You've Gone Inside!

The 1999 GO INSIDE
ISP Report for October

by David Boles

October 1, 1999

Welcome to the Go Inside Magazine Internet Service Provider (ISP) Report!  Bell Atlantic is this month's top Premier Member selection in our ISP rating system.  We are pleased to see Bell Atlantic make the top of the list this month since it is their first top-tier showing in the history of our rating system.

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:

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 1999 Rankings

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

GO INSIDE ISP of the Month! (4326 bytes)Bell Atlantic is number one this month and their service appears to be growing faster and more feature friendly each day.  We've presented them with this exclusive award you can see at the left.

If you want an ISP that will provide a quick and cheerful web experience, give Bell Atlantic 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!

GO INSIDE ISP of the YEAR! (4584 bytes)All year long we're tallying up the ISP winners for each month so we can award The Go Inside  ISP of the Year at the end of 1999.

Be sure to watch for it, won't you?  The winner gets the award you see displayed at the right! 

Here's what we have so far for this year in alphabetical order:


The 1999 Tally for
GO INSIDE Magazine ISP of the Year

(in alphabetical order)

@Home = 1
America Online = 1
AT&T Worldnet = 1
Bell Atlantic = 1
Concentric = 1
Microsoft Network = 1
MindSpring = 1
Prodigy Internet = 1
WebTV = 1

And that's it for now.  Be sure to join us again next month!

Best Wishes,

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

 

 

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Copyright © 1999