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Looking For a New Internet Service Provider (ISP)

Copyright © 1997-2001, 2003-2005, 2007 by David E. Ross

What I Want In an ISP

As King Arthur said in Camelot, I have only simple needs.

Any ISP to which I subscribe should have the following characteristics.

• The actual service operator, not a reseller of someone else's service. (The ISP must be fully accountable for the service I obtain.)

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  Why dial-up? Why not broadband?

  Where I live, broadband would be either DSL through AT&T or else cable modem through Time-Warner. As ISPs, neither will provide me with a shell account for developing and testing the scripts I use in my Web pages. My current ISP — which does provide me with a shell account — does not offer broadband services to consumer accounts because neither AT&T nor Time-Warner will wholesale their broadband connections to other ISPs. Thus, I would have to pay for two accounts: one for a broadband connection and one for my current ISP.

  Furthermore, DSL through AT&T in this area disrupts voice phone usage when there are more than three phone instruments on the same line. I have seven instruments in my house, all on the same line.

  Meanwhile, Time-Warner's takeover of Adelphia — until recently, the cable TV provider where I live — has definitely not been smooth. When I called, nobody at Time-Warner could answer some simple questions about their broadband service. They referred me to an outside service, which did not even know they provide services to or through Time-Warner.

  Finally, there is the issue of actual speed. Broadband does not necessarily give greater download rates than dial-up.

  In any case, I am not alone in using dial-up.

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• A dial-up POP that is a local phone call (the western portions of area codes 818 and 310 and the eastern portions of area code 805).
• Dial-up connections at 56 kbps.
• POP3/SMTP mail servers, where I can use Eudora or any other E-mail client I choose. (This is one reason I do not use AOL, which does not support POP3/SMTP and requires the use of its own E-mail application.)
• A dial-up help desk that is a local phone call.
• Unlimited connection time for a fixed price.
• No restriction on using an E-mail return address that does not reflect the ISP's domain. At the time I was seeking a new ISP, I used a return address of rossde@acm.org, which was a forwarding address provided as a free service by my professional society; E-mail to that address was forwarded to my actual ISP account. (This is a reason I did not choose Earthlink, which at that time would have required me to use something like x27ross@earthlink.net because outgoing mail would be processed only if it had a return address that uses the earthlink.net domain.)
• Web page hosting at no extra charge, with at least 10 MB of Web server space and at least 1 GB of monthly downloading by Web visitors.
• A news server that:
  • hosts all Usenet newsgroups,
  • keeps posted messages at least seven days,
  • does not lose messages, and
  • includes 95% of messages posted externally (messages from other servers) within six hours of their availability.

These services are also desired:

• Two dial-up POPs that are both local phone calls.
• A dial-up help desk that is knowledgeable and competent. Not only the help desk but other customer services (e.g., billing) must have a live person on the phone within five minutes after I finish dialing the call.
• A news server that:
  • keeps posted messages at least two weeks, and
  • includes external messages within three hours of their availability.
• A shell account so that I can create, debug, and maintain UNIX scripts used by my Web pages.

Searching for an ISP

In 1997, I changed my ISP from Pacific Bell Internet (PBI) to Internet Access of Ventura County (VCnet), the reasons for which are discussed elsewhere. Two Web resources proved most valuable in searching for a new provider.

• The List (Internet Service Providers) contains information about nearly all ISPs. This can be searched geographically, by phone area code, or by other criteria. The information is supplied by the ISPs themselves.
• DAwn McGatney's ISP Reviews contained reviews of ISPs written by their customers. Unfortunately, that excellent Web site is now defunct.

During that search, I stumbled on alt.internet.providers.america, a newsgroup supposedly about ISPs in the U.S. However, most messages posted there are not on that topic. As an alt.* newsgroup, nothing can be done about off-topic messages. While I cannot recommend this newsgroup, once in a great while I did find something interesting there. (NOTE: The link to alt.internet.providers.america will work only if that newsgroup is present on your default news server.)

During my search through The List for a new ISP, I became appalled at how those companies — trying to attract new customers — present themselves. I encountered the following by browsing ISPs' own Web pages:

• ISPs list themselves as serving 818 when they have no POPs in this area code. Apparently, they serve other area codes at the fringe of 818. Unfortunately, they do not serve my fringe. I wasted a lot of time evaluating these.
• To avoid that waste of time, I first checked an ISP's list of POP phone numbers. However, many ISPs do not list these phone numbers. Some ISP Web pages might say they serve Los Angeles, but that city covers over 400 square miles and includes three different area codes (when this page was first written, five area codes in 2004). A call to my office 42 miles away (before I retired) cost almost as much as a call to my daughter in Canada.

  To find out an ISP's local phone numbers, I would have to call their sales office. Even if that were a local call (usually it is not), I will not spend that time. If an ISP cannot provide me with online information necessary to make me want to be their customer, I do not want to bother with them.

• One ISP claims they serve the entire 818 area code. Their most western local POP is in Van Nuys; I live more than 20 miles west of there. Van Nuys is definitely a toll call for me. How can a supposedly local ISP not even know that one end of an area code is a toll call from the other end?

  This is similar to the ISP whose announcement on alt.internet.providers.america stated: If you live in the Southern California region, then [guilty party's name] is the answer to many of your computer needs. They serve only Newport Beach, a very small part of southern California. If I used them, my monthly phone bill just for connecting to the Internet would exceed my ISP bill. (When I complained on alt.internet.providers.america that this ISP's Web pages failed to list the dial-up numbers for its POPs, I got a message back pointing out that its offices are in Newport Beach. That message was sent with a fake return address. Anyway, the location of an office does not indicate the area served.)

• Many ISPs do not list their prices online. They want me to call. See above about my reaction to this lack of information. No, I will not waste my time on a phone queue to get prices.
• When an ISP had a Web page that loaded very slowly, I selected the Stop button and went to the next ISP. A slow Web page means either they have a slow Web server or else the page is far too elegant. In the former case, they have failed to invest in modern equipment for their own use. In the latter case, they have allowed a Webmaster to run amok without concern for the impact on potential customers. In either case, the risk to me of poor service is too great.
• Often, an ISP's Web page contained very obvious typographical errors, poor grammar, strange syntax, or bad URLs.
  • I even found one ISP whose home Web page resulted in a popup that reported a Java coding error.
  • Another had me trapped: No matter how many times I selected the Back button, I could not get back to The List; instead, I kept getting that ISP's home page.
  • When I input my area code and prefix on one ISP's form to see if they had a local POP, I got a server failure message.
  These ISPs are not well-run businesses that care about how they present themselves to the public. They might instead be someone's hobby. (This could also explain overly elegant Web pages that result in very slow loading.) I want an ISP that has a business's concern for retaining customers. Otherwise, I run a risk that the ISP's owner might get bored with his or her hobby and discontinue the service.
• At least one ISP's Web pages indicated new POPs would be added in April. I read that promise in May. They may have merely failed to update their Web pages. If so, do they also fail to do timely preventive maintenance on their system? On the other hand, with May more than half gone, perhaps they had not yet added those POPs (one of which would be my only local phone connection to them). In this case, they made a promise that they did not fulfill. In neither case did I have much confidence they can provide a quality service.
• I found an ISP whose home Web page prominently displayed the Christian fish logotype with text indicating it is a link to a Christian discussion group. Whenever I see this symbol, I interpret it as saying this Jew's business is not really wanted. In a business environment, displays of political or religious advocacy may drive away as many customers as they attract. In my non-professional life, I too express strong political and religious opinions; but these expressions do not belong at work.
• I found an ISP whose description in The List was attractive. When I loaded their Web page, I found variously colored fonts, which would have been okay except that the page also used a vivid wallpaper of multi-colored daisies against a black background. Have you ever tried to read yellow type against an orange daisy? How about black type (with a faint white outline) against a black background? This tells me that the person who did this is artistic, but this also tells me something about how interested they are in my business. They are not at all interested if they do not care if anyone can read their page.
• One ISP's home page included audio, a rather poor rendition of a song popular about 30 years ago. This was a Crescendo file. The ISP was presumptuous in assuming I did not have a better use for my audio system. While looking for an ISP, however, I was also using RealPlayer to listen to Greek music from a Canadian station. A few hours earlier, I had been listening to a broadcast of Beethoven's 9th Symphony (possibly the greatest work of music ever composed); if that ISP had interrupted Beethoven, I would have done more than merely exited its Web page. (This ISP also appeared to be a reseller rather than an operator, so it was disqualified in any case.)
• I discovered one ISP that seemed to meet most of my requirements. The price was very good: $14.95 per month for unlimited connection time. They had three local dial-ups. And they even included 1MB of personal Web page space in the price (much more Web space than I used at that time). However, something about their description of the personal Web pages just did not seem right.
  • For the Web space to be free, I would have to install not more than three Web pages. If I divide my Web site into more than three pages, each extra page costs $1 per month even if I stay under 1MB. At that time, my total Web site used less than 0.4MB, but I already had 38 pages. My Web site would cost an additional $35 per month, more than twice the basic Internet account. [By September 2000, I had 112 HTML files; with graphics (.gif and .jpg files), I used about 1.5 MB. By 2004, I had over 250 HTML files; with graphics and scripts, I used over 8.7 MB.]
  • I would not be able to edit my Web pages when I want. I would have to edit the files and then E-mail them to the ISP's Webmaster, who would review them for suitability before installing them. They do not list their criteria for approving Web pages. I do not want to make public presentations of pornography. However, I do have some very strong political opinions. I also express strong opinions about other aspects of society, business, entertainment, et cetera, including strongly negative opinions about some ISPs. I certainly would not want my ISP to censor me if I want to criticize them, and they really should not be controlling what political statements I make. Since I sometimes change the contents of my Web site daily, waiting for some Webmaster to install those changes is just not acceptable.

  Yes, I was using Geocities' free Web space at the time and did not need Web service from any ISP. (I later left Geocities because of that service's inappropriate actions, hacking my Web pages to insert advertisements.) And I had been using PBI for over six months without any Web space at all from PBI. However, the controlling attitude of that other ISP regarding their Web server made me concerned about what else they might want to control or even censor. That ISP was removed from my list of potential providers.

In the end, I chose VCNet, which was later bought by Internet Services West (ISWest). Although I know the principals, this choice was not based on friendship but on my judgment that the owner-operators were experienced, competent computer professionals who understood what they are doing and did it with quality.

Changing an ISP Can Be Easy

I can go from one ISP to another quite easily. My E-mail and Web addresses use my personal domain www.rossde.com. If you have your own domain hosted on your ISP's servers, rehosting E-mail and a Web site at a new ISP is easy. After you arrange for your new ISP to host your domain, E-mail will automatically be delivered to your domain on the new mail server. Then, merely transfer your Web files to the new Web server. You do not have to notify anyone since your ISP should handle the updating of DNSs for your new IP address.

If you do not have a personal domain, try to obtain a personalized E-mail forwarding address from a service other than your ISP. Then, if you change ISPs and get a new actual E-mail address, you only have to notify your forwarding service and not all your friends (who should be using your forwarding address and not your actual address).

If you have a Web site with multiple pages but no personal domain, setup your Web pages to use URLs for links within your site that are all expressed relative to your Web directory. Using my own Web site as an example, references from my other Web pages to this page use internet/new_isp.html, not http://www.rossde.com/internet/new_isp.html. Thus, when you move your Web pages to a new host, none of the links need to be changed. Of course, you will have to notify others who link to your pages to update their links for your new host (which I avoid by having a personal domain).

Changing news servers is more complicated, especially if you want to keep your subscriptions to specific newsgroups. Since each browser handles subscriptions differently, I can only suggest that you locate the list of subscriptions (a file with the extension .rc in Netscape) and print or otherwise save the contents so that you will have the list when you setup your browser to connect to your new ISP's news server. You will find that the message IDs for those messages you have already read from the old server cannot be used with the new server because each server assigns its own distinct IDs. Don't forget to delete your old ISP's news server when your account finally terminates. (ISWest outsources its news server service to Giganews, which has proven to be quite good.)

Last updated 4 June 2008

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