What is an ISP?
An ISP (Internet Service Provider) is a company which provides internet access to other companies or individuals. An ISP maintains connections to other networks and ISPs, acting as a router for internet traffic between a customer's computer and any other machine also connected to the internet anywhere else in the world. ISPs can provide access to the internet in many ways, but on WWHICHISP.COM, we refer to an ISP as being a company which provides one or more of the 'mainstream' internet connections which are available to both home and business users.
The mainstream internet connections are:
Click on one of the links above to read more about each option.
Featured ISP
T
his months months featured ISP is Free UK ISP. Why?
Well it's a bit of a Ronseal. It does
exactly what it says on the
tin.
Now, you need to know that a free ISP is free in as such that it doesn't directly charge for its' services. It generates revenue by kickback from the Telecoms company that provides the dial up number which in this case is MCI/Verizon. The dial up number in this case is an 0844 number as opposed to an 0845 number which was the traditional services. The reason for this is that an 0844 yields a slightly better revenue for the ISP for a similar charge to the end user.
So what elements of FreeUKISPs service makes it worth talking about?
Well, it's a good all round package. remember, as with anything in life, you get what you pay (indirectly!!) for. Free UK ISP provide what you'd expect with the opportunity for lots of POP3 Email addresses, free webspace, webmail client and so on. Most people generally want little more than this. We should mention that the dial up is pretty good. If we can talk in terms of "fast dialup" in a world of broadband, this is about as good as you can get. The service is Contended at a reasonable rate. i.e., you aren't struggling for bandwidth with a lot of users.
So what else will differentiate the service?
Well, there are a couple of real nice to haves. The mail service comes with a server level SPAM filter. That will cut out a lot of the unsophisticated spam before it gets to you. It's not perfect, but everything helps. It also runs a server level anti virus filter. This has proved pretty reliable. You should never rely on anyone else for your own security but every contribution is welcome.
One final plus is that they don't throw lots of advertising at you. An occasional email might arrive with an offer or incentive but its' rare
All in all, a well rounded dial up ISP.