Ordinary users cannot normally connect directly to the Internet. They must hook their computers to "host" computers on corporate or institutional networks which are part of the Internet, or to a commercial company which has bought an expensive Internet connection, and re-sells access to the Internet through that connection.
The key question is to locate access providers that serve your area and supply the required services, and support at the right price.
Try the following World Wide Web pages to find Internet Access Providers around the world:
http://www.thedirectory.org/
http://www.netalert.com/
http://www.netusa.net/ISP/
http://thelist.internet.com/
http://www.iapac.org/consinfo.html
At http://www.herbison.com/herbison/iap_meta_list.html, there's a meta-
list of IAP lists, sorted by country.
If you want it cheap, check out if there's a Free-Net offering in your area. Try: http://www.lights.com/freenet/ on the Web for more.
The following is a list of some providers by country offering general access to the Internet. These services provide access to any person, if he or she is willing to pay an (often) modest subscription fee.
In many countries, there are organizations selling Internet access to the business community at high prices. The added value provided by these seldom justifies their higher price. They will therefore not be listed at all, if I can help it.
The organizations listed deliver one of the following three levels of access:
[1] Full interactive access. You can use all Internet commands including
ftp, telnet, and gopher.
[2] Exchange of electronic mail. Local access to selected Newsgroups,
and Internet mailing lists. Limited or no access to interactive
commands.
[3] Exchange of electronic mail only. No access to interactive commands.
Important: Several key Internet commands are available by email. Examples:
ftp, archie, gopher, veronica. Level 2 and 3 access may therefore be good
enough for many users. You may even find such access to be more productive
for your applications, because of the waiting times often experienced when
using the Internet interactively.
Many countries are missing from this list. The aim is to expand it gradually with a handful services in all countries of the world. It is not intended to be complete. A few inexpensive, efficient and reliable offerings in each country will do.
If you know of a service that should be listed, please send information to for consideration to: presno@eunet.no
The offerings are sorted by part of world:
Africa Asia-Pacific Rim Former Soviet Republics Latin America North America Western and Central EuropeNote: Unless "full access to the Internet" is given, a service will most likely only offer access level 2 or 3.
Also, note that some access providers cover many countries. Information about these are listed under:
CompuServe Association for Progressive Communications Member Networks
A directory of Internet access in Africa is regularly posted to the alt.internet.access.wanted, and alt.internet.services newsgroups. URL: http://www.tagsys.com/Providers/index.html
Johannesburg: Digitec Online BBS - 10 lines +27-11-476-7136. Full Internet access. Email: anthony.gerada@digitec.co.za
Johannesburg: Netline - http://www.netline.co.za
The following Web page offers information about Internet access in Asia:
http://www.netalert.com/Asia.html
Host: archie.au. File name: Network_Access_in_Australia_FAQ Directory: /usenet/FAQs/alt.internet.access.wanted
Hong Kong Internet and Gateway Services. Full Internet access. Email: helpdesk@hk.net.
Tokyo: TWICS. Modem: 03-3351-8244 (8N1). Log in as guest for more information. Voice: 03-3351-5977. Email: burress@tanuki.twics.co.jp
Russia: http://www.ru/cgi/page.cgi?TOPIC_ID=42&UP_ID=40
A directory of Internet access in ex-USSR is regularly posted to the alt.internet.access.wanted, and alt.internet.services newsgroups. URL: http://www.tagsys.com/Providers/index.html.
Delphi. Full access. Write to: General Videotex Corp., 1030 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
A Directory of Internet access in Western Europe is available on URL: http://www.tagsys.com/Providers/index.html. The list is also posted to the alt.internet.access.wanted, and alt.internet.services newsgroups.
Hamburg: Grossraum Hamburg/Schleswig-Holstein. Voice: 040/2790975, Email: info@hanse.de. UUCP access (email only).
Frankfurt am Main: Region Rhein/Main. Voice: 069/39048413, Email: oli@odb.rhein-main.de. Full Internet access.
Munich: Grossraum M"unchen. Web: http://www.muc.de/
Note: A list is available by email from listserv@listserv.nodak.edu using the command GET TOW.GERMANY .
Dublin: Connect-Ireland Internet. Web: http://www.connect.ie.
Galway: Ireland On-Line. Email: postmaster@iol.ie.
Amsterdam: Simplex. (http://www.simplex.nl)
Utrecht: KnoWare. Macintosh oriented, provides full internet access via Appletalk Remote Access. Tel. 030-802244, Email: knoware@knoware.nl.
Nijmegen: Antenna. Tel: +31(80)235372. Email: support@antenna.nl.
Telenor Internett: http://internett.telenor.no/
Oslo: PowerTech Information Systems A/S http://www.powertech.no
South Norway: PMD Data AS http://www.pmddata.no/
Bergen: Bergen By Byte http://www.bbb.no
Haugesund: Euronet http://www.euronetis.no
Demon Internet Ltd. Email: sales@demon.net. Web: http://www.demon.net
EUnet GB. Email: Sales@Britain.EU.net. Fax +44 227 266466. Voice: +44 227 266477.
Others working in Europe: Pipex (UUnet) - http://www.uunet.pipex.com/
A list of Internet access providers in the UK is posted monthly to the uk.net, uk.telecom, and uk.misc newsgroups.
You don't pay when you don't connect, so you can have an EUnetTraveller account stand-by without paying for it.
EUnet has well over 300 POPs in 42 countries (1997): Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Cyprus, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Greece, Ireland, Ireland, Latvia, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Slovak Republic, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, U.S.A., States, Yugoslavia. For current list of countries, see http://www.EU.net/Countries/.
Information: http://traveller.EU.net/. Email: traveller@EU.net.
The service is a great resource for the global traveller. If your mail normally goes to a Unix mailbox, use the .forward file to redirect it to CompuServe before leaving home.
If you are in a country with no local access, or in a place where you have to make an expensive long distance call to a slow node, consider calling direct to CompuServe's own nodes in the United States at high speed.
Example: In Lagos, Nigeria, I connected successfully at 14,400 bits/s with compression to a CompuServe node in the United States. This was much cheaper and better than calling nearby South Africa at 2400 bits/s through an Infonet network node (1994).
System Support/WWW Address Areas Served ------ --------------------- ------------ Angonet <hperez@angonet.gn.apc.org> Angola Wamani <apoyo@wamani.apc.org> Argentina Pegasus <http://www.peg.apc.org> Australia/Pacific Islands/SE Asia Alpin <support@alpin.or.at> Austria ZamirNet <e.bachman@bionic.zer.de> Bosnia/Croatia/Yugoslavia AlterNex <http://www.ax.apc.org> Brasil/South America Web <http://www.web.net> Canada/Cuba Nicarao <http://nicarao.apc.org.ni> Central America/Nicaragua/Panama ColNodo <soporte@colnodo.apc.org> Colombia Ecuanex <intercom@ecuanex.apc.org> Ecuador ComLink <http://www.comlink.apc.org> Germany/Austria/Zagreb/Turkey/N.Italy Laneta <http://www.laneta.apc.org> Mexico Antenna <http://antenna.apc.org> Netherlands PlaNet <http://www.cyberxpress.co.nz/indexp.html>New Zealand GlasNet <http://www.glas.apc.org> Russia/CIS Histria <support@histria.apc.org> Slovenija SANGOnet <http://sn.apc.org/ Southern Africa NordNet <http://nn.apc.org> The Nordic/Baltic GreenNet <http://www.gn.apc.org> UK/Europe/Africa/Asia/Middle East Gluk <support@gluk.apc.org> Ukraine IGC <http://www.igc.org/igc/help/ United States/China/Japan Chasque <http://www.chasque.apc.org/ Uruguay/Paraguay
For more information on the APC, try http://www.apc.org/
[1] Several lists of international BBSes are available through the Internet. Use Lycos to locate.
[2] The FYI document "Network Service Providers Around the World" is a huge lists of Internet, email, and X.400 service providers around the world. The list is designed to help people and organizations FIND the providers. Each entry is confirmed by the service provider. Queries for updates are sent to each service provider quarterly.
To get on an email distribution list, mail greenebr@aplcomm.jhuapl.edu.
You may also find PSGnet's Network Startup Resource Center an interesting source. Try: http://www.psg.com/.
[3] "Redes de America Latina y el Caribe" (Network Service Providers in Latin America and Caribe) is a Spanish language text available at gopher://cahuide.rcp.net.pe:71/11/.
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Updated by Odd de Presno at 0943:15 03-17-1998