RoofersCoffeeShop.com is writing a series of columns dedicated to helping you get online. Some of you may already be there, have a web site, only communicate through e-mail or blog daily. Some of you may not even touch a computer and are afraid to turn it one. We are starting at the very beginning, and even if you are there, please still read. You never know when you can learn something new along the way!

Last month, we talked about what to look for when purchasing a computer (cheap and fast, but not too cheap). Now that you purchased a computer (hopefully you have), we are going to talk about how to get that computer on the Internet. We get onto the Internet through an Internet Service Provider or ISP. These are the companies that you pay to connect to the Internet.

Picking an ISP really depends on your budget and your Internet needs and balancing the two to make the choice. The two main choices for Internet
connection are broadband and dial-up. We will talk about what each are, the pros and cons of each and the general costs of both.

So what is the internet anyway and why do you need it? The Internet is essentially a huge global network of computers around the world that are interconnected to each other through data lines. The concept and initial Internet was developed by the government in the 1970's to share information. The same concept still holds true today on a much, much larger scale. We communicate on pages we pull up with a web address or by sending e-mail by connecting to the Internet. Today the Internet is an essential part of communication on a personal and business level.

Like when buying a computer, your first question when purchasing Internet should be, what do you want to do with it? Are you looking to just check weather and send and receive e-mail from manufacturers, colleagues, family and friends? Do you want to download installation manuals and check out the daily news sites? If you are looking do the basics we just listed dial-up may be a good option. Remember you will need patience though if someone sends you a large e-mail or if a page you are viewing takes a few extra moments to load.

If you are looking to watch movie trailers, download software updates, purchase and listen to music or flip through all the pictures in an online roofing product catalog (because what other kinds of pictures would you be looking at?) broadband is worth the extra money. All of the above are made up of A LOT of bytes, the unit of measurement for information storage. The more bytes the image or document contain, the longer it takes to download. If you purchase a faster rate of download, such as broadband, you can download items with larger amounts of bytes faster.

First we will talk about dial-up. With dial-up service you plug your computer into a phone jack, and the modem in your computer dials a phone number to your ISP. Once the ISP picks up the line, you are connected to the internet. Dial-up is much slower than broadband, but they can be much cheaper in initial costs. NetZero offers monthly plans starting at $9.95 a month. Prices generally range from $10.00 to $25.00 a month. You can always find free trials and special rate offers. Most computer and office stores have CD’s available with free trials for online services or most ISP’s will send you a trial CD if you call and request one.

One thing to remember when you use dial-up is it will tie up a phone line. If you rarely get calls anymore on your land line or have a fax machine gathering dust, put the line to use and plug your computer into the phone jack. If you are still using that land line and your fax machine is spewing out paper at this moment, you will want to have a separate, dedicated phone line f