A Basic Introduction to a Range of Internet Related Concepts and Terms

What is an Internet Service Provider (ISP)?

An ISP provides your gateway to the Internet. There are many excellent ISPs who will provide you with free access, free email accounts, and free disc space on their computer systems to set up your own website. All you will have to pay will be the telephone charges to access their systems. This is normally at local call rates. Try www.tiscali.com, www.btopenworld.com, www.tesco.net, www.freeserve.com, www.pipex.com or do a web search for Internet Service Provider. Make sure you read all the small print before signing up for anything.

In order to access the Internet from home you will require an ISP and so if you have not done this so far then this is the starting point. If you want your own website then you need a host (a computer somewhere which will hold and deliver your web pages on request to anyone wanting to see them). Your ISP may serve this function but not necessarily so. You may use Tiscali as the ISP and another facility to host your website. You may even spread your website over a number of hosts as the size of the website increases beyond the available free space on a computer. I currently use facilities on 5 systems and all pages are interlinked. The result is a virtual website which users probably believe is hosted on a single site.

ISPs offer services which vary widely on services. Additionally the means of contact with the Internet will determine the speed of access. Most people are currently connected to the Internet through a 56K modem. Increasingly however broadband facilities are being used by home as well as business users. Broadband offers a significant speed advantage and contracts normally permit users to remain permanently connected to the Internet for no extra charge.