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March 99 Column
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Take Two And Call Me In the Morning:
A Prescription for Internet Service Providers
By Jana Barberio
(610 words)

In theory**, unlimited access means:
1. Log on 1st and log off 31st of month with no added charges
2. Log on 1st through 31st and every 2.5 hours you may be booted off line by ISP so other users can access

In limited access, there are generally four possible** scenarios:
1. It is the amount of time you are allowed to be logged on, say 2-3 hours
2. The ISP will charge more if you use over x hours beyond your limit
3. The ISP will charge more in terms of space they allow for your web page, for instance
4. The ISP will charge more for the amount of bandwidth used: if you download the complete Beethoven selection they might charge you more.
 

    For her 14-year-old son, she wanted an email account for his mail.  I told her some ISPs offered unbrella-like accounts—an account using her name and underneath have possibly five or more accounts for family members with slightly different addresses.
    On-line at the local library before the next meeting, I suggested she visit www.thelist.com a comprehensive list of ISPs for the entire United States.  Would the librarians help her figure out what buttons to push?  Yes, they would, I confirmed.
     I suggested she check her local Source Book, under computer services.  There were several.
     “When you want to hire a contractor to re-do your roof,” I cautioned, “you don’t want to go with the first bid, you want check at least three before you decide.”
     “Okay,” she said, “But I don’t really understand all this computer stuff, the terminology, I hadn’t ever heard before that term you used, ‘unlimited access’.  Will I be able to learn terminology from the user group?”
     Some of it she would be able to learn from the user group, but I recommended she find “Smart Computing Magazine” and start some of her learning there.  She seemed relieved that she now not only had the name of a magazine to read, but that she might now study in private, terms she might be too embarrassed to ask about in public.
     On the Internet, she might want to find resources for beginners, such as software, CDs, books, online classes and magazines, but she had to get comfortable with search engines.
     “I definitely will need that unlimited access!” she exclaimed, “Thank you so much.  You have been a big help.  I’m going to try and make it to the next user group meeting and I’m going to look for that magazine and get to the library.”

     For any of you who are not on-line at home or know someone who isn’t, remember there is an Internet Service Provider list on the Internet, www.thelist.com, that can be accessed through your work or the local library.  If you find a few ISP’s to compare, remember to ask how much their cost includes--web page space, email accounts and unlimited access.  And don’t forget to keep up your computer savvy, whether on-line, in computer user groups or reading “Smart Computing Magazine”.

Happy surfing!

*Not her real name
**By most standards

(March)