Search /
Docfinder:
Advanced search  |  Help  |  Site map
RESEARCH CENTERS
SITE RESOURCES
Click for Layer 8! No, really, click NOW!
Networking for Small Business
TODAY'S NEWS
The botnet world is booming
What’s driving this university to IPv6? Going green
Google takes direct aim at Microsoft
Microsoft promises to stymie hackers next week with new patches
Chrome OS spotlights rapidly changing mobile Web environment
IT pros continue to lose jobs
How ending exclusivity agreements would change the telecom industry
How to use electrical outlets and cheap lasers to steal data
EMC distances rival NetApp
Crime lab saves energy costs by turning up heat in the data center
IBM security software masks confidential info
Google Native Client provides hints on Chrome OS gambit
Ericsson signs deal to run Sprint wireless, wireline networks
Verizon helping companies assess application vulnerabilities
Internet's biggest issue? IPv6 transition, new ARIN CEO says


WAN Services /
Send to a friend Feedback

Top ISPs - May 2002 Report

Is your ISP measuring up? Find out with our Top ISP Report, a joint venture between Network World and eTesting Labs' Internet BenchMark service. The data below is for May 2002; each month you can go online at Network World Fusion for the latest data.

Related linksToday's breaking news
Send to a friendFeedback

May 2002 report

The chart at below shows you the top dial-up ISPs in the market, and how they performed in eight metrics, as determined by eTesting Labs' Internet BenchMark data. We analyzed 19 ISPs this month; if your ISP isn't listed among the top performers, go ask them why they're not performing as well as their competitors.



Top ISPs profile, May 2002
ISP Network World Analysis
National Retail
AT&T WorldNet Above the average in all categories tested, and tops in 8 out of nine. This ISP is in a class by itself.
Regional Retail
Verizon-EastSqueaks out a victory over SBC PacBell, though PacBell is strong in 4 categories
Business-to-Business
AT&T (BIS) No contest -- the best in this market this month.


How we did it
Who we tested
Top ISP archive


Category
24-hour CFR% Bolded ISPs are highest Reflects how often a modem call to the provider gets through successfully over a 24-hour period. A failure would include a busy signal, ring no answer, modem problem or login failure. The lower the call failure rate percentage, the better.
National average Regional average B2B average
1.80% 1.80% 2.80%
Top ISPs*
AT&T BellSouth AT&T (BIS)
EarthLink SBC PacBell McLeod USA
JunoWeb Qwest WorldCom
MSN Verizon-East  XO
Prodigy    
Verizon-West    
* Those ISPs that performed above the average in the category noted; bolded ISPs are the top performer for this metric within their respective classification

Back to top

Category
Evening-hour CFR% How often a modem call to the provider gets through successfully during the evening hours. A failure would include a busy signal, ring no answer, modem problem or login failure. The lower the call failure rate percentage, the better.
National average Regional average B2B average
1.70% 1.40% 2.50%
Top ISPs*
AT&T BellSouth AT&T (BIS) (tie)
EarthLink SBC PacBell McLeod USA (tie)
JunoWeb Verizon-East WorldCom
MSN   XO
Prodigy    
Verizon-West    
* Those ISPs that performed above the average in the category noted; bolded ISPs are the top performer for this metric within their respective classification

Back to top

Category
Business hour CFR% How often a modem call to the provider gets through successfully during weekday business hours. A failure would include a busy signal, ring no answer, modem problem or login failure. The lower the call failure rate percentage, the better.
National average Regional average B2B average
2.00% 2.40% 3.00%
Top ISPs*
AT&T Bell South AT&T (BIS)
EarthLink Qwest McLeod USA
JunoWeb Verizon-East WorldCom
MSN   XO
     
     
* Those ISPs that performed above the average in the category noted; bolded ISPs are the top performer for this metric within their respective classification

Back to top

Category
Initial modem speed (in K bit/sec) Measurement of the negotiated connection speed to your ISP once the call has successfully gone through.
National average Regional average B2B average
49.34 49.28 49.26
Top ISPs*
AT&T BellSouth AT&T (BIS)
EarthLink Verizon-East XO
* Those ISPs that performed above the average in the category noted; bolded ISPs are the top performer for this metric within their respective classification

Back to top

Category
Avg. time to login (in seconds) Reflects the time taken to connect and authenticate to a provider's network access server once the modem takes the line off-hook.
National average Regional average B2B average
30.37 29.86 29.89
Top ISPs*
AT&T BellSouth AT&T (BIS)
EarthLink Quest McLeod USA
MSN SBC Southwestern Bell  
Prodigy    
Verizon-West    
* Those ISPs that performed above the average in the category noted; bolded ISPs are the top performer for this metric within their respective classification

Back to top

Category
Avg. DNS lookup (in milliseconds) The time from sending the first DNS query until a successful response is received from any query. This reflects actual end user perception of the DNS resolution time, including retries.
National average Regional average B2B average
349.53 330.13 407.10
Top ISPs*
AOL BellSouth AT&T (BIS)
AT&T SBC PacBell Genuity
EarthLink SBC Southwestern Bell WorldCom
MSN Verizon-East XO
Prodigy    
Verizon-West    
* Those ISPs that performed above the average in the category noted; bolded ISPs are the top performer for this metric within their respective classification

Back to top

Category
Avg. Web throughput (in K byte/sec) The effective transfer rate of the connection. The average of these Web throughput measurements is presented in the reports. Throughput does not necessarily reflect the actual bandwidth of the connection, but rather the effective Web throughput experienced using a connection.
National average Regional average B2B average
4.98 5.43 5.42
Top ISPs*
AT&T SBC PacBell AT&T (BIS)
EarthLink SBC Southwestern Bell McLeod USA
JunoWeb Verizon-East XO
MSN    
Prodigy    
Verizon-West    
* Those ISPs that performed above the average in the category noted; bolded ISPs are the top performer for this metric within their respective classification

Back to top

Category
Avg. download time (in seconds) The time taken for the complete Web page to download, including all page content. Calculated by measuring the time from the first HTTP TCP packet being sent to the server until the last HTTP TCP connection has terminated.
National average Regional average B2B average
27.36 28.15 28.74
Top ISPs*
AOL BellSouth AT&T (BIS)
AT&T SBC PacBell McLeod USA
CompuServe SBC Southwestern Bell XO
Prodigy Verizon-East  
* Those ISPs that performed above the average in the category noted; bolded ISPs are the top performer for this metric within their respective classification

Back to top

Category
Avg. total Web Fail/timeout% Any error message that appears as a dialog box for the Internet Explorer browser is considered a Web page failure. Any download that takes longer than 4 minutes to complete is cancelled and considered a Web page timeout. A low % is considered better.
National average Regional average B2B average
0.60% 1.10% 0.80%
Top ISPs*
AOL SBC Ameritech AT&T (BIS)
AT&T SBC PacBell (tie) Genuity
EarthLink Verizon-East (tie)  
* Those ISPs that performed above the average in the category noted; bolded ISPs are the top performer for this metric within their respective classification

Back to top


How we did it

Our data comes from eTesting Labs and its Internet BenchMark division. Network World takes the data and applies statistical analysis to rate the relative performance of each ISPs compared to the other ISPs within the same market classification (national, regional or business-to-business ISP). Based on that analysis, we rank the top ISPs for the month listed. The chart above lists the ISPs that perform above the average for the metric listed within that classification.

A list of all the ISPs tested, as well as an archive of previous reports, appears below.

(back to top)


Recent archive:

No results were found for your search.

Your query is too restrictive.
You might want to try: top isp, /research
(back to top)


Who we tested

(back to top)


Related Links

Apply for your free subscription to Network World. Click here. Or get Network World delivered in PDF each week.

Get Copyright Clearance
Request a reprint or permission to use this article.


NWFusion offers more than 40 FREE technology-specific email newsletters in key network technology areas such as NSM, VPNs, Convergence, Security and more.
Click here to sign up!
New Event - WANs: Optimizing Your Network Now.
Hear from the experts about the innovations that are already starting to shake up the WAN world. Free Network World Technology Tour and Expo in Dallas, San Francisco, Washington DC, and New York.
Attend FREE
Your FREE Network World subscription will also include breaking news and information on wireless, storage, infrastructure, carriers and SPs, enterprise applications, videoconferencing, plus product reviews, technology insiders, management surveys and technology updates - GET IT NOW.
* HOME    * RESEARCH CENTERS     * NEWS     * EVENTS

Contact us | Terms of Service/Privacy | How to Advertise
Reprints and links | Partnerships | Subscribe to NW
About Network World, Inc.

Copyright, 1994-2006 Network World, Inc. All rights reserved.