We all need them,they are our entry into the wonderful world of the Web. They give us the means to belong to sites like this and to browse and do all sorts of things we could`nt do without them. But just how good are they? How do we know that we are using the best one or even the right one for what we need?
I use America On Line otherwise known as AOL.Now when I first joined AOL I had done a lot of research as to which ISP to use. I know many people on AOL,and the service isn`t that bad compared to some servers. Or is it? For some reason AOL will suddenly decide to miss taking a months money and take two next month,or they will suddenly decide to take two months and still take next months at the right time? I tried getting in touch with them a few weeks ago,they had been paid up and for some reason cut me off? It took me Three quarters of an hour to get it through to the Automaton on the other end of the line that I was paid in advance and there was no earthly reason for suspension of services. Eventually I managed to penetrate the 'I must read from set board ' and got him to sort it out,it was back on by the time I put down the phone.
They are upgrading and there are days when my connection is so slow snail mail is faster! For some reason I cannot recieve mail to AOL from certain other servers,it just gets returned to sender. This has caused me to have two mail addys just so people can contact me.
So are we getting value for money with our ISP`s or is it just another case of poor or indifferent service because they know that we have to have this to be able to operate our systems?