|
An ISP supplies, or arranges to supply, a service that enables end-users
to access the Internet. It may own the facilities it uses to deliver
a service or it may use the facilities of another provider (in the case
of a ‘virtual ISP’).
Things
To Think about When Choosing an Internet Service Provider
Choosing an Internet service provider (ISP) can sometimes be an overwhelming
decision. Most offer a number of Internet access arrangements. Before
you make a decision about an ISP, it is worth spending some time to
think about the arrangements that best suit you.
Some of things
to think about include:
-price and
billing;
-performance;
-help and
installation;
-communication;
and
-security
of service.
It is unlikely
that any single ISP will be the most efficient at all of these key features
of providing an Internet service. Instead, in such a competitive environment,
it is likely that many ISPs will seek to cater for niche markets. It’s
a good idea to think about which of these features is most important
to you.
Once you've
located a few ISPs you are interested in, here are some points you may
want to consider in making your final selection:
Purpose. As noted above, determine why you are using the Internet.
Are you using it primarily for email? For access to occasional information?
Or in order to conduct commerce via the WWW? This first question is
essential, and the relevancy of the remaining questions will depend
on how you answer this one.
Support. Determine the level of customer support you will need.
For many of us, having access to a customer support line accessible
without additional cost may be important. For others, the customer support
service may not be as important. Do you need 24x7 customer support?
What about 24x7 technical support? Many companies will have an answering
or beeper service but don't actually have someone in an operations center
that can help you.
Connection. Ask about the provider's connection to the Internet.
Basically you're looking for the answers to three questions -- a) where
is the bottleneck of their network, b) what is the speed of their connection
at this bottleneck, and c) do they have more than one connection to
the WWW. The first two questions will help you determine what to expect
in terms of your connection speed (but don't forget that WWW traffic
can impact this speed greatly). The last question will effect reliability
of your connection.
Reliability. Ask about their internal monitoring of Internet
activity. What are their peak traffic times? They should be able to
show you all kinds of statistics on their server traffic. You may not
understand everything they tell you -- but this question is a good indicator
of how well the ISP runs their Web access business.
Price. Is the price competitive? Also, make sure that you fully
understand their fee structure so that you are not surprised later.
Technical staff. How many key technical people do they have on
staff and how long have they been with the company?
Business. And of course there's the basic questions you always
want to ask:
How long have you been in business?
What are your annual sales?
Are you currently profitable? If not, when do you expect to be profitable?
What would your banker say about your company?
Can you provide financial references?
What is your current customer base?
What is the mix between commercial and personal accounts?
Personality. There's nothing wrong with evaluating the ISP based
on "personality." Even if you're going to set up your Internet
access with a national company, its just good business to do business
with companies that are a good "fit."
High Speed DSL
When you connect to
the Internet, you might connect through a regular modem, through a local-area
network connection in your office, through a cable modem or through
a digital subscriber line (DSL) connection. DSL is a very high-speed
connection that uses the same wires as a regular telephone line.
Here are some advantages
of DSL:
You can leave your Internet connection open and still use the phone
line for voice calls.
The speed is much higher than a regular modem (1.5 Mbps vs. 56 Kbps)
DSL doesn't necessarily require new wiring; it can use the phone line
you already have.
The company that offers DSL will usually provide the modem as part of
the installation.
But there are disadvantages:
A DSL connection works better when you are closer to the provider's
central office.
The connection is faster for receiving data than it is for sending data
over the Internet.
The service is not available everywhere.
|
