Reliability Of Connection

Statistics regarding the quality of service and system down time. These are measurements of the times a good connection was achieved on the first attempt and the overall availability of the service.

User Modem Ratio

Ratio of users to modems available. It is important that as a provider grows in terms of customers, that the number of installed modems grows proportionally.

Technical Support

Historically the quality of technical support offered by many companies is poor. It is important to establish that sufficient competent support specialists are available to assist when most needed.

Speed Of Access

When your modem connects does it do so at the maximum speed attainable. At times of high usage the providers bandwidth may not be able to service all the users at the optimum speed for your modem. If required is ISDN connection supported?

Local Access (POPS And VPOPS)

Make sure that the provider offers a local Point Of Presence. This will affect the cost of access reflected in the telephone charges.

Software Supplied

The provider should supply a complete, up to date set of Internet access software including a Web browser, e-mail software, usernet reader, news reader and an ftp client.

Cost

Initial costs are a set-up fee, a monthly charge and in some cases a usage charge. The costs of setting up and maintaining extra mailboxes also needs to be considered.

Reliability Of Service

Statistics regarding the quality of service and system down time. This is a measurement of the percentage of the time the service is available.

Technical Support

It is important to establish that sufficient competent support specialists are available to assist when most needed. This should include specialist support for the operating system (typically UNIX or Windows NT), e-mail, communications and applications software.

Domain Name Registration and Hosting

How quickly and efficiently can the provider register and maintain your Domain?

Technical Services

FTP upload, access to page counters, graphics, cgi scripts FAQs, image map support and log files should be available.
Freedom to use your own server programs and scripts without charge or hindrance.

Costs

Price per megabyte hosted for space required and set up charges.
Charges for e-mail and web forwarding
Charges for extra mailboxes, both set up and maintenance.
Charges for Domain name registration and Domain hosting.

Web Design And Maintenance

Page design, look at other sites by author.
Ensure they understand your needs.
Can they provide graphics design services?
They should be able to provide specialist software development facilities, including tailored search programs and database handlers.
It is important that an ongoing maintenance facility can be provided if required.
Do they provide adequate training if required?
Do they publicise and propagate the site?

Domain Name Registration

Can they arrange the registration of your Domain name on your behalf?

Costs

Compare costs per page or site
Charge for ongoing maintenance.
Charge for training.
Arrangement fee for Domain name registration.