Guide to Choosing ISP

Businesses need to look twice as hard for the right ISP than home users do. Company owners need to ensure that their ISP providers can cater for their company as well as possible expansions in the future.

Although the natural notion would be to go for the cheaper option, when considering the amount of employees you have and how valuable a tool the Internet is for them, cheaper doesn’t cut it. If paying extra means prompt service, a bigger bandwidth and fewer hassles then paying for it is better. The last thing you want is the Internet to go down and the cheaper company to take a week to get round to it. Or alternatively, the cheaper ISP company can’t handle the traffic and they themselves go down, dragging your company with it.

Ideally, all Internet problems should be the ISP company’s problems not yours and professional ISP companies might charge a bit more, but to go from month to month without a hiccup makes it worth it. Make sure that the Internet providers are able to give you exactly what your company needs. Check for features such as e-mail accounts, domain options, connection time and speed.

Most ISP companies have various servers that are assigned to the client. Check how many other clients are using your server. If the server can’t handle the traffic, then the Internet will go down. For large companies, ask which lines they are using. Ideally you will want a T3 as they are more efficient and the speed is better then a T1. T1 are good for home use or alternatively small companies.

Enquire about e-mail accounts. Although when you first register with an ISP company you might have, say, 10 people at the company. But as time goes on, they might become 15, or 20. You need to find out that the ISP can keep up and grow with your company. To be able to set-up additional accounts without a long waiting time is crucial. Also remember that more people will mean you need more bandwidth.

There are various types of ways to connect to the Internet, such as dial up, ADSL, etc. Dial up isn’t really a valuable or efficient way for a business to stay connected. It was one of the first systems in place and hasn’t revolutionized itself since. It would be similar to using a Morse code device rather than a telephone. For home use, dial up is perfect to download and send e-mails and occasionally surf the net. For an entire company to use this system isn’t practicable.

ADSL is fast becoming the ideal way for businesses to connect to the web. ISP providers offer a different amount of bandwidth and the speed is generally smooth and quick. Wireless is also becoming a decent option, but is more suitable for laptops then PCs.