海角大神

I get a ton of questions each week for the reader mailbag, and when you receive a ton of questions, over time, you begin to see some patterns in what鈥檚 being asked.

One thing that people ask聽all the time聽is advice on buying a particular product or service. How do I compare these services or product? How do I determine which one is the best, or the best bang for the buck? How do I get discounts?

To answer these questions, I鈥檓 launching a semi-regular series of 鈥渦ltimate guides鈥� for various products. The goal of these guides is to dig into the specifics of buying a particular product or service and answer those questions. I鈥檓 not (usually) going to make a specific product recommendation because, often, there are different products that work best for different people. Instead, I鈥檒l show you how to find the best deal foryou聽on a particular product.

For the most part, these articles will follow my own buying decisions. If I鈥檓 thinking about a particular service or product, then I鈥檒l be digging into and doing the research about that product anyway, so why not turn it into a guide?

I hope to post these articles on Monday afternoon, either weekly or every other week. I hope you get as much value out of them as I do from doing the research.聽

For the first entry in this series (well, the second if you count my聽聽from a few weeks ago), I鈥檓 going to take a look at internet service providers. If you鈥檙e at home and you鈥檙e reading The Simple Dollar, it鈥檚 likely that you鈥檙e using such a provider.

Is my internet service provider a good bargain? Are they charging me too much for what I鈥檓 getting? Do I really need a faster speed? How do I find a better deal? Let鈥檚 dig in and find out!

What Types of Home Internet Service Are Available?
There are several different types of internet service that people can get in their homes. Different services are available in different areas, of course.

Before we begin, though, I want to mention the term 鈥�broadband鈥�. Broadband is a catch-all term that refers to all of these flavors of internet access. Generally, it refers to anything that鈥檚 faster than a dial-up internet connection. I鈥檓 not covering dial-up connections in this article because they鈥檝e generally fallen into disuse in the United States due to their extremely slow data speeds. If you examine聽, you鈥檒l see that almost all of the United States can receive some level of high speed internet access.

Another term I want to mention is 鈥�Mbps.鈥� Mbps refers to聽Megab颈迟蝉听p别谤听second, which is the most common way to compare speeds between internet services. For most home web-surfing purposes, 2 Mbps will suffice. If you watch a significant amount of internet video, you鈥檒l want something faster. For judging the speed needed for internet video, I use聽Netflix鈥檚 guidelines:

0.5 Megabits per second 鈥� Required broadband connection speed
1.5 Megabits per second 鈥� Recommended broadband connection speed
3.0 Megabits per second 鈥� Recommended for DVD quality
5.0 Megabits per second 鈥� Recommended for HD quality
7.0 Megabits per second 鈥� Recommended for Super HD quality

Most homes will suffice with a 5 Mbps connection for personal use, in other words. If you鈥檙e going to have several people at once watching different streaming internet videos, you may want to consider more.

So, what types are available? (Remember, not all of these are available in all areas.)

DSL聽is short for聽d颈驳颈迟补濒听subscrib别谤听line. It is delivered to your house through your already existing telephone line. Generally, DSL is the cheapest form of broadband internet available to your home. Most DSL connections are available at different speeds up to 25 Mbps, though newer phone services are coming online that can raise that to 100 Mbps. The biggest drawback with DSL service is that it鈥檚 entirely based on distance. The further you are from the service provider, the slower your service (as a general rule of thumb).

If you live in a town where a local provider offers DSL service, this would almost always be my 鈥渂ang for the buck鈥� recommendation for home internet users.

Cable聽internet is delivered to your home via your cable service. The advertised speeds for cable service are higher than for DSL, often ranging above 100 Mbps. However, the big drawback with cable service is that you鈥檙e actually sharing the service with people in your neighborhood, which means that it can be much slower during busy times; that鈥檚 rarely true with DSL.

If you use the internet mostly during off-peak times (meaning not during the early evening hours in most locations), cable can be a good bargain. If you鈥檙e going to mostly use it in the evening, I鈥檇 shy away.

Satellite聽internet is delivered to your home via a satellite service. Compared to the ones above, satellite service is slow, generally sticking below 20 Mbps. My experience with satellite service is that it often has short hiccups in the service, which are usually not noticeable. A good example of how you might notice it is that it will often take a Netflix movie quite a while to start, but once it鈥檚 going, it鈥檚 usually pretty stable.

If you live in a highly rural area, satellite is probably your only option for broadband service.

Fiber-optic聽internet 鈥� sometimes called FiOS 鈥� is available in some areas and rolling out rapidly. Generally, fiber-optic service functions much like DSL service, but it can offer speeds up to 500 Mbps in some places and getting even faster as technology improves. If this is available in your area, the prices are comparable to DSL in my experience for similar or better speed.

厂辞,听to summarize, for home internet use for most people, you鈥檒l want to first look at fiber-optic or DSL service in your area. If that鈥檚 unavailable, I would check out cable service and, if that鈥檚 not available, I鈥檇 look at satellite service.

What Can I Get At My House?
Now that you know the different types that are available, the next obvious question is 鈥淲hat can I get at home?鈥�

The first place to stop is at聽, which will help you figure out what services are available in your zip code. Note that having a service in your zip code doesn鈥檛 mean it covers the whole zip code, but this gives you a starting point as to what services to compare.

Another good tool is聽, which provides another list for your use. I鈥檝e found that, for many zip codes, the list here doesn鈥檛 precisely match the list from BroadBandMap.gov, so I鈥檇 use both services to get a 鈥渕aster list鈥� of providers for your area.

If you鈥檙e interested in customer reviews of internet providers in your area,聽聽is a place to look, but most of the reviews there are decidedly negative, as people who are unsatisfied with their service tend to go there and post reviews.

On top of that, I would聽ask friends and family in the community聽what service they use, whether they鈥檙e happy with it, and whether they鈥檝e had any problems with their service. Is it slow during peak usage hours in your town or area? Do they respond quickly to service issues in your area? Nothing beats talking to friends on the ground who use the service.

I have just one general piece of advice for your search:聽give preference to local companies and cooperatives.聽If you have a local phone company or service provider,聽strongly聽consider going with them first as they will be far more available and reliable in terms of service simply because they鈥檙e present in your community. You鈥檒l have to judge for yourself whether their prices are truly competitive, but if they鈥檙e close, they should get the nod.

Anyway, once you鈥檝e got a list of potential providers in your area, it鈥檚 time to shop around.

Shopping Around
When you start comparing offers between internet service providers, you鈥檙e going to be hit with a lot of different factors. Here are some of the things that service providers are going to be talking about.Remember that you鈥檙e only gathering information at this point.聽It鈥檚 a good idea to call each provider and have a piece of paper in front of you to list this information on concerning each provider you call. Don鈥檛 sign up for anything before contacting other providers.

Speed聽Most of them will want to tell you about the speeds they offer. You鈥檙e going to want to mostly be concerned with the download speed unless you鈥檙e planning on doing a great deal of Youtube video uploading. Another thing worth noting is whether this speed is offered over cable or over DSL/fiber, because cable speeds tend to vary a lot depending on the time of day.

As always, it鈥檚 impossible to tell precisely how fast the speed will be at your home, but generally the further you are from their offices (or their nearest equipment station), the slower it will be. Ask them how far away you are from their聽central office聽(CO) in your area. If they鈥檙e much farther away than a comparable service, lean toward the closer one.

Data caps聽Does the company put a monthly 鈥渃ap鈥� on how much data you can download? Some services do, and this is generally a negative. This is more important if you鈥檙e a frequent Netflix or Youtube user, as non-video web surfing and email will generally never approach such a cap.

Additional costs聽Some companies require you to rent a modem or a router from them, while other providers will just give you this equipment. This is often a hidden cost that they don鈥檛 want to tell you up front in their price, so ask them before you sign anything.

Introductory deals聽Is the price they鈥檙e telling you about on the phone an introductory price? If it is, when will it adjust and by how much? You should use the 鈥渞egular鈥� price for comparisons and only use the 鈥渋ntroductory鈥� price if you鈥檙e breaking a tie.

Bundling聽If you already use this company for home phone service, cable service, or satellite service, you may get a better rate by bundling services. You may also want to consider moving your other services as a bundle. If you get cable or satellite television and if you have home phone service, ask about their prices including those features as a bundle.

Add-ons聽Some internet service providers will try to sell you add-ons such as antivirus software and firewalls. Don鈥檛 pay for these, at least not directly from them. If you鈥檙e running a PC that鈥檚 older that Windows 8, you should just download and use聽听辞谤听聽(I won鈥檛 get into the debate about which is better, but both are free and both are lauded by various groups), as they鈥檒l provide good basic protection. While antivirus and spyware protection is a good idea, you don鈥檛 need to pay for any additional software as a bundle from your internet service provider.

The following two categories are things you鈥檒l have to research a bit on your own.

Customer service聽This is very hard to judge because when you鈥檙e out there looking at customer service reviews, you鈥檙e generally only hearing the negative stories and not the positive ones. I tend to value survey-based feedback on customer service when comparing companies, like聽Consumer Reports听补苍诲听JD Powerprovide. I can鈥檛 find publicly available information on what聽Consumer Reports聽recommends, but you can easily find this at the local library; JD Power鈥檚 awards for the best customer service can be found聽.

The 鈥渓ocal鈥� factor聽Every community is different. The cables in the ground are different. The local offerings are different. The distance from customer support and from the local office are different. The people working there are different. The specific local companies are different, too, and not included in the surveys mentioned above.

I consider asking around for suggestions and recommendations in your community to be聽essential. Ask all of your friends and neighbors what they use for internet service, whether they like it, and whether they鈥檝e had any problems with it. Ideally, you want to hear stories about a variety of providers and those stories will generally tell you what you need to know.

Making the Choice
The above factors will likely end up pointing you toward a very small number of service providers and 鈥� likely 鈥� you won鈥檛 go too wrong with any of them. If you鈥檙e trying to make a final decision, here鈥檚 how I would decide.

Are any of the options truly local?聽If you鈥檙e even considering a local company, I鈥檇 strongly advise in favor of it simply because of the local service. Many large telecommunications companies can鈥檛 provide quick service in outlying areas because they simply don鈥檛 have the people. A smaller company that鈥檚 actually in your town can do just that.

I鈥檝e used multiple large companies in the past for internet service, but now I stick with a local company. During the two times I鈥檝e had an issue with them, they鈥檝e been at my house within an hour. The large companies made me wait several days to resolve connection issues. Plus, the local service 鈥� given that their office is just a few miles from my house 鈥� actually provides me with speeds above what they advertise. I鈥檓 a big believer in going local for internet service.

Am I considering a cable option versus a DSL option?聽Go with the DSL or the fiber. Cable will frustrate you with the widely varying speeds.

What鈥檚 the price per Mbps?聽This should include all of the additional monthly costs, including any equipment rental. Write down what they鈥檙e advertising for their speed and for that total cost, then divide the cost by the speed. That鈥檚 your cost per Mbps, and it鈥檚 the number you should use for comparisons if all of the factors above still haven鈥檛 decided this for you.

Ideally, you鈥檙e left with one choice here 鈥� the right choice for you at your location. Good luck!

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