Internet Service Providers Essay, Research Paper

The internet is an excellent resource for information, entertainment, and communication. The term “internet” refers to the global information system that is logically linked together by a globally unique address space (ie. http://www.yahoo.com) based on the Internet Protocol (IP) or its subsequent extensions/follow-ons; is able to support communications using the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) suite or its subsequent extensions/follow-ons, and/or other IP-compatible protocols; and provides, uses or makes accessible layered on the communications and related infrastructure described herein.”, either publicly or privately, high level services You can do so many things on the internet, such as communicate by e-mail, instant messaging, or chat rooms with family and friends, play games, download music mp3s and videos through an FTP (File Transfer Protocol)2, type a report, create a chart or table, find information on virtually anything, go shopping without leaving your home or office. To access the internet you will need an internet service provider (in which I will discuss in this paper), and a modem . Then you can get started.

The first step to getting hooked up to the internet is selecting an ISP (or internet service provider). One of the most popular ISPs is probably America Online (AOL). AOL costs $23.90 per month for unlimited internet access. It is a dial-up conncection3. From my personal experiences with ISPs it is the most user friendly. It provides you with e-mail, chatrooms, free homepages, instant messanging, and many other options. It is very easy to use and very popular so many of your friends and family may already use it so it would be very easy to communicate with them through instant messaging,chatrooms and e-mail through AOL.

Another popular ISP is Microsoft Networks or MSN. It is also a dial-up connection. Their service includes e-mail, twenty-four hour customer service, and is personalized. This ISP is also very user friendly. For their unlimited access service plan it would cost you $21.95 per month.

You could also choose (rather than a dial-up connection), to connect through your cable rather than a telephone line. It is more expensive than the dial-up ISPs, that I mentioned earlier, (it depends on your local cable company, but I’ve found it usually costs somewhere around $40.00 per month, plus installation and equipment fees) but it is much quicker than a 56K connection (about fifty times faster average) , and does not tie up your phone line. You get all of the standard features of a regular ISP, such as e-mail. So there are both advantages and disadvantages to connecting to the internet through a cable modem.