ISP Selection Worksheet

ISP Selection Worksheet
		ISP/Package	ISP/Package
Type of Usage Allowed
Personal use only
Commercial use
Servers
UNIX
Windows NT
MacOS
Hosting Service Types
Virtual web	Usually your address includes the ISP’s address. You don't have your own domain or server software. You use server settings that have been set up and made available to all other accounts on that machine
Virtual server or virtual domain	You have your own domain and you have your own copy of server software that you can custom configure
Dedicated server (theirs)
Co-location (your server)
Hard disk space provided You want at least 2mb
Charge for additional hard disk space	Usually 50 cents to a dollar per mb, in 5 mb packages
Traffic/Hits/Bandwidth/Data Transfer/Usage
Unlimited hits	Question this one. What exactly does it mean?
Traffic is limited/Amount allowed each month	Try to get at least 2,000 to 2,500 mb a month
Cost for additional traffic	Try for less than 5 cents
Connections
T1	The more the better
T3	The more the better
SONNET rings	Fast Fiber optic connection; Very nice
ATM	????
Frame relay	Slower but cheaper
Redundant connections to backbone	The more connections the ISP has to network providers such as Sprint, WorldCom, GTE, the better
ISDN, Fractional T!	Don't use a provider that offers connections less than T1 like these are
Satellite
Other
Price/Payment Options
Monthly fee
Discount for advance payment: quarterly, six month annual	If they don't list this option ask
Initial setup fee	Watch this one; it can be hefty
Service upgrade/downgrade fee	This one also can cost more than it should
Pay by check
Pay by credit card
Pay with cybercash
Offers nonprofit discount
Offers re-seller program	Allows you to buy a large package and then sell off bits of it to your customers. Usually comes with restrictions, but if you want to be a subletting landlord this is the way to do it
Guarantees
30 day or more money back guarantee	Make sure you get the specifics on this offer
99.5% or greater network uptime guarantee	Make sure you get the specifics on this offer
Domain names/registration
DNS registration fee/free	Does ISP charge a registration fee in addition to the fee the registrar charges you
Fee for transfer of existing domain	This is usually free
Domain pointing available /cost	More than one registered domain name points to a single Web site--ex. Mybiz.com and myotherbiz.com or point to different sections of a Web site
Sub domains available/cost	Http://investor.mybiz.com
DNS parking fee/free
Offers ftp site in addition to http site
Access
24hour/7day a week access to your (via FTP)	This allows you to maintain your site any time you want
Shell accounts/Telnet	For advanced users who want to work directly on the server or edit pages directly on the server instead uploading changes
Dial-up access	Professional sites really don't want an ISP that offers Dial-Up access in addition to Hosting. It takes too much of its attention and resources
Support
ISP monitors its facilities and connections 24 hours/7 days	You want this
24-hour/7-day a week phone support	You want this
Toll-free support	Nice if your ISP is not local
Extensive Web based support	???
Daily server backups	Daily backup is the minimum you should accept
Power supply: UPS	This is good
Power supply: emergency generator	This is better
E-mail
Number of e-mail POP account	Number of different e-mail addresses your site can have, ex. sales@mybiz.com, webmaster@mybiz.com
E-mail forwarding	Forwards e-mail sent to the site to another e-mail address, typically your dial-in account address
POP server on your site	Your own mail server located on your site that can be used to send and receive mail. Check restrictions on use.
Number of Auto-responder	These send back a form letter you supply when a visitor clicks on a specific mailto: address. For example sending out a FAQ or price list on request.
Number of mailing lists	Use these to send newsletters or other announcements to a list of people you define. NEVER SPAM with these, or your ISP will cancel your account
CGI/Perl/SSI/Scripting
Pre-defined CGI
User-defined CGI
MacPerl/Frontier script support
Perl
C
Java
JavaScript
Other
Server Logs
Free server traffic logs
Pay for access to traffic logs	You really shouldn't have to pay for access to logs
Basic statistics package to interpret logs	This should be a free service
Advanced statistics package to interpret logs	Expect to pay for this service
Authoring Tool Support
Claris HomePage (Mac	/???
MS FrontPage 97/98 extensions (Mac and Windows)	??
NetCloak (Mac)	???
Database/Automatic page generation Support
Active Server Pages (UNIX or NT)
Cold Fusion (UNIX or NT)
FileMaker support (Mac)
Lasso support for Filemaker (Mac)
MS access support (NT)
MS SQL server (NT)
mSQL support
mySQL support
Oracle
Server side includes (SSI)
SQL
Tango support for Filemaker (Mac)
WebSiphon (Mac)
Other
Other Enhancements
Chat servers
RealAudio server	Beware: This eats up your traffic allotment or may come with its own usage restrictions
RealVideo server	See warning above
TrueSpeech
Byte-serving servers	Ask for this; this allows Acrobat PDF files to download a page at a time and more important lets visitors resume a failed download of a file.
Support for lots of MIME types (PDF, MIDI, QT, AVI, etc.
Can add own MIME types
E-Commerce Support Fee/Free/Setup charge
Shopping carte
Credit card processing
SSL (Secure Pages)
Digital certificates
Cybercash accounts
Allows your third-party shopping software
Site Search/Navigation tools
Offers search engine use for your site
Offers page redirect
Offers site map building software
Additional Service
ISP will submit your site to search engines free/fee
Custom Web design for a fee
Custom scripting for a fee
Custom database design for a fee
Miscellaneous
Does the ISP host adult sites	Unless you are providing adult content, you may not want to use a host that allows adult content. I say this because net content filtering programs have, on occasion, blocked access to all sites hosted by an ISP instead of only the individual adult sites.
Other: