Living In USA

E-Mail and Internet Access
Electronic mail (e-mail) and, increasingly, instant messaging (IM) are fast becoming the communication method of choice, especially among young people. In order to connect your home computer to the World Wide Web, you need to first select an Internet Service Provider (ISP). Popular choices include Earthlink, American Online (AOL), and Microsoft Network (MSN), along with a myriad of others, including cable television and telephone companies. You have four possible choices, although all of them are not available in all areas.

Dial-Up
The least expensive is to use your regular phone line to dial an ISP using your computer's built-in modem. For somewhere less than half to a third of the monthly charge of the other options, dial-up is limited in speed to 56 kilobits per second and can be excruciatingly slow for heavy users, especially if you want to view lots of images on the Web. It is also inconvenient in that you cannot place or receive telephone calls while your computer is connected.

DSL
This uses your regular phone line but does not prevent you from placing or receiving voice calls at the same time. It operates far faster than dial-up, but it is more costly and requires special equipment to connect your computer's network port to the phone line, although many companies waive the equipment charge when you sign a one-year contract.

Cable
This is very similar in speed and price to DSL but is carried through the television cable rather than the telephone line. There is also special equipment involved, but again it is sometimes free with an annual contract agreement.

Satellite
If you have satellite television, you can access the Internet that way instead of using wires. This is more expensive than cable or DSL, has more equipment charges, and is generally slower.

Once you have decided on an ISP, you can use the company's services to provide you with an e-mail account. Most ISPs also include some storage space for a personal Web server or file transfer protocol (ftp) server, which can be handy for storing files you wish to access from another computer. If you don't have a computer, you can buy an inexpensive (Under $100) e-mail machine and pay a lesser monthly amount for e-mail-only access (these machines are sometimes discounted or even free when you sign a one-year contract). Or you can use public-access computers in many libraries for free. You can get a free e-mail account through many web portals such as Yahoo! (www.yahoo.com) or Hotmail (www.hotmail.com).

Wireless Access Points (WAPs)
Airport lounges, coffee shops, and other public locations are increasingly offering access to wireless networks, which usually use the 802.11(b) standard, although the faster (and mutually compatible) 802.11(g) is increasingly available. The charge for this access is usually by the hour.