Internet Access for Home (Internet Service Providers)
Who Needs an ISP?
If you live outside of Jewett House or the CSWR residence, you will
need an Internet Service Provider (ISP) account in order to check your HDS email
account at home. Many options are available.
Factors Affecting the Choice of an ISP
A primary consideration when choosing an ISP is the price-performance
relationship. Dial-up service can be economical, but is quite
slow. It requires an existing land-line telephone service. DSL
service also requires a land-line telephone, but offers significant speed
increases and an always-on connection. Cable service offers a very
high speed always-on connection and functions independent of any phone
system, but is among the most expensive of solutions.
Location is also a consideration, as service options sometimes vary
between different cities and towns.
Popular ISP Choices
This list of Internet Service Providers is
neither comprehensive nor an "official" list. There are other
ISPs that serve the immediate area, and we
recommend that anyone interested in getting an ISP shop around. In particular, it
would be very helpful if you could talk to other Harvard students to determine who has
satisfactory service.
| ISP |
Dial-Up Service |
DSL Service |
Cable Service |
| Comcast |
No |
No |
Yes |
| Earthlink |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes* |
| Galaxy |
Yes |
No |
No |
| RCN |
Yes |
No |
Yes |
| Verizon |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
Comcast: http://www.comcast.com/
866.447.7333
Earthlink: http://www.earthlink.net/
800.395.8425
Galaxy: http://www.gis.net/
617.558.0900
RCN: http://www.rcn.com/
888.334.2529
Verizon: http://www.verizon.com/
800.870.9999
America Online (AOL) Incompatibility
America Online has a known incompatibility in its default browser which
causes it to incorrectly display several Harvard websites, including HDS
Webmail and the HOLLIS Library Catalog. The solution to this problem is
to connect to the Internet normally using the AOL client, and to use Internet
Explorer to browse websites. Similar problems may exist with other ISPs, but we have
not received any additional reports.
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