Introduction
One of the most asked questions at the moment is "Who should I take an Internet account with?" This guide has been created as a prompt for some of the questions you should ask when making your decision. It is not possible for the author to recommend any particular provider, the choice is up to you and you should shop around for the most suitable provider for your needs (See Table 1).
Until some enterprising telecommunications company follows the US route and offers free local calls, one of the most important considerations when choosing an access provider will be your phone bill. Make sure you go for an ISP which offers local call access to the Internet, most do this now but not all so check!
Why do you want to connect?
The first step in choosing an ISP is to decide why you want to connect. The different services offered by ISPs are aimed a slightly different markets. The two main reasons are commercial or recreational & leisure.
This choice will affect many things such as the number of e-mail addresses you require and the time of day you will be connecting to the Internet.
Internet Service Providers
When connecting to the Internet an account is taken with an Internet Service Provider (also known as an Internet Access Provider or IAP). They provide the connection to the Internet and manage all the features such as e-mail delivery, etc. An ISP owns or rents the equipment required to have points-of-presence on the Internet for the geographic area served.
There are many pricing schemes in operation and your choice of provider will be affected by what services you want to use on the Internet. Most providers offer unlimited access for a flat monthly fee, but others like AOL and CompuServe, charge by the hour. This can be a cheaper option if you're not expecting to be on-line much during a month, but can soon add up otherwise.
Different Types of ISP
Whatever type of connection you have you only pay for the connection to your ISP. There are no charges for how far or how many sites you visit on the Internet itself. It should be noted that the speed at which you can access information is affected more by the speed of the server you are connecting to and not the speed of the connection to your ISP. As the Internet is a global network the different sleep patterns of the world also affect the speed. As most of the content is hosted in America, when America wakes up the whole things can get noticeably slower. (See Table 2)
As a general rule if you spend more than 4 hours connected every day then leased line becomes cheaper than ISDN, but check current pricing for the exact break point.
E-mail
This is the most widely used Internet feature. There are many different configurations for e-mail. You need to decide how many different people you want to have a mail address and whether you need any general addresses e.g. [email protected] or [email protected]. If you require a large number of e-mail addresses you should check with the ISP about costs.
If you resister a domain name you can use that as your e-mail address e.g. [email protected]
As happened with the fax, e-mail will become mandatory for businesses within a few years.
WWW Browsing
The success of the Internet has been due to the World Wide Web. When browsing using a telephone dial-up connection you are likely to spend a great deal of time and could incur a large phone bill. A local phone call is a must. Some ISPs give you so many hours per week on-line free but then charge an hourly rate. This is in addition to any connection charges and could amount to a considerable fee. (See Methods of Connection above).
At present most information available is free. This is likely to change as we move into the information economy and more services will be offered on a subscription or pay per query basis.
WWW Hosting
Quite a few ISPs are offering the use of space on their Web servers included in your monthly fee.
To create your own web pages you can either develop the skills yourself or, obtain the services of a web designer who will design your pages for a fee.
As with e-mail, a web site will be mandatory for businesses within a few years.
Try Before you Buy
Some of the larger ISPs are offering free access so you can try out their service. This usually involves taking a subscription with the first few days free. You can cancel the subscription before the first payment is due if you do not wish to continue.
Other considerations
Technical support and ease of installation.
Although difficult to judge depending on your level of expertise the 'Internet in a box' type products and ISPs that offer a full suite of software should be considered.
Domain Names
If you are a business you may want to think about registering your domain name. A domain name can be used in your e-mail address and in your web site address. Most domain names consist of registered trade marks e.g. macdonalds.com and bbc.co.uk. Some Internet providers are offering automatic domain registration of your account name.
Most ISPs will charge an initial fee in addition to the annual maintenance fee.
Making your Decision
To help you make the final decision about which ISP best suits your needs the, ever increasing, Internet magazine industry should be mentioned. There are many titles available and they quite often run comparative features on ISPs and can give some of the softer information such as levels of service and technical support.
Table 1 - Some of the most popular Internet access providers in this country. (This information was correct at the time of writing - March 1997 but may have changed since, please check with individual companies)
Name Telephone No. Web Page Cost (per month) AOL 0800 279 1234 www.uk.aol.com from �5.95 BT Internet 0800 800 001 www.btinternet.com �15.00 CIX 0181 296 9666 www.cix.co.uk �15.00 CompuServe 0800 289 378 www.compuserve.com from �6.50 Demon 0181 371 1234 www.demon.net �10.00 Easynet 0171 681 4444 www.easynet.co.uk from �9.90 IBM Global 0800 973 000 www.ibm.not �17.00 MSN 0345 002 000 www.msn.com from �4.95 Onyx 0345 715 715 www.onyxnet.co.uk �10.00(Note that AOL, CompuServe and some of the others charge by the hour after the initial rental)
Table 2 DOWNLOAD TIME & Connection methods, shown in order of increasing cost.
Type Comments Time to download a full floppy disk Dial-up Most common. Usually a 6 mins local call charge. Speed up to 33.6kbps. (Soon to reach 56kbps). You need two lines to receive incoming calls when using the Internet. ISDN Faster connection 64 or 3 or 1.5 mins 128kpbs. Line charges incurred at normal (64kbps) or double (128kbps) rates. Can be used for other things e.g. video conferencing. Leased Line One off charge. No charges 3 mins made for time using connection. 64kbps.