Mouse Clix

By: Hobie Lunin

ISPs Revisited

My perception is that as little as a year ago most people did not know that those initials stand for Internet Service Provider or that an ISP is a company that connects you to the Internet. Now more people are aware of what these mean as many subscribe to one. There has been some fallout and changes in this business and I want to take another look at it.

Many of you have purchased computers that included a year or more of ISP service and when the service is ready to expire, the question is what to do next. Many people are reluctant to change for two reasons, or at least that is what I have found. First, they do not want to change their e-mail address and secondly, I find AOL users who are using AIM (AOL Instant Messenger) personal chat do not want to lose that connection. All ISPs carry plenty of advertising, do not expect to find one that does not.

I have discovered that it is not a problem changing addresses. If you are using Outlook Express, e.g., when you get your new address, you can just send it to all the people in your address book right away and not miss anything. In addition, before you even make the change you could inform everyone of the impending move. Look at the upside. Suddenly, when you start using your new address, there is a lot less SPAM, or junk mail.

If you have been using AOL and now have been switched to using Outlook, you may have to reload your e-mail addresses so it would be a good idea to print out your address book before you change the service.

Another route to take is to switch over now to a web based e-mail address so that you can change ISP at any time and still have the same address. A brief list of sites that have web-based mail are, Yahoo, Hotmail, Beethoven, Netscape and NBCi. As for AIM, you do not need to be an AOL user to use AIM! Just download it again from the AOL site (www.aol.com).

OK, then, whom do we want for an ISP? The current highest rated ISP is ATT.net. (September issue of Consumer Reports.) They are ranked there because of speed of connection and very few busy signals. Bell South and Earthlink are next while AOL occupies 6^th (last) place, mostly because of slow connections, interruptions and pokey downloads. What about price? Highest right now is AOL at $23.90 for unlimited service and at the other end of the scale; there are at least 2 national ISPs offering free but limited service, Juno and NetZero.

What has changed over the last year is that many of the services offer more than one plan, e.g., AOL has several including one with very limited access for $9.95. ATT’s $4.95 plan is for 150 hours (5 hours a day seems like a lot to me). They also have a $7 unlimited plan that is bundled with a $.07/minute long distance service.

Other choices for your ISP are wide band connections. These are noticeably faster. They can be on cable or on DSL, a special digitized (rather than analog) connection that gives speeds close to that of cable but over a phone line. Both of these are not available everywhere but in the area that this newspaper serves, a good number of subscribers can have wide band service. These cost a little more, but right now Comcast is offering an enticing special to get subscribers to Home.com cable Internet service. See your nearest Radio Shack for details.

If you are already an Internet surfer, you probably have seen all of the above before, but if you are new to the Internet, this can be a perplexing decision. My suggestion to newbies is to start free and easy by getting a Juno disk and putting it in your CD-ROM drive and start following the directions. The program takes you through the complete registration process. As you will be asked to pick a phone number that is local to you to connect to the server, you should have a list of area codes and exchanges that will be a local call for you. These should be at the ready as you register. (You may want to get unlimited local call service to prevent unusually high bills. Call your phone company about this.) It is easy to see on Juno where to either Write mail, Read it or go to the Web as there are three big tabs at the upper left of the screen. Juno’s mail works such that you type while you are not on-line and only go on-line to send your mail, receive any new mail, and then the service immediately goes off. This keeps your phone line free except for a few minutes during the connection. Juno mail is free. After you have had some experience, you may want to try another service. You will find that the mail may upload and download faster on other connections.

Although you may never need any service from your ISP, it is nice if you can get it when you want it. I have been told that AOL is getting better at providing good phone service and I personally have found AT&T’s service a bit long to wait on and, I think there is a charge for the calls if you have their cheapest plan. Locally, Netcarrier (ISP) provides excellent phone help.

In summary, do not be afraid to change providers, it is easy to let people know of your new address. There is e-mail forwarding on the Internet, another way to assure yourself that there will be no interruption in your communications.

Good luck with your new ISP!

Hobie Lunin is a Computer Instructor and Consultant. He can be reached at mouseclix2@yahoo.com

Previous articles can be seen at http://mouseclix.tripod.com