Top ISPs

Choosing an ISP is a lot like choosing a cell phone service. There are many regional differences to consider along with the obvious price differences, and perks. So how do you know which one to choose? JD Power and Associates is a good place to start as they rate just about everything these days including ISP's.

America Online (AOL) is the most popular dial-up service at $24 per month and claims 22% of the dial-up market. Despite its popularity it isn't the best dial-up provider around but it has established a good community base and continues to upgrade its software. While users report problems with installation, connection and support they do enjoy the provided extras like chat, and picture storage. Users main complaints about the service are the constant barrage of solicitation and the difficulty to cancel the accounts.

AT&T Worldnet dial-up service at $22 per month gets very high user ratings. AT&T also has a web accelerator for faster dial-up service and existing AT&T phone service users get the Internet service at a discounted rate.

Comcast is the second largest ISP at $43 per month and is the largest provider of cable Internet service. For many people, Comcast is the only service available, but many are dissatisfied with the service. While the service is fast, users are not happy with the reliability, performance and support.

Earthlink cable continues to get good user ratings and at $40-46 per month seems the best value despite the money. Users got great bonuses like 8 email accounts and space enough for their own personal web page. Other extras include a renowned spam and virus filter and an including 20 hours of dial-up service. One downside is that their technical support ratings have dropped in recent years but still rate higher than other services.

Road Runner, at $45 per month, seems to be the most reliable with little to no downtime on the service. Subscribers get access to anti-spyware, anti-virus, anti-spam and firewall software at no extra cost.

Verizon DSL, while not as fast as cable, is better than dial-up speeds. With new offers allowing for different speeds of DSL, you can get DSL at a very good rate ranging from $15-45. Another bonus to DSL is there is no longer than annoying busy signal as it is run through the phone lines but doesn't use your line like dial-up.

Yahoo DSL seems to be the best value for the money with prices from $17-35 per month. Users report excellent reliability, performance and support. Currently, Yahoo is only available in 13 states but their market is constantly growing. Users receive a free modem, 11 email accounts, 2 GB of storage, antivirus software, pop-up blocker, firewall, parental controls, anti-spam and anti-spyware tools. Users can also access their email from any computer when they are away from home.

The newest trend in Internet service is Wi-Fi Internet with many cell phone companies offering Wi-Fi cards for use in your laptop. Verizon offers the service at $80 per month and the adapter costs $80 when bought on a one-year contract. While this is not widely available yet, it seems to be the Internet trend of the future.

Some things to remember when looking at Internet service are: price, the company's technical service hours, reliability, penalties for early cancellation and availability in your area.