The 1999 GO INSIDE
ISP Report for May

by David Boles

May 2, 1999

Welcome to the Go Inside Magazine Internet Service Provider (ISP) Report!  We're pleased to report that @Home is this month's Premier Member selection for the top spot!

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:

• 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 May 1999 Rankings

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

@Home is tops this month!  We've presented them with this exclusive award you can see at the left.

If you want an ISP who are super fast, responsive and simple to use, then head on over to @Home 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'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
Earthlink = 1
MindSpring = 1

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

Best Wishes,

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

GO back Inside

Copyright © 1999