Customer Guide

PLEASE NOTE: This information was written a long time ago and some parts are very out dated.

- Internet Service Providers
- Web Design
- Web Hosting

Internet Services
There are 2 main types of services that ISP's can provide. Dialup and Broadband.

Firstly, the dialup connection. This way you connect to the internet using a modem connecting at a maximum speed of 56kbps (well actually less because the lines don't have enough power to reach 56k). Dialup is usually the cheapest deal, but can be slow at times and of course the phone becomes engaged because of it. For a dialup connection, you should expect to pay no more than $30 a month for unlimited access. Some companies offer 200 hours or something similar instead of a flat rate. They do this because a high percentage of New Zealand internet users do not need to be connected to the internet for an unlimited time, this way it is less likely for somebody to leave their internet connected all the time just because they can, holding up lines other users could be utilizing. There are cheaper deals around, below $20 in fact but sometimes paying extra will give you a better service. Virus scan will be built into some ISP’s, but those ISP’s will usually cost more. Cheaper ISP’s may offer it at an extra cost. Also you have the customer support, which is very likely to be an 0900 number for a cheaper ISP, as I said before, when you pay more you are likely to get more but this isn’t always the case, or even the best way to go.

Broadband internet is a technology which is becoming more and more common. It uses your phone line to connect to the internet, but you can use your phone at the same time. This connection (JetStream) is usually much faster and more expensive, but for heavy users it is usually needed/necessary. You can get high speeds up to 8mbits a second, but 2mbits a second is an expected speed. You can also get a slower broadband, which runs at 128kbps but is likely to be about 3 times faster than a normal 56kbps dialup connection. For all JetStream services you need to have an ADSL modem, which can cost from $150 to $400. Along with the usual ADSL broadband through the JetStream services, Telstra Clear provide a cable internet service, which comes with a phone line. However, this is not available in all places of New Zealand, but neither is JetStream for that matter.

Web Design
Web design is a very tricky thing to talk about. My advice for finding a web design company is to try and see a few sites they have made before you commit to anything and make sure their design skill is sufficient. If you are unsure of a company but are interested in them, feel free to post a message in the forum to get an experts opinion.

Web design may seem very expensive, but web designers need to charge high hourly rates as they cannot expect be making websites 40 hours a week, so the missed hours need to be covered. Although this is true, there is still a lot of over pricing. I would see $100 as an approximate cost to pay per hour, but even then you will still find companies who over charge hours. It is very hard to say how long things are supposed to take, but the longer spent on things, the more quality you can expect. Before you choose a web designer make sure you know what you are getting into and they can do for you what you need.

Extra functionality to your web site, such as being able to update content yourself, search engines and email forms will boost the price of the website and web hosting. These all require to have programming of a server side language, especially user updatable sites will take a long time.

Web Hosting
Web hosting is required for all websites that are to be publicly viewed. Web hosting can be sorted out for you by you designer, but if you can find one yourself you will usually get a better deal from it. Before you get into hosting for a website that you, yourself didn’t make, be sure you know the requisites for the server. Servers need extra compatibility for data driven sites, server side applications and large sites. PHP, ASP, SSI are all server side languages. Front page server extensions are also something needed for some server side applications. An approximate price for monthly hosting would be about $25 for a NZ company. If you go to an overseas company, you are likely to get a deal for about US$5 a month if you really look around, but with that, you don’t get the support you could expect from a local company and you don’t know how trustworthy the company is. I have had bad experiences with cheap American web hosts.