Shop for an Internet Service Provider (ISP)

Chances are, you are either looking for the right Internet service provider or you aren't completely satisfied with your current ISP. It doesn't hurt to "shop around," so to speak, and investigate. What other services are available in your area. There are a variety of sites on the Web that will help you find an ISP that not only fits your budget, but provides quality service and has good technical support.

Here is a checklist of what to ask when checking out an Internet Service Provider.

1. Rates

Is there a setup fee for accounts?
Most ISPs have a one time setup fee of around $25
Does the ISP provide flat rate accounts?
How many hours per week or month are included?
Does the ISP offer metered accounts?
Many ISPs will offer low monthly fees, but will charge you over a certain number of hours. These accounts are good if you don't spend a lot of time online, but if you are going to be spending a lot of time online, it will probably be cheaper to get a flat rate account.
How difficult is it to switch from metered to flat rate, or vice versa?
Does the ISP charge extra for usage during peak times?
How much will it cost monthly for an account that fits your typical usage patterns?
Are trial accounts available?
If so, get a trial account and test out the ISP first to make sure it meets your needs.
What type of extra charges might you encounter?

2. Phone Lines

Does the ISP provide dial-up numbers in your local area?
Check your White Pages to see if the prefix of the number is local to you- just because it is your area code doesn't mean it's a local call.
Do the dial-up numbers in your local area support your modem speed?
If their local number in your area only supports 28.8K and you have a 56K modem, you probably want to check out another provider.
If you want ISDN or you think you may upgrade to it soon, make sure to ask if the ISP supports it.
How busy are your local dial-up numbers? Will you be likely to get a busy signal? If so, how long will it take to connect during the peak times of the day?
You may want to test it out for yourself- try dialing up your local access number during the peak time of the day (usually weekday evenings) and see how difficult it is to connect. Make sure the ISP isn't trying to service more customers than their phone lines can handle - even in peak times, there shouldn't be difficulties.
Is there an alternate line in your local area to use if there is a problem with the one you normally use?
Are there local dial-up numbers for other places you want to dial-up from?
If you often go on business trips and want to dial-up your account, you may want to look for a provider with an 800 number or one that has access numbers in most of the places you're likely to go.
If the lines become too busy, will the ISP stop signing up new accounts until new modems are added to the lines?

3. Types of Accounts

Does the ISP provide SLIP/PPP accounts?
PPP is the most common dialup account and has overtaken SLIP in popularity for Web (graphical) browsing. Shell accounts for text browsing.
If so, will you have a dynamic or static IP address?
Dynamic IP addresses are harder to use with PPP, and if you would like to register your own domain name, you should have a static IP address.
Does the ISP provide shell accounts? How much storage space do you get?
If you plan on dialing up with a 28.8K or faster modem, SLIP/PPP is probably best, but if your modem is slower than 28.8K or you want to use some of the advanced features than a shell account can provide, you should check to see if you can also get a shell account. Many providers will give you a shell account whenever you sign up for SLIP/PPP at no extra charge. Since they are text only and use command line interface like DOS and UNIX, shell accounts are harder to use, and aren't a very good substitute for PPP, but more advanced users may want them.
Can you access your shell account from another computer via telnet?
Not all people need this function, but if you have several accounts, or if you have a direct connection to the Internet at work, you may want to be able to access your shell account via telnet.
Will you be able to choose your account login, or is it automatically assigned?
Does the ISP provide domain name service?
This is important if you would like to register a specific name for your computer usage. It is more important for businesses than for home use, but some people like having domain names for their home computers.
Does the ISP provide space for a WWW page to users? Does it cost extra? How much storage space do you get?
If you would like to set up a WWW page, make sure they have clear instructions available on how set it up and make it accessible to other users.
What will your WWW page address look like if you have one? Will it be long and complicated?

4. Software

Does the ISP provide software for connecting? Does it cost extra?
Does the ISP provide software for your particular type of computer or operating system?
Is the software easy to configure?
Will the ISP guide you through the process of installing the software if you have difficulties?
If you have multiple accounts, will you be able to use the same software to dial into the different ISPs?
Does the ISP have proprietary software for Internet use?
Some ISPs require you to use their proprietary software instead of whatever programs you want to use. This is especially a problem with ISPs that don't allow you to use Netscape, since many WWW sites rely on your use of Netscape for their pages to display properly.
Does the ISP allow you to use your own software if you don't want to use the software they provide?
How difficult is it to obtain the software from the ISP? Do they mail it to you or do you have to download it?

5. Service

What are the ISPs technical support hours? Do they provide technical support during evenings and weekends?
Does the ISP provide a local or 800 number for ISP or will you have to call long distance to get help?
How difficult is it to get through to the ISPs technical support? When calling, how often do you get a busy signal or get put on hold?
Test this out for yourself- call the ISPs technical support line and see how difficult they are to get a hold of.
Do you reach a real person when you call the ISP?

Will they be there when you need them, or do you reach a machine?

How are treated when you ask questions?

If they don't have time for you now, will they when you are a client?

Will your ISP give technical support via email, or only via phone? How fast is their response time?
This can be very important if the technical support number is not local or if the lines are always busy.
How large is the ISPs technical support staff?
Does the ISP provide online help pages? Are they helpful or too technical?
Make sure to ask about this, and check the online help pages out if possible to make sure you can find them when you need them, and that they are useful.

6. Reliability and Quality of the ISP

How close are they to the main Internet "backbone?"

The Internet is a series of "hops" - the fewer hops there are to the backbone, the fewer chances for equipment failure along the way. Each hop adds overhead to a connection which adds delays in traffic delivery.

Is there a backup to guarantee service?
Does the ISP go down often? If it does go down, how long should it take to fix?
Some ISPs are unreliable and may go down or have problems with mail. Make sure your ISP will fix things promptly if they go wrong.
What happens if there is a power failure?

Ask if they have backup plans, like a permanent generator.

Will the ISP accept large mail messages or do they cut them off at a certain length?
Does the ISP offer a good selection of Usenet newsgroups? How long do they keep the articles?
Some ISPs will offer more Usenet newsgroups than others, and you may find that they don't carry a newsgroup that you want to have access to. The time an ISP keeps newsgroup articles available varies. For some it is only a day, for others it is several months. Any less than two weeks is too short a time for most people.
Does the ISP have a decently fast connection to the Internet? Will you experience a lag when connecting? How is the ISP connected to the Internet?
Usually, the speed of a modem is what slows down your connection to the Internet, but some ISPs have slow connections to the Internet and you may experience slowness when your modem isn't even transferring data. This is most noticable when connecting via a shell account, since they tend to be faster than SLIP/PPP when running programs because they are housed on the remote computer connected directly to the Internet rather than on your computer connected to the Internet via modem.
When asking how the ISP is connected to the Internet, keep this in mind- T3 connections are the best, T1 is good, it's what most providers have. If they connect to the Internet with ISDN, 56k, or 28.8K, they may be too slow for your needs. But even a good connection can be slow if there is too much usage of it, so that information might not be reflective of the speed of the connection. (See How to Choose an Internet Connection)

7. Other Special Issues

Does the ISP offer secure service like Netscapes Commerce Server for online transactions?
Does the ISP offer special services not available from other ISPs?
It's good to check this because sometimes the special services they offer can be very useful, but sometimes they charge you more for services that you won't even use.
Will the ISP give your name out to any mailing lists or commercial agencies?
Some ISPs do this - make sure they don't do it without your permission if it's something you object to.
If you have special needs that you need an ISP to fill (such as mailing list services or providing anonymous FTP for some of your files), make sure that you ask about them and that they let you know if they can fulfill your needs and if it will cost extra.