You've Gone Inside!

The 2001 GO INSIDE
ISP Report for December

by David Boles

December 1, 2001

As we say farewell to the 2001 GO INSIDE Magazine Internet Service Provider report for this year, we are proud to announce XO takes home the top prize, once again, this month.  With three solid wins over the course of 2001, XO is also our winner of ISP of the year!

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.  Don't forget that 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 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:

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 December 2001 Rankings

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

GO INSIDE ISP of the Month! (4326 bytes)XO is a top-notch outfit.  Their technical support is superb.  Their mail and newsgroup and internet connections are all speedy and reliable.  XO now have our exclusive award you can see at the left.

If you head on over to XO be sure to 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!

GO INSIDE ISP of the YEAR! (4584 bytes)With three monthly wins in 2001, we are proud to award The Go Inside  ISP of the Year award to XO!  We presented XO with the lovely award you see displayed at the right. 

Here's the final win count for year 2001 in alphabetical order:


The Final 2001 Tally for
GO INSIDE Magazine ISP of the Year!!!

(in alphabetical order)

@Home = 1
Earthlink = 1
Microsoft Network = 1
Peta.Net = 2 
 Prodigy Internet = 1
 Road Runner = 1
Verizon = 2
XO = 3

And that's it for now.

Best Wishes,

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

 

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Copyright © 2001