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ISP Buying Guide
Internet Service Provider, A company that provides access to the Internet. Before you can connect to the Internet you must first establish an account with an ISP.
1. Introduction 2. Determine Your Needs
3. What can be Hectic?  
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Determine Your Needs

Sections: Determine Your Needs


Determine Your Needs

When you are going to determine your needs, it is important to look at your position. I.e. either you are a student or a home user, a work at home/small office, small enterprise or a large-scale enterprise.

HOME USER
Till 2005 Billions of user surf Internet at home, so to choose a ISP that fulfill your requirements as a home user, there are following 3 points to consider when choosing ISP. Their rates plus offered services, reliability and fault tolerance.

Rates
The first and most important thing that matters a lot, while choosing an ISP is their rates. There are different offers offered by the ISP with different price rates. So while you are a home user, so you don't have to take high-speed connection, as a home user dial up access is sufficient.

ISPs may differ in their rates in many different areas, like their setup fee, monthly charges, and other extra charges for additional services. Some ISPs may extend service rates for long-term accounts. Some may charge extra for usage during the peak hours.

Service
Services provided by ISPs play an important role in making a positive or negative image of any ISP in the market. Every one of them claims to offer additional services, but you must check them and test them that whether they do what they said.

Reliability and Quality of the ISP
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. The best way to find this out is to ask other users of the ISP.

There are some key features you have to look for when choosing ISP as home user.

•  Easy-to-use dial-up software; built-in e-mail client, address book, and browser.
•  User forums/chat rooms, instant messaging, easy-to-create personal Web page.
•  24/7 e-mail, Web, and phone tech support; automatic program updates.
•  Parental control over e-mail, IM, and Web surfing.

STUDENT
For college students an Internet connection comes with price of tuition, and because students of all ages are usually on tight budgets, be sure to ask if the ISP offers student discounts.

Usually kids also have online communication, mostly kid's surf Internet to play online games sending and downloading songs, so they will demand high speed.

Rates
The first and most important thing that matters a lot, while choosing an ISP is their rates. There are different offers offered by the ISP with different price rates. So if you are a student, mostly students have tight budget, so u have to choose an ISP that is low cost and provide better and faster speed.

ISPs may differ in their rates in many different areas, like their setup fee, monthly charges, and other extra charges for additional services. Some ISPs may extend service rates for long-term accounts. Some may charge extra for usage during the peak hours.

Service
Services provided by ISPs play an important role in making a positive or negative image of any ISP in the market. Every one of them claims to offer additional services, but you must check them and test them that whether they do what they said.

Reliability and Quality of the ISP
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. The best way to find this out is to ask other users of the ISP.

There are some key features you have to look for when choosing ISP as Student.

•  Affordable, unlimited broadband service (DSL or cable).
•  Higher upstream speeds (128Kbps or better) for file up loaders.
•  Ability to download and e-mail large files.
•  Instant messaging to the max.
•  Static IP address (for hosting multiplayer games); support for Xbox, PlayStation, and similar game consoles.
•  ISP should have multiple, high-speed (T3 or faster) connections to the Internet backbone for maximum performance.

WORK @ HOME/SMALL OFFICE
If you are working at home, or in other words keeping home as office so your have to consider an ISP that provide a bit business services. Your ISP should support home networking and common security control protocol. If you plan to use your home PC to host a Web site or act as a server, check with the ISP first: many providers don't allow home servers or require you to configure them differently before they will work.

Rates
The first and most important thing that matters a lot, while choosing an ISP is their rates. There are different offers offered by the ISP with different price rates. Some question relating to rates must be asked from them while choosing an ISP for your own satisfaction and choose an ISP that fits according to your needs as home worker.

ISPs may differ in their rates in many different areas, like their setup fee, monthly charges, and other extra charges for additional services. Some ISPs may extend service rates for long-term accounts. Some may charge extra for usage during the peak hours.

Service
Services provided by ISPs play an important role in making a positive or negative image of any ISP in the market. Every one of them claims to offer additional services, but you must check them and test them that whether they do what they said.

Some services are common and necessary for any ISP. Services like technical support, local number for ISP, and online help are some of the most important services that must be accurately provided by them. They must have 24/7 technical supports and should have a good response time.

Reliability and Quality of the ISP
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. The best way to find this out is to ask other users of the ISP.

Most ISPs have a limit to email sizes. 3MB is considered reasonable, anything lower than that may cause you some distress if you are trying to send a large attachment.

There are some key features you have to look for when choosing ISP as Home Worker

•  Affordable, unlimited broadband service (DSL or cable).
•  Static IP address for accessing corporate VPNs; support for common VPN protocols.
•  Included Web/FTP site with a reasonable amount of storage space for swapping large files with remote office mates.
•  Free dial-up access, in case broadband connection fails or you need to travel.
•  Multiple e-mail in-boxes with at least 10MB storage for each.
•  Personal firewall and antivirus software.
•  Integrated voicemail and e-mail service.

SMALL BUSINESS ENTERPRISE (up to 100 workers)
Mostly all organizations that are larger than a home worker setup of people are networked, and surely they need a high-speed Internet connection that multiple users can share. Hence for small enterprises DSL connection or T1 is recommended. If you want to host your own website then you have to ask ISP if they offer static IP.

Rates
The first and most important thing that matters a lot, while choosing an ISP is their rates. There are different offers offered by the ISP with different price rates. So while you are seeking ISP for small enterprise you have to look for high-speed connection.

ISPs may differ in their rates in many different areas, like their setup fee, monthly charges, and other extra charges for additional services. Some ISPs may extend service rates for long-term accounts. Some may charge extra for usage during the peak hours.

Service
Services provided by ISPs play an important role in making a positive or negative image of any ISP in the market. Every one of them claims to offer additional services, but you must check them and test them that whether they do what they said.

Some services are common and necessary for any ISP. Services like technical support, local number for ISP, and online help are some of the most important services that must be accurately provided by them. They must have 24/7 technical supports and should have a good response time.

Reliability and Quality of the ISP
Some ISPs are unreliable and may go down or have problems with mail. And a professional business setup cannot bear that kind of setbacks. Make sure your ISP will fix things promptly if they go wrong. The best way to find this out is to ask other users of the ISP.

Most ISPs have a limit to email sizes. 3MB is considered reasonable, anything lower than that may cause you some distress if you are trying to send a large attachment.

There are some key features you have to look for when choosing ISP for small business enterprise.

•  Always-on unlimited broadband service (business-class cable or DSL, T1).
•  Support for Microsoft Outlook, Lotus Notes, and other corporate e-mail programs; instant messaging.
•  Multiple, static IP addresses for Web and e-mail servers and for supporting VPNs.
•  Multiple e-mailboxes, domain name registration and hosting, Web hosting. Security services: antispam, antivirus, firewall protection (at workstation or server
level).
•  E-commerce services: Web site design and hosting (self-build and custom), shopping carts, catalogs, real-time credit card processing, SSL security, support for FrontPage extensions and Microsoft Access.
•  Network integration services; onsite hardware and software installation, configuration, and management (servers, routers, firewall); connecting multiple offices and remote users.
•  24/7 tech support; onsite service; service-level agreements.

LARGE BUSINESS ENTERPRISES (more than 100 workers)
Obviously a large business should contain all features of small business, but here when some one dealing with large enterprise it is most responsible task to choose ISP, because a large enterprise cannot compromise at any error, like slow speed, setback, or any other kind of fault.

Rates
The first and most important thing that matters a lot, while choosing an ISP is their rates. There are different offers offered by the ISP with different price rates. So while you are seeking ISP for large enterprise you have to look for high-speed connection.

ISPs may differ in their rates in many different areas, like their setup fee, monthly charges, and other extra charges for additional services. Some ISPs may extend service rates for long-term accounts. Some may charge extra for usage during the peak hours.

Service
Services provided by ISPs play an important role in making a positive or negative image of any ISP in the market. Every one of them claims to offer additional services, but you must check them and test them that whether they do what they said.

Some services are common and necessary for any ISP. Services like technical support, local number for ISP, and online help are some of the most important services that must be accurately provided by them. They must have 24/7 technical supports and should have a good response time.

Reliability and Quality of the ISP
Some ISPs are unreliable and may go down or have problems with mail. And a professional business setup cannot bear that kind of setbacks. Make sure your ISP will fix things promptly if they go wrong. The best way to find this out is to ask other users of the ISP.

Most ISPs have a limit to email sizes. 3MB is considered reasonable, anything lower than that may cause you some distress if you are trying to send a large attachment.

There are some key features you have to look for when choosing ISP as Home Worker

•  Always-on unlimited broadband service from 1.5Mbps (T1) to 45Mbps (T3). Support for frame relay, ATM, voice/data integration, videoconferencing.
•  ISP should have multiple, high-speed (T3 or faster) connections to the Internet backbone for maximum performance and reliability.
•  Static IP address for Web and e-mail servers and for supporting VPNs.
•  Support for high-traffic e-commerce sites; provide e-commerce services including Web site hosting, CRM, shopping carts, catalogs, real-time credit card processing, SSL security, support for SQL, ability to serve/stream audio and video, traffic analysis (metrics).
•  Network integration services; onsite hardware and software installation, configuration, and management (servers, routers, firewall); connecting multiple offices and remote users.
•  Server colocation--storing your Web server on the ISP's premises for greater security, performance, and control.
•  24/7 tech support; onsite service; service-level agreements.