Simple steps to finding the best Internet Service Provider for you

Your Internet Service Provider is going to be your permanent road-buddy for the entire length of your Internet journey, so it's kind of important that the company you choose is going to be a help to you and not a hindrance.

Cost

Most ISPs charge an hourly rate of between 60 cents and $10. A few simply charge a monthly fee with no time charge. There are also on- and off-peak rates and discounts for high usage. Some also have per megabyte charges. This refers to how much data you access. This can get quite expensive if you are downloading large files and accessing multitudes of Web pages. Other charges will be registration and setup fees and there may be a charge for any extra storage space if you create a Web page. Some ISPs also charge for technical support.

If you mainly wish to use e-mail and newsgroups, you can do most of this off-line and you may find an hourly rate quite acceptable. If you think you are likely to have midnight till dawn games fests, gab on about the X-Files for hours or spend ten hours researching the mating habits of clams, which require you to stay on-line, a flat rate may be preferable.

Performance

Some computers on the Internet have bigger pipes (faster connections) than others (isn't it always the way?). The faster the transfer rate the better, and the closer to the 'core' or 'backbone' of the network the better. For example, an ISP with a direct route to America is going to achieve better transfer rates with American sites. When a large number of people are all trying to access and download information at once this also slows the transfer rate down. For example, 100 people accessing a 64Kbps line is going to work better than 500 people accessing a 128Kbps line.

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