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F A Q What is Dial-Up Access? Dial-up access is one way to connect to the world wide web or the internet. It requires that you have a modem in your computer. You dial into another modem maintained by an ISP (Internet Service Provider, like USWP) and enter a login name and id. Once this is done, you can launch your browser to "surf" any public location on the interent. Although speeds vary, most ISP's currently offer a maximun analog connection speed of 56,000 bits per second (56K). What is ISDN? ISDN stands for "Integrated Service Digital Network." ISDN was intended to eventually replace POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service) phone lines with a digital network that would carry voice, data and video. A basic ISDN "phone call" is a 64 kilobits per second, all-digital end-to-end channel. There are different kinds of ISDN connections of varying bandwidth, but a Basic Rate Interface (BRI) is two 64K "bearer" channels and a single "delta" channel ("2B+D"). Instead of a modem, ISDN uses a Terminal Adaptor (TA) that connects to computer and phone interfaces. The plain old telephone system doesn't handle large quantities of data, and the phone companies realized this a long time ago. So the ISDN spec was hammered out in 1984 to allow for wide-bandwidth digital transmission using the public switched telephone network. Under ISDN, a phone call can transfer 64 kilobits of digital data per second. What is Virtual Hosting? Virtual hosting means that your "web space" is maintained by a third party and not on your own local server. Building and maintaining your own server is too costly and cumbersome for most, so companies put together the equipment to "host" many sites. Because they operate on volume, they can generally provide better services with more features at reduced prices. Do I need an On-Line Merchant Account? Although the trends are changing, most "brick and mortar" banks and providers of merchant accounts do not allow for accepting credit cards via the internet. One major initial concern was security and card fraud, but with the security in place via most on-line providers, the experience on the web has actually proven to have less fraud and theft. If you currently have a merchant account and want to accept credit cards over the internet, you should check with your provider first. If they do not allow for internet transactions, you will need an on-line merchant account in addition to or in place of your current merchant account. Do I have to pay to surf the internet? While the internet itself is free, you will likely have to pay an ISP or other content provider for the access. Why does my computer tell me I'm logging on at less than 56K? The logon speed reported by your computer is generally not a true representation of the actual speed you're surfing the internet at. It is generally a representation of how long it took to download a specific amount of data. Many factors can affect the actual speed, including server activity (at your server and the requested server) general internet activity, the amount of RAM in your computer and a myriad of other factors too numerous to mention here.

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