What does an Internet Service Provider actually provide?

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What does an Internet Service Provider actually provide?

ISPs provide access to the Internet Backbone

Internet Service Providers, local or national, provide a connection or path into the backbone network for all the linked Local Area Networks now scattered across the Earth - which we all refer to lovingly as the Internet. The connections provided by an ISP get shared by all the businesses and individuals purchasing that service. There are over 4000 Internet Service Providers to choose from - and the List grows longer every day!

The bandwidth (or the total volume of data traffic per second that can be sent or received into the Internet) is fixed and gets divided up among all those who clamour for it!

Redundancy, as measured by the number of alternate connections into the Internet backbone provided by the ISP, is needed to tolerate hardware or software faults so people don't lose their rented conenctions for long periods of time.

Many ISP provide 24 hour rental connection directly into the Internet through their backbone connection for private Web Servers at home or at places of business. The ISP can hook up a Web Server using a rented connection into the Domain Name System of the Internet so people can find the Web Server by its HTTP (Domain) name.

ISPs provide space on shared public Web Servers

Many ISP provide rental space on a server connected directly into the Internet through their backbone connection. Typically the ISP provides about 10 megabytes of storage for Web Site files. There's also an account on the server machine with other niceties like E-Mail, FTP, and USENET access. The ISP handles all Web Server maintenence and upkeep. The site is rented on a monthly charge.

ISPs provide Virtual Web Servers

Many ISP provide rental space on a Web Sites Only-server connected directly into the Internet through their backbone connection. The ISP provides about 20 megabytes of storage for Web Site files. There's also an account on the server machine with other niceties like E-Mail, FTP, and USENET access. The ISP handles all Web Server maintenence and upkeep. The site is rented on a monthly charge. Most ISPs monitor the traffic generated by a Virtual Web Site and charge on that as well. The more traffic or visits to a site , the higher the rent payment due.

No matter what choice you make - buying or renting a Web Server - you'll want an ISP who can:

Provide Internet Backbone access on the order of a T3 line ( 45 Million Bits per second) or higher or a combination of T1 ( 1.544 Million Bits per second) and T3 lines into the Internet backbone.
Provide redundant Internet backbone access. No single failure of the ISP's connection should take your Web Server off-line for hours.