Having a small remote or home office can be a great productivity enhancer. That being said, it can quickly become an island without establishing a connection to your company's main network. Although choosing an Internet Service Provider (ISP) might sound easy, there are many important yet often overlooked topics to consider in order for you to find your ideal ISP match.
Determine your needs
With the abundance of ISPs today, it may be tempting to just go with the quickest or cheapest option. While that could save you money in the short term, doing so could wind up causing you a lot more headaches—and lost productivity—over the long term. These are the 10 main points to consider when choosing your ISP:
1. Price: Price is important, however, it should not be the single determining factor.
2. Connection options: A dial-up connection is no longer your only option. There are many different speeds to choose from to meet your connection requirements, such as ISDN, cable, DSL and satellite.
3. Features: Just like other vendors, ISPs vary in the options their packages include. For example, some ISPs offer static IP addresses, while others use only DHCP-assigned ones.
4. Customer/technical support: Even the best connections experience problems, and chances are you will have a question or problem you need to address, which is why it is vital to have a professionally trained and dedicated staff capable of solving any problem at any time. BroadbandReports.com is a good place to go to find out about an ISP's reputation for support, as well as performance.
5. Performance: Whether you're paying for a high-speed connection or just using dial-up, you should check the ISP's track record for such things as uptime and overall throughput. For example, even when using 56-Kbps dial-up modems . , you can often only connect at 28.8 Kbps or 33.3 Kbps because of the modems used at the ISP. Likewise, one ISP may provide three e-mail addresses for a single account, while another may offer five.
6. Local access numbers: In most major cities, you won't have a problem finding local dial-up numbers for an ISP. However, if you travel or if your remote office is located in a rural location, you may face long-distance charges.
7. Viability: When selecting your ISP, do some checking to see how long the company has been around, their track record, and whether or not they received any awards. You might find a good ISP now, only to have it go out of business, forcing you to not only restart your search but modify configurations and transfer your Website and/or domain name.
8. PC and MAC compatibility: It goes without saying that everything is PC compatible, but not all services are compatible with the Mac OS. If you know how to configure your remote access (dialer), you can make any of these services work, but few offer the accelerated service for Macs. If you are a Mac user, look for a service that gives good instructions on how to set-up your Mac for using their service.
9. Email or Web Browser Advertising: Does the service include advertising at the bottom of your e-mails? Does the ISP insert any advertising or solicitation material on your web browser? Services that require you to download their software (other than a dialer configuration) will often alter your browser to be able to serve ads to you as you surf.
10. Cancellation Policy: We seldom think of how to cancel when signing up for a new service, but it is something you should consider. Do they tell you on their web site how to cancel? Is there a penalty for early cancellation? Do they offer a 30 day money back guarantee? Some services are set as 12 month contracts and there is an early cancellation penalty. Make sure you know the policy and also the procedure to cancel before you sign up.
Make a list of all of your requirements and prioritize them. Then, compare those requirements with several ISPs that can meet those needs. Keep the list simple—don't overwhelm yourself with too many choices and you'll be sure to find the ISP that meets all of your unique requirements.
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