The following essay was written about 3 years ago, so many of the issues addressed may not be valid or applicable today. Caveat emptor.
-- simmons, 2/11/97
New Internet service providers (ISPs) are constantly opening up for business across the country. Most major cities have several local providers willing to bring the global Internet to your home computer, allowing you to reach out and explore the vast expanse of information and services available. Even in rural areas there are often providers that are only a local telephone call away. This mass infiltration of Internet providers into our society allows almost anybody with a computer and modem to connect, reap the benefits of the network, and establish a presence in the online world.
Unfortunately, with every "Joe" on the street starting his own provider company, there has been a tremendous influx of incompetent providers. These people learn just enough to struggle through the basics of internet administration, and barely set up a workable system. These systems are often unreliable, don't provide needed services, and are prone to all sorts of problems. The vast majority of Internet service providers, probably as many as 90%, are incompetent and are doing a disservice to their users.
People searching for a provider should always be extremely critical of the ability of various providers to follow through on what they claim to offer. Individuals looking for a provider for home Internet use probably don't have a need for "top of the line" network gurus setting up the system and being on call for reliable, advanced technical support, but they do need to make sure their provider is knowledgeable enough to keep the system running, and provide smooth, consistent network access. Companies looking for access, and individuals with advanced needs almost certainly need to find assurance that their provider is highly technically competent, and is well-connected to the rest of the Internet.
Most people, however, have no easy way of discerning whether a provider is technically competent or not. A good analogy would be the automobile repair industry. Most people have no clue what goes on under the hood of an automobile, and are at the mercy of the mechanic to be competent and describe the problem accurately and honestly. It is hard for most automobile owners to select a knowledgable, fair mechanic simply because they are unaware of the criteria needed to properly judge their selection.
Similarly, most people don't have the technical background to appropriately judge Internet providers. The first thing to do is ask around, and try to find people who have had experiences with multiple providers in the area and are able to give an objective view.
It is also important to learn about the capabilities of the provider's system. How fast is their connection to the Internet? This is not how fast the provider advertises your connection will be to them, but rather the total bandwidth the provider has to the Internet. If the provider only has a 56kbps or 64kbps connection to the Internet, it would only take a few 28.8kbps or 14.4kbps modem dial-ins to create a serious congestion problem for users. Be weary of the infamous "fractional-T1" speed many network links are... these aren't much more capable. To handle today's Internet traffic, it is almost absolutely necessary for a provider itself to have a full T1 (1.544Mbps) line to the Internet.
Find out how "close" the provider is network-wise to a major Internet backbone. Some providers will get their Internet link from the cheapest generic off-brand network providers, which are themselves connected to the Internet via several other cheap poorly-maintained providers. Internet traffic from users of these providers has to make quite a few hops before it reaches the mainstream of the network.
It may also help to know the arrangement and brands of communications hardware the provider uses, although finding out just how dependable these components are may be tough. Chances are, though, if you walk into the provider's office, and you see an array of desktop modems scattered around haphazardly on a table amidst a jungle of wires, they probably are not running a very tight ship.
Some providers fail to provide the full suite of network services that most users need or expect. Does the provider have a full news feed? How many newsgroups do they get? Is a shell account on the provider's server available? Are you able to have your own WWW home page on your account? Are "pop" and "imap" services available for remote mail reading?
The competency of the staff is perhaps the most important issue. If the staff is technically competent, chances are the previously mentioned criteria will not be an issue. If the staff is incompetent, though, users may be in for a rocky ride. Whenever a problem arises that the staff doesn't know how to handle, essential network services may be down until help is found.
If you are knowledgable about the technical workings of the Internet, incompetents are quickly spotted. Most people, however, will have to rely on signs and careful observations before coming to a decision. Is DNS and reverse DNS present on all machines and PPP ports? For instance, if you connect from your machine to another machine on the Internet, and the remote machine shows you as connecting from a numeric address such as "204.106.233.56" instead of a meaningful name such as "port38.myprovider.com", then your provider doesn't understand the importance of DNS.
The hundreds of inferior, incompetent Internet providers thrive off of consumers who choose a provider without intelligently comparing the possibilities. If you are in the market for a provider, be sure to protect yourself against these unskilled providers. If you are an Internet provider, and you are struggling with the complexities of your system, or feel that your system isn't quite optimal, the best thing to do is probably hire a competent, well-recommended Internet consultant to review your system and services, offer suggestions for improvements, give guidance, and possibly perform some contract work. Your customers will no doubt notice the difference.
Last modified: Fall 1994