The 2000 GO INSIDE
ISP Report for October

by David Boles

October 1, 2000

Road Runner catapults to the number one spot this month.  The advent of cable modems and the large speed increases they deliver to ordinary home users make them a tough competitor in the dedicated, non-bandwidth sharing high speed access field of DSL.  Watch this space and learn as we continue to track these ISP trends for you every month.  Each month there are thousands of data pinpoints that must be scored, processed and presented to you here in a readable form so we can present the yearly and monthly ISP winners.  

We here at Go Inside use the internet daily and daylong in order to bring you, one of our beloved 2.5 million readers a month, the web of the world.  Beware that these rankings are subjective and, perhaps, even a little whimsical, but what "Best of" list isn't?  These ISPs are ranked on day in and day out reliability and performance in our Jederman end user experience. 

We take everything into account in these rankings... network connectivity, call drops, throughput, newsgroup robustness, ISP friendliness, willingness to help, intelligent tech support, avenues of support, network status online, problem reports online, speed of experience, extras, honoring end user privacy, ease of use and we give them all equal weight because only everything bound together builds the complete "internet experience" for you in the end.  Your mileage may vary from our rankings.  If so, be sure to let us know.

Here's how it works:  We have rotating pools of Go Inside Premier Members who track and report their experiences with various ISPs around the world each month.  They then fill out a form and send the results back to us for tabulation.  We then add those experiences with my experience and the experiences of the Go Inside masthead Editors.  We then total the results to come up with our monthly ISP Report.  

Here are some of the methods we use to regularly test our ISPs each month.  We can't get too specific, because we've discovered some ISPs shading their service to meet a certain set of criteria we used to publicly list here in order to bolster their Go Inside rank.  We do realize, however, that you need a bit of a blueprint as to how we're ranking our ISPs and this short task list should do that for you:

• ADSL Capability
• Technical Support Wait Time
• Connect on First Try
• Newsgroup Technical Support
• Opt-In SPAM blocking for Email
• Sustained 12 hour connections
• Download speed
• IRC Technical Support
• Dynamically Updated Web Page for Network Status
• Free Personal Homepage Space with at least 5 MB of server space
• Number of local, national and international POPs
• Fast Email Delivery and Receipt
• Newsgroup Robustness
• V.90 Support
• Multiple POP3 Email Addresses with one account
• ISDN Support
• *Truly* Unlimited Online Usage
• Multi-Session support
• Non-proprietary software connection
• Elapsed time between trouble report and acknowledgement
• Elapsed time between acknowledgement and final resolution

Be aware that some ISPs are regional and not national.  You can click on their hotlinked names to discover precisely where they are and what they offer.  We've taken into account the method and motivation, regionalization and service span of each ISP to make these rankings fair across the board in direct comparison with each other. 

We regret that, due to overwhelming interest from local, national and international Internet Service providers, we are unable to accept any new ISPs into the monthly Go Inside rankings at this time.  However, if you're an excellent ISP and would like to be on our waiting list for inclusion when another ISP dies or gets gobbled up, please touch this to find out how to participate. 

We assure you these rankings are a wonderful, monthly, snapshot of the warp and woof of the amazing "Web Experience" broadcloth.

Now?

Onward with the update!

The October 2000 Rankings

  1.  Road Runner   
  2.  Concentric  
  3.  Peta.Net   
  4.  Bluelight  
  5.  Prodigy Internet
  6.  TIAC
  7.  @Home  
  8.  SkyNet   
  9.  Navix
10.  Earthlink  
11.  Coastal Net   
12.  US West  
13.  RCN   
14.  Microsoft Network
15.   ioNet   
16.  FlashNet   
17.  Pacific Bell   
18.  CRL  
19.  WebTV  
20.  Southwestern Bell  
21.  CWIX
22.  Juno   
23.  AT&T Worldnet  
24.  America Online  
25.  CompuServe  

Road Runner is very fast!  Customer Service is outstanding and connection is super easy.  Their infrastructure is expansive and well-connected.   We've presented Road Runner with this exclusive award you can see at the left.

If you want an ISP that is always on and always quick when you click, then give Road Runner a try and tell 'em Go Inside sent you!  

As per usual, if you have any thoughts or feedback on these (or any other) ISPs, please touch my hotlinked name at the head of this article and share your experiences!

All year long we will tally the ISP winners for each month so we can award The Go Inside  ISP of the Year in December, 2000.  We will present the winner with the lovely award you see displayed at the right! 

Here's the final monthly win count for 2000 in alphabetical order:

The 2000 Tally for
GO INSIDE Magazine ISP of the Year!!!

(in alphabetical order)

America Online = 2
AT&T Worldnet = 1
Concentric = 2
Earthlink = 1
Microsoft Network = 2
Prodigy Internet = 1
Road Runner = 1

And that's it for now.  Be sure to join us again next month as we crack more of 2000 with your continued GO INSIDE Magazine ISP report!

Best Wishes,

David Boles
Publisher and Editor-in-Chief
Go Inside Magazine

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