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HelpNet News No. 7, August 2001 ********NEXT HELPNET MEETING******** WHEN: 12:00 - 1:30,
Thursday, August 16 (Bring Your Lunch) ******************************* IN THIS ISSUE:
**************************** STAYING ONLINE AND STAYING SANE - YOUR ORGANIZATION'S INTERNET CONNECTION AND INTERNET PRESENCE In the last few months, I've spent a fair amount of time helping organizations deal with their connections to the Internet -- what ISP's are good and bad, how to set up a domain name, etc. -- and there have been a number of posts on this subject. With all the ongoing changes in the Internet economy -- dot.com collapses, ISP mergers and buyouts, disappearance of "free" services -- it can be a real pain keeping up and keeping connected. So I decided to try to pull some information together, into this month's and next month's newsletters. MULTIPLE TASKS, MULTIPLE PROVIDERS
While it is possible to get all 4 of these through the same provider, it is not necessary, and some groups may not need all 4. For instance, a small organization with no offices of its own, whose work is carried by people in their own homes or offices, won't need its own Internet connection (#1), but may still want items 2, 3 and 4. For many organizations, the best strategy will be to shop around for a combination of providers of these different services. We'll deal with #'s 1 and 3 (Internet connection and Web sites) this month. Unless you already have an Internet connection available to you (for instance, if you are affiliated with the University), you need to find some way to connect to the University. A year or 2 ago, the choices included local and national ISP's, as well as a number of free services. Most of these free services required you to look at ads. With the return of the dot.com economy, these have either been converting to paid services, or have been going under. Bluelight.com, K-Mart's Internet service, is one of the ISP's that has eliminated its free service recently. Juno.com still has a free service, but I don't know how long it will be there. In general, I'm wary of any company that uses the economic model of giving away its product, and paying for it with Web advertising. (This includes Topica, the free host of this mailing list -- more on this next month.) So the choice is between local and national companies. I prefer to deal with local Maine businesses, but I worry that small companies may be more likely to be swallowed up by bigger companies, with negative effects on service (as happened with MINT, in my opinion). Two local companies that I've heard good things about are GWI and MidMaine Communications, and I'm sure there are number of others list members can suggest. As for national ISP's, PC Magazine's August 2001 issue has ratings of 8 national ISP's, based on a reader survey. AT&T WorldNet was the top-rated dial-up ISP, with Excite@Home and RoadRunner getting top ratings for broadband (cable) access. AOL was in last place, with MSN not much better. The question of dial-up vs. DSL vs. cable is something we should take up in a separate newsletter. For dial-up access, expect to pay $10-20+/month, depending on whether you need limited unlimited access, multiple E-mail accounts, etc. For instance, I'm now paying MidMaine $15.95/month for unlimited access, 4 E-mail mailboxes, and 5 Mb of Web space. In the last paragraph, I mentioned that 5 MB of Web space came with my MidMaine dial-up account. However, I'm not using this space, and there is no requirement to house your Web site on the servers of the ISP that is provides your Internet connection. The Web site can be anywhere, so long as it is on a server with a permanent Internet Connection. Web hosting is a specialized line of business, quite different from providing Internet access. Depending what Web services you need, your organization may be better off using one company for your Internet access, and another to house your Web site. A separate Web hosting company may be less expensive, and/or they may provide services that are not available from the company that provides your Internet connection. For instance, PICA (www.pica.ws) has recently moved its site to Interland (www.interland.com), a leading national hosting company, with headquarters in Atlanta. PICA did this because it is embarking on a project involving a database-driven Web site, which local ISP's could not support. I'm planning to move the www.ptfolkschool.org site to another national host soon -- I'll report on the experience. In the next issue, I'll take up E-mail, domain names, and E-mail aliasing, forwarding, and mailing lists. Jon
HelpNet is a project of Pine Tree Folk School, and is co-sponsored by Bairnet (the Bangor Area Information Resources Network) and by the Peace and Justice Center of Eastern Maine.
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