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Internet service providers, or ISPs, are your link to the internet. An ISP's reliability and dial-up speed are very important. Hopefully, the service is not "down" very often.  Do you get "busy signals" when you dial in? How fast is your connection when you DO log on to the internet?  If you will want access to the internet when you travel, you may want to subscribe to a national or international ISP rather than a regional ISP.  Note that this review covers only regular dial-up ISPs (national) and does not cover broadband ISPs such as cable or DSL.  Check out our reviews of Free ISPs.  

ISP	Rating	Reviews
MindSpring	9.1	National ISP and one of the largest and fastest-growing.  MindSpring consistently ranks high in terms of connection reliability, speed, and customer satisfaction.  Has merged with other ISPs including Netcom and Earthlink.
AT&T Worldnet	8.3	National ISP with very good connection reliability and solid connection speeds.  Joint venture with IBM.
AOL - AmericaOnLine	8.3	International ISP and the leader in the world, AOL is known for being very user-friendly. Indeed, many first-time internet users gravitate towards AOL because of its ease of use and features.  Connection speeds and reliability are just okay.  AOL is an interesting case; it gets great marks for ease of use -- but mediocre marks for connection reliability and speed.
Prodigy	8.1	National ISP and one of the first firms involved with the internet.
CompuServe	7.9	International ISP from one of the first companies involved with dial-up service.
MSN Internet	7.9	National ISP from Microsoft.  Good connection reliability, decent connection speeds.  Has improved over time.