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ISP and Domain Hosting |
1and1 provides webhosting services and domain name registration. Domain
registration costs $5.99 per year and includes a 5 page starter website and email.
There is no setup fee or other costs associated with this and it is a true
$5.99 per year that does not rise after the first year. 1and1 also has the
best pricing levels for webhosting, too. For an amazing $3 a month (payable
every 6 months) they provide 10 GB storage with 300G
monthly transfer volume, 600 email accounts, active pages, Frontpage
extensions, MySQL datbases, 25 subdomains and 20  external domains, plus
they throw in yearly domain registration for free with the plan. And this is known as a beginner plan! Either Linux or Microsoft servers are
available. Customer service is much better
than most discount webhosting services, some who have very little if any.
Home, Business, and Developer plans are available for $5 to $20 per month, with
even more storage, bandwidth, and other services, plus dedicated servers are
available for advanced applications. 1&1 now has virtual private servers (VPS) available, too, for as little as $29 per month. Microsoft Sharepoint service, which allows teams to create and manage collaborative websites and data, is available for $20 per month. 1 & 1 guarantees 99.99% uptime, and is highly recommended. |
EarthLink is an internet service provider (ISP) which also
offers webhosting plans. Earthlink is one of the most reliable ISPs with excellent customer
service, server uptime, and the minimum amount of
disruptions that plague lesser service providers (even
ones that charge much more!) They advertise that
they are the largest provider of the "real
internet", a jab at AOL's juvenile
interface. They have a comprehensive software
package  called Total Access which can handle email and
parental controls as well as protection from viruses,
spyware, spam, and popups. Or, the user can
choose to use standalone programs for these
purposes. Earthlink collaborates with the various Bell companies such as Southern Bell to provide DSL and other high speed services, or the service is also available via dialup. Although their initial cost is low for dialup services, most people opt for the lower long term cost of an ISP like NetZero or Juno (see below). Earthlink domain services are quite high in cost compared to 1&1, but they do provide additional tools such as those for analyzing web traffic statistics. |
NetZero is the discount internet service provider (ISP) with the
best reputation for customer service. At
present, basic internet service costs about $10 per
month or $15 per month with their
"accelerator" service,  called NetZero HiSpeed
plus they frequently run specials for as little as $7 (basic) and $10 (accellerated) per month. NetZero and Juno joined
forces into Mega Web Services (a United Online
company) a few years ago. NetZero and Juno have the exact same
basic service plans so it makes no difference which one is
chosen, but one or the other may have a better
introductory rate  so it is good to check both when
first signing up, plus some may prefer to have an
email address with one or the other for the prestige of
the name.. Unlike many discount service providers that
offer plans for $8 per month or less, NetZero will not
hassle customers for staying online for long
periods. Both the services are now compatible with IM (instant messaging) services. NetZero and Juno also now offer
broadband services for a competitive price, too. |
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Links
Epinions.com is an online ratings service of products, services, and businesses which provides a review forum for consumers. Note that people are much more motivated to find a place to vent their feelings when they are dissatisfied than when they are pleased, so the ratings can certainly be skewed towards the unfavorable, especially for the items or vendors that have the largest number of reviews, but it still provides a useful measure for comparison.
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