Most people don’t give it much thought but in this day and age internet can be your lifeline to the world. We pay bills, get phone service, talk to people and send emails. So if you choose a lousy internet service provider you can hurt yourself a lot. Here are 3 ways you can choose a good ISP:

1. Don’t go by the cheapest. Internet Service Providers (ISP) have popped up like mushrooms everywhere. Most of them have only one way to attract customers ‘offer cheap internet service’. People get suckered by the offer and next thing you know it is very hard to change. You have to change your email address, you have to get used to new ways of accessing the internet. Most don’t have good customer service. The smaller the ISP the worse their customer service because they just can’t afford to have a battery of service representative answering questions. So don’t go for the cheapest.

2. Look for speed: Speed is a very important factor. When you are doing your work if it takes forever for the screen to display, you are going to be very frustrated. Internet works best if you are going at the speed of your thought process. It is true that your computer hardware is a factor in the overall speed. But if the ISP is running at a low speed, there is no way for you to get information fast enough. Bandwidth is like a pipe. The smaller the pipe the less information you are going to get. The bigger the pipe the better your chances of going from websites to website quickly. Most smaller ISP’s have very limited bandwidth. Watch out for mom & pop ISPs because they will generally be unattended websites that just want you to sign up and collect monthly fee. They are selling some one else’s service under their name. This practice is called ‘private branding’. Let me give an example. Amazon sells their books through not only their own website but a lot of private websites that sell Amazon’s products. So it’s like Amazon has several private stores selling their wares. Why does Amazon do this? Because Amazon wants only a sale to make a buck. Why would a private website want to sell Amazon’s products because? Because the website owner gets a commission.

3. What happens when you leave? Ask this question up front. If for some reason you have to part ways with your ISP, what happens then? Most ISPs will lock you into some form of commitment. At sign-up is the time to find out if you are locked in or free to go. Do your research. Compare ISPs at a site like ‘Get an ISP dot com’. Get answers to your questions before you sign up with an ISP.