Off-campus Access
Choosing and Using an Internet Service Provider for Mac users
If you are thinking of using an Internet Service Provider (I.S.P.), please remember that their conditions of use can vary without notice. For example, you may not be able to access your e-mail or web accounts without using the specific dial up number given by your I.S.P.
Some Information
on Mac-Friendly I.S.P.s can be obtained here:
http://macsupporters.gold.ac.uk/isp.html.
There are many ISPs and there is no implicit reason why you cannot use almost every one on a Mac, if you are confident setting up your Mac and only require the actual configuration settings then a Mac-friendly ISP may be of less importance to you. However it is worth bearing in mind that if you need to ring the technical support you will often get very little assistance unless they have a Mac support team. A good idea is to ring up the prospective ISP and ask to speak to the Mac support department then ask some basic questions such as "Do I need to have the primary and secondary DNS settings in OSX just as I did in OS9?" or "Apple Mail keeps bringing up a message that my password has been rejected but it is keyed in correctly." If the person struggles to attempt to answer the questions it is a fair bet they are part of the PC support team and there is no dedicated Mac support.
The actual technical difference between setting a Mac up for net access and a PC is minimal it is just a question of having the settings and knowing where to put them. In OSX it is even easier than OS9 as it is centrally controlled within the Network System preference pane.
Some I.S.P.s offer you the choice of user name in your e-mails, the domain name is effectively the username, e.g.: fred@jones.freeuk.com, tom@jones.freeuk.com. Others will set one user name eg: fred.jones@tesco.net. This is not an important difference. Filtering can be used to separate mail with different usernames and the same domain name into different mailboxes.
The key things you may need to know are:
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Can I use their gateway to collect mail from my university mailbox (or will I use the University webmail)?
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Do they have a dedicated Mac support team?
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Can I read mail from my I.S.P. mailbox from another gateway?
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Does it offer me web space for my needs?
Using an Internet Service Provider
All I.S.P.s offer you e-mail, web, ftp and telnet access. They usually provide software for this, either from a CD-Rom or by linking you to a site from which you can freely download what you need. If you use a CD-ROM from an ISP unexpected things can happen. For example, they may automatically replace your own browser and replace it with a customised version which sells your home page, if not your soul, to the sponsor. It is very wise to find out what CD-ROM is likely in introduce onto your desk top. Before using it, take a note of all the dial up telephone numbers you have stored, just in case they disappear too. The Apple operating system comes with all the tools necessary for e-mail and internet access as well as telnet and ftp; no additional software is necessary, though it can be used if desired.
All I.S.P.s require you to give a username and password. Choose something you and other users are comfortable with in all the situations you may need to use it. If you give them something that's been allocated before (e.g. jackson) they will offer you an alternative like jackson57. Consider adopting a more memorable name which hasn't been chosen before (e.g. andy_jackson). This will give you your access to the dialup gateway belonging to the service as well as your e-mail and web space.