The Internet is a system of interconnected computer networks that allows individual computers to link up with other computers throughout the world. Everyone who is connected to it has access to the available sources of information. One of these collections of information sources makes up part of the "World Wide Web".
Internet Service Providers (ISPs) are commercial companies that are connected to the Internet and can provide you with access to it. From your home computer you dial over the telephone to the service provider's Internet site. Once your connection is authenticated and established, your home computer becomes part of the Internet and, as long as you have the correct software, you can connect to most of the services and information sources available anywhere in the world.
There is great competition in the ISP marketplace. Services are advertised widely, especially in computing magazines. It pays to shop around, and always to ask yourself what you really want from the Internet, so that you can compare prices and what you get for your money. Some of the things you need to take into consideration are explained in the following pages.
As you look at what each ISP offers, you will have to decide what best suits your needs, both now and for the future. Once you have obtained a user name and password, which enable you to connect to your ISP's Internet site, what do you want to do? When you have a browser you can look at all the information on the World Wide Web, but many ISPs offer extras that may or may not interest you. You pay for what you get, and cheaper prices usually mean that some of the 'frills' are not available.
You should also bear in mind that you can have multiple accounts. It is worth taking out accounts with different ISPs so that if there are technical problems with one service (not an unknown state of affairs!) you can bypass them by connecting to another ISP. As long as you choose subscription-free ISPs this will not cost you any extra.
E-mail is perhaps the most widely used facility on the Internet. ISPs can offer you your own e-mail account, through which you can communicate with any other e-mail address in the world. Indeed, ISPs can offer multiple e-mail addresses on the same account, so that, for instance, family members can each have their own. You usually have some degree of choice as to what you e-mail address will be. There are a number of different types of e-mail accounts. The following are the most common:
POP3 (Post Office Protocol3) & IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol): POP3 is the most common form of e-mail account. POP3 e-mail servers store incoming messages and allow you to fetch them using any conventional mail reading package. A big advantage of POP3 accounts is that they allow you to 'work offline', meaning that you can disconnect from the Internet to read and reply to messages. IMAP is similar to POP3 in most ways, allowing you to fetch incoming messages and work 'offline'.
NB: E-mail messages are usually sent between e-mail accounts using SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol), the messages being retrieved with an e-mail client using either POP or IMAP. This is why you need to configure both the POP or IMAP settings and the SMTP server settings when you configure your e-mail client.
Webmail: This is accessed via a browser rather than an e-mail application such as Microsoft Outlook or Eudora. It can be very useful if you travel and need to send and access e-mail from Internet PCs which are not set up with your e-mail account. However you have to be connected all the time that you are using the service - you cannot use it off-line.
Forwarding services: Some ISPs, such as Altavista, provide a service which allows you to forward any incoming messages to another account. By changing the forwarding address you can move seamlessly between ISPs as your needs change, without having to give out your new details each time.
All Open University students and associate lecturers are automatically registered on the OU's FirstClass conferencing system and provided with an e-mail account when they join the uiversity. The FirstClass conferencing and e-mail facilities can be accessed through any ISP either using the FirstClass client or via a web interface.
ISPs often offer web space on their WWW server where you can publish your own Web pages - your "presence" on the WWW. Such pages may be for either personal or business reasons, and Internet users all around the world can view them using their browsers. Some ISPs provide this space for personal use only, so you need to check. You can advertise your page, once created, by applying to have it included on the WWW "search engines", which browsers use to locate information about specific topics.
Discussion groups or 'news groups' (such as 'Usenet') are a very popular part of the Internet. They are discussion areas where you can converse with (or simply read contributions from) people all over the world on thousands of subjects and topics ranging from the scientific, academic and business, to social and recreational pursuits. You can connect to these with a browser, though some ISPs provide a special application for reading news groups.
Even if you are an experienced computer user there will be times when you need help, even if it is just an explanation of what may be going wrong when things do not work as you think they should. You may have problems setting things up on your computer, installing the software, getting connected, making one of the applications run as it should. Once you have bought the product it is reasonable to expect the ISP to provide this advice and assistance. You never know how important technical support is until you need it, so its value should not be underestimated.
Find out what sort of technical support you will be able to get over the telephone. When is it available? If you usually do your computing in the evenings and at weekends, a helpline that is open only between 09.00 and 17.00 Monday to Friday is not much use, and an understaffed helpline will always be difficult to reach. Some ISPs offer 24-hour support seven days a week. Some even have a helpline number that you can call at local rates from anywhere in the UK. As for the quality of support, it might be worth ringing the number before you subscribe to the service and asking a few questions about the product. That might give you some idea of how helpful the staff are and how easy it is to get through.
There is also a cost factor to consider. Subscription based ISP accounts often have free (or local rate) telephone technical support, however some of the subscription-free services charge a premium rate for telephone helpdesk support.
Getting started - setting up and connecting
Answers to the following questions may help you to judge how easy it would be to set up an account with an ISP:
Does the ISP provide you with all the software and instructions you need to set up and configure your computer for connection to the Internet?
Ideally you want to end up with at least an automated process for dialling up and making the connection to the Internet site. Some ISPs provide a CD-ROM which configures your software settings, while others expect you to configure your computer manually by following online or printed instructions, and you might not feel competent to do that.
Is the ISP's software compatible with your computer and operating system?
(e.g. PC running Windows XP, PC running another version of Windows, Apple Mac)
Does the ISP provide an instruction manual or other printed material to help you with installation, configuration and generally finding your way to connection and beyond?
Sometimes that kind of information is on the installation CD or floppy disk, rather than in print, but many people find a printed manual essential, or at least reassuring.
Does the ISP provide you with a browser?
When you are ready to connect to the Internet you need an application program called a 'browser' so that you can move around and find information on the World Wide Web. The commonest browsers are Internet Explorer and Netscape. Most new computers come with a browser installed, or you can download them (free of charge) from the Internet itself, but many ISPs include a customised browser with the software they provide. You might find this useful, especially if you have not already got one.
Does the ISP provide proprietary services?
Some ISPs provide software that creates an environment from which you connect to proprietary information services. Those may interest you, or you might prefer to have a simple connection to the Internet and find your own information sources. If the proprietary services affect the price, you should consider whether you want or need them.
How easy is it to remove the ISP's software from your computer?
If you are taking up an introductory offer (such as a free trial), it is worth asking how easy it is to remove the software from your computer in case you decide not to proceed. A good installation process should tell you what it is doing at every step, and not make changes to your system without checking first that it is OK. Otherwise you may be unaware of changes that have been made or what exactly has been installed, and removing everything may not be straightforward.
Subscription charges
Comparing price alone is unfair, because ISPs are not all offering the same services. You need to look closely at what is offered and decide how much of it you really need. There are three main types of charges:
If you only want access to the Internet to support your OU studies, and will not be a heavy user, then a basic subscription-free deal may suit you best as you will only need to pay for telephone call charges. If you (and perhaps your family or your business) are interested in making full use of the Internet and all it offers, you may wish to use an ISP which charges a subscription (as these will usually guarantee a better level of service). If you are likely to be a heavy user of the Internet then it might be more cost-effective to pay a subscription and use an un-metered service which will not land you with a massive telephone bill! If you are new to the Internet you should also consider the costs which may be incurred by using technical support helplines.
In a market where there is fierce competition, advertised prices do not always present the complete picture. Look out for costs such as:
Making your connection - time and cost
Unless you choose an unmetered service, as long as you are actively connected to the Internet, you are incurring telephone call charges. It may be important to keep these charges to a minimum, and the keys to this are the telephone charge band into which your call falls, and the time you spend on-line. This means that the better ISPs are those that offer nationwide telephone coverage at local call rates. It is also important to be able to get through and make the connection first time, whenever you want to, and that will depend on the number of subscribers per line the ISP has.
How long you spend on the Internet will be up to you, but you may not be able to control the time it takes for information to appear (e.g. when connecting to remote sites with your browser), or for files to download (e.g. when retrieving software from a remote site to save on your computer). Delays can be caused by heavy 'traffic' on the Internet, and also by insufficient capacity (bandwidth) on the ISP's own connection to the Internet. The best you can do to eliminate delays at your end of the link is to invest in the fastest modem available (an even faster alternative is an ISDN line, such as BT's Home Highway, but this is likely to be considerably more expensive than a normal telephone line).
If you are to get the most from your fast connection, the ISP must have modems of a matching capability. You should find out whether an ISP can offer connection at a range of speeds up to the maximum, according to your requirements. It is not always possible to get this kind of technical information from advertisements, so you might need to make enquiries. Computing magazines often publish comparisons of ISPs' performance under tests in real conditions.
