Comparison of ISP services:
Guide
Cost: Why pay more? You'll want the lowest cost for a service that offers all the
options you need.
Software: Some services require you to use proprietary software instead of popular,
standards-based programs like Microsoft Internet Explorer, or Netscape Communicator.
Mailboxes: How many e-mail addresses do you need? If the whole family is sharing
a computer, it makes sense to share Internet access service. So, you'll need at least one e-mail address for each
family member.
Home page: If you want to publish information on the web, you'll want an account with
web hosting included. Look for one that not only gives you an online web site builder, but also lets you upload
web sites built on your own computer. Make sure you have enough space. Try to avoid services that ad advertising
to your site.
Setup charge: Some smaller ISPs try to offset their costs by charging a setup charge.
The larger ISPs just charge excessive monthly rates.
Billing: You'll want single bill convenience. While the local telephone and cable
companies can combine bills if you're already a customer, most ISPs bill via credit card, giving you the usual
purchase protection your credit card company offers.
Access numbers: Look for a company that has local access numbers available, wherever
you're likely to call from. Some ISPs only offer service over a restricted area. While they may offer an 800 number
for out-of-region calling, there's generally a premium for using it.
Metering: How many hours do you need? If you need full-time connection, even just during business hours,
you should be shopping for a dedicated connection. Most ISPs now offer "unmetered" access, aimed at users
who are online a couple of hours at a time, several times a day.
Incentives: Some of the larger ISPs charge a high monthly fee to cover the cost of sign-up incentives.
Read the fine print. One company is offering 500 free hours, but you have to use them in the first month (that's
about 16 hours a day, all month). Others offer a free computer but require you to stay for at least three years.
After the three years are up, does the monthly fee go down?
Elirion
Cost: ours is the lowest cost ad-free service.
Software: Unlike some services, you can use most popular Internet software with our service. Our help pages
tell you how to configure the dialer software that came with your computer to dial up our network. We recommend
Microsoft Internet Explorer (5 or newer), Netscape Communicator (4.5 or newer), Neoplanet, or Opera.
Mailboxes: You can have up to 5 email accounts with no extra monthly cost.
Home page: We provide plenty of disk space for your complementary home page. See our help pages for details
on how to build your page.
Setup charge: We never charge a setup charge.
Billing: We bill your credit card monthly on the anniversary of your enrollment. You get the usual purchase
protection that your credit card company offers, plus the convenience of a single bill.
Access numbers: We have access numbers nationwide, so you can dial into our network wherever you are.
Juno
Unlike Juno, we don't force you to use a ad-laden e-mail program that lacks basic features, like being able to work while the program sends and receives mail.
It's no wonder Juno users are asking "Juno where I can get a decent ISP?" And switching to us.
AOL
Sooner or later, AOL users get tired of the high prices and the buggy software, and switch to a real ISP.
MSN
Microsoft's MSN is a good service, with a premium price to match. As an indication of how much profit they make
off their average user, consider that they can offer a free PC to new subscribers who stay with them for more than
3 years.
SNET
SNET is the local phone company in Connecticut, where Elirion is based. Unlike Elirion, SNET only provides access numbers within Connecticut, despite being owned by SBC, one of the country's largest communications companies.
SNET also tries to get you to switch to their long distance service by penalizing you with higher Internet prices for non-customers. At Elirion, all we offer is Internet access service, so we don't play those kind of tricks.
Cable Modems
While cable modems provide higher speed than Elirion's V.90 dial-up network, they have some drawbacks:
- Availability: Not all cable companies have invested in the network upgrades needed to offer cable modems.
- Security: Unless you're careful, your disks and printers can be visible to other cable users.
- Shared: The high bandwidth is shared among several customers, so when you're all downloading the latest browser
release...
- Security: Since you're always online, you tend to keep the same IP address, making it easier for hackers to
identify and target your computer.
Many people find the one-bill convenience of combining their cable and Internet provider convenient. However,
people who have finally escaped from their cable company are reluctant to switch back just to get high-speed Internet
access, particularly when the cable company penalizes them for not being a cable customer.
Free ISP
Since there are several free ISP services around, you might ask why you should pay for Internet access at all.
However, if you're reading this, you probably know why.
You get what you pay for, and with a free ISP you pay for access by viewing a slew of ads. To force you to watch
the ads, the ISP makes you to use a non-standard dialer that takes up part of your screen to display the ad. The
ISP also snoops on your web surfing, so they can show ads that you're more likely to be interested in.
Users of free ISPs report problems such as:
- Inappropriate or offensive advertising (Online gambling is common).
- Slow start up (some ISPs download tens or hundreds of thousands of bytes before firing up your browser).
- Freezing while the dialer updates ad content.
- Slow downloads, despite a high connection speed (Ad system is hogging the connection).
- Restricted screen space.
- Lack of privacy: all web activity is logged and analyzed to provide you with targetted advertising.
- Insulting customer intelligence. One ISP, 1stUp, put up a dialog box saying "Still There? We're just checking
that you still want to be online," after telling you that they're monitoring your web usage. If you don't
click on one of the advertiser buttons on the navigation window, you get disconnected. It is friendlier than "Time
for a mandatory click-through, you cheapskate."
- Buggy proprietary dialer software freezes or crashes your computer.
- Automatic dial-out from programs doesn't work because you need to use a proprietary dialer. This makes following
web links from help menus complicated.
- Sudden disconnect, even if you're in the middle of a download. We only automatically disconnect you if you're
not using the connection.
And despite the income from these ads, free ISPs are often close to bankruptcy. Two large free ISPs, WorldSpy
and Freewwweb, went out of business within a month of each other early in 2000. Then later in the year two free
providers who licensed their service to some major corporations, 1stUp (Britannica.com, etc.) and Spinway (Bluelight.com,
Spiegel.com, Barnes & Noble, etc.) both went out of business within a two week period. This was just after
putting one of their dial-up providers, ZipLink, out of business by failing to pay their bills.
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