have rules to stop dedicated usage.

National Pool Rules
Our national pool is a shared, contracted service, used by many (perhaps even most) large ISP's throughout the country. Because the supplier does not have access to technology such as our patented priority system, they control abuse of the "shared dialup" environment in a different way. They have an "abuse detection system". This abuse detection system automatically and permanently terminates accounts if a user:

Sends SPAM.
Simultaneously connects more than one computer.
Maintains continuous connections.
Uses more that 150 hours in a calendar month.

If an abuse is detected, that account is suspended until the end of the calendar month. There is an additional $10 Reinstatement Fee if the user needs to get reactivated before the end of the month. If frequent abuse occurs it will result in permanent termination. We have no control over these rules or the abuse detection system of the national supplier. Most other Internet providers have these same rules but some are not up front with describing them.

To avoid being classified as a "continuous connection" (which is against the contract for all ISP's and requires dedicated Internet service) make sure no session is over 4 hours without hanging up for 15 minutes before dialing in again and avoid deliberate, automatic, or accidental connection patterns that cause high usage.

We have found very few users to ever have trouble with the abuse detection system. Users that need dedicated service should get DSL or cable.

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