HSLC USER SUPPORT POLICY
The HSLC staff are committed to providing high quality, consistent,
timely, and personalized support to users of our services. Your
successful use of our services is very important to us. When you
have a question or a problem using an HSLC service, we encourage
you to contact us.
Hours of Support
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Staff can be reached Monday through Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
ET. Nights and weekends, support is available via an 800 number
voicemail service. While you can send email messages 24 hours a
day, staff may not be available to respond until the following
business day.
The HSLC office is officially closed on: New Year's Day, Memorial
Day, July 4th, Labor Day, Thanksgiving Day, and Christmas Day.
User Support Staffing
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Each day two HSLC staff are assigned to user support. Assignments
vary from week to week. Because staff could be out of the office
or involved in training sessions or meetings, we recommend that you
not direct your user support inquiries to a specific staff member.
Rather, we recommend you follow the policy below.
How to Contact the HSLC for Assistance
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By phone: Call 1-215-222-1532 and state that you have a user
support question. Our secretary will direct the call to one of the
staff persons assigned to user support that day. After regular
business hours, call 1-800-220-3295 and leave a voicemail message;
someone will return your call if necessary.
By email: Send a message to the email address SUPPORT if you are
having difficulty using our services or if you would like to ask a
general question. Please sign your email message with your full name,
institution, and phone number, in case we need to call you for more
information. Normally we will not need to call you if your problem
description is complete enough. In most cases, we will reply to
you via email.
When You Contact Us
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If your question or problem relates to accessing the HSLC system,
please have the following information ready when you contact us:
- the name and version of your telecommunications package
- the baud rate at which you are communicating
- the phone number you dialed
- the exact error message you received
If your question or problem relates to an Internet access tool or
resource or to a database or service mounted on the HSLC computer,
please describe the exact sequence of steps you had attempted and
note the text of any error message you received.
During regular business hours, staff make every effort to resolve
user support inquiries within an hour. If we do not immediately
know how to resolve your question or problem, we will ask you for
more information or apprise you that we are working on its
resolution.
Support for Telecommunications Software
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The HSLC offers full troubleshooting and set-up help for:
Windows users: Procomm Plus for Windows
DOS users: Procomm Plus for DOS
Mac users: VersaTerm and VersaTerm Pro
In addition to these commercially available software packages, we
distribute and support two shareware programs:
DOS users: Procomm The Works v.2.4.3 ($50 registration fee)
Mac users: ZTerm v.1.0.1 ($30 registration fee)
Although many other telecommunications packages work with our
system, we have selected only a few for which we provide full
support since it is impossible for staff to know the operation of
all telecommunications packages, modems, and other hardware in use.
If you use a telecommunications package other than the ones fully
supported by the HSLC and you are having difficulty accessing our
system, we will provide basic troubleshooting, which includes
checking terminal emulation, settings, and baud rates, and we will
assist you in contacting the software producer or modem vendor.
While most telecommunications packages which emulate a VT1XX
terminal can access our system, we have discovered a few which are
incompatible or problematic: Bitcom (all versions), Smartcom II,
and Windows 3.1 Terminal.
When User Support Becomes Training
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Contacting us for assistance is no substitute for participating in
an HSLC training course, particularly for instruction on email
techniques and basic Internet tools and resources. If we spend
more than 15 minutes to resolve a problem that is addressed in a
training class, staff will encourage you to sign up for the class.
The HSLC regularly offers training classes, and the class schedule
is posted on the HSLC Calendar (choose C from any menu). At least
once a quarter, we will post the registration materials to the
HSLC-MEMBERS system-wide mailing list. We believe we offer good
value for the investment made to attend our training classes.
Cost of User Support
--------------------
The cost of user support is included in the annual membership fee
paid by your institution to belong to the HSLC.
Documentation
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The latest versions of user manuals are available in electronic
format at no charge from the HSLC FTP server (choose DOCS from any
menu). These documents can be viewed online, downloaded, or mailed
to your email address.
Your Comments and Suggestions are Welcome
-----------------------------------------
Use the SUPPORT email address for posting comments about our products
and services.
3/6/97