Internet

What is an ISP?

An ISP is the company that you use to make your connection to the Internet. There are hundreds of companies offering Internet access, some not available to everyone, but most offering different prices and features.

Does email cost extra?

No, you will not have to pay extra. All ISPs will provide email as part of your Internet package.

What’s the difference between dial-up and broadband?

Dial-up and broadband are the two main types of Internet access currently available to home users.

Dial-up Internet is provided by dialling your ISP through your phone line. When you are using dial-up your phone is engaged, which can be a nuisance. There are two types of dial-up, available to anyone with a phone line.

Dial-up pay as you go

Pay as you go is a good option if you only intend to use the Internet for sending emails, and you don't expect to use it very much. It’s also the only option for Internet access if you don’t have a bank account.

Pay as you go dial-up access works in the same way as a pay as you go mobile phone - you pay for what you use! This is normally billed directly to your phone bill. The Internet is accessed by dialling an 0845 phone number, and at present costs around 4p per minute during the day (8am to 6pm), 2p per minute during the evening and 1p per minute at weekends

If you find that you use the Internet for more than 6¼ hours at the 4p rate in one month, you’d be better of getting…

Dial-up pay monthly

Pay monthly dial-up works like a pay monthly mobile phone. There is a fixed rate set by your ISP, for which you get unlimited access to the Internet.

Monthly access is currently available in various forms, including evening and weekend access only and 24 hour access.

Dial-up packages

One of our favourite ISPs, Tiscali, offers four different dial-up packages:

Package	Cost	When you can use it
Pay as you go	1p	as above
Daytime plus	£7.99/month	between 8.00am and 6.00pm, 7 days per week, 1p per min at other times
Anytime	£14.99	Any time, day or night

Another ISP, Orange, (formerly Wanadoo, formerly Freeserve) offers pay as you go and anytime at the same rates as Tiscali.

AOL offers anytime access only, for £15.99 per month, but this includes the AOL Parental Controls, which will be explained in Programs that prevent the viewing of unwanted material (internet safe soft.doc)

Broadband

Broadband provides access to the Internet at much faster speeds than dial-up - up to 320 times faster! It can also cost no more than dial up pay monthly.

If you use broadband, your phone won’t be engaged while you’re online, and you can set up wireless access if you want to. If your phone is with BT you can choose from hundreds of options for your broadband ISP. If you are with NTL or Telewest you can only get broadband with them, and will need to contact them directly.

When buying a broadband package, there are three things to consider:

• do you want a minimum 12 month contract?
• what speed do you want?
• what are you going to use the internet for?

If the answer to the first question is no, then you are limited to a few ISPs who don’t demand a minimum 12 month subscription. Virgin is one such company.

The speed you require is often linked to how much you are willing to pay, although this is becoming less the case. If you have been using dial-up and change to 512kbps broadband (the slowest broadband generally available, ten times the speed of dial-up), you will notice a huge difference. This said, many companies offer you the fastest speed available to them (for most, currently 8Mbps, 160 times dial-up) at no extra cost. The cost tends to be based on usage.

The most important consideration is what you are going to use the internet for. If you want broadband for sending the odd email and doing a bit of web surfing, then you can go for the cheapest package (usually giving 2Gb of bandwidth download per month).

If you are going to be using the Internet to play games online for 10 hours per day, you will need an unlimited Internet package. Here at Aidis we’ve found that the faster your Internet connection is, the more inviting it is to use, so the more we use it.....

Tiscali provides broadband from £14.99 per month

Cost	Speed	Monthly Usage
£14.99	Up to 2Mb (40x)	Unlimited
£17.99	Up to 8Mb (160x)	Unlimited

Both of these packages provide you with free setup and a free broadband modem.

Orange provides broadband from £12.99 per month

Cost	Speed	Monthly Usage
£14.99	1Mb	2GB
£17.99	Up to 8Mb (160x)	2GB
£27.99	Up to 8Mb (160x)	Unlimited

The two 8Mb services come with an orange ‘live box’, which offers wireless internet.

AOL offers their broadband by speed options, all with the parental controls.