Internet Service Provider Webhosting Service

What is an ISP? Internet Service Provider

An Internet Service Provider, is a company that provides customers and businesses access to the Internet. While an ISP does not provide the hardware used to get to the internet, it does include software, e-mail, access to the Internet (a phone number to call to get access), and a user name and password

If you have a home computer with a modem, you can sign up with an ISP. Most ISP's offer different service packages and different types of accounts.

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Learn to swim safely in the murky waters of ISP

If you're not on the Web, you're handing your competitors an unfair advantage. But if you're thinking of entering into a contract with an ISP, the issues of liability, security and payment should be carefully scrutinised before signing on the dotted line.

Internet, Internet, Internet. It's everywhere and if you want to stay in with the market leaders you have to follow their example - and that means going on-line. But as with most things, there are perils which the unwary will fall into.

Are all Internet service providers are the same?

Care should therefore be taken in deciding with which ISP to enter into a contract. First decisions At the outset, the choice is between a company that provides telecommunication network facilities or an intermediary. The latter acts as a middleman between the provider of the network facilities and you.

If the decision is taken to go with an intermediary, keep in mind that you will be affected by the intermediary's contract with the provider of the network facilities as much as by your own contract with the intermediary. But you will only be able to affect the latter contract. As a result, it's important the contract provides that you are to give your prior consent to any transfer or sub-contracting by the ISP of its obligations to a third party.

Equally critical will be the issue of bandwidth and associated technical issues. The contract which you have with the ISP should specify what is to be provided. It will be your responsibility to check that it matches your requirements. If, therefore, you are relying on the ISP to upgrade the services that it provides, that reliance should be underpinned by contractual obligation. The difficulty with such a provision is that an ISP can only ensure a particular service level over the part of the network it controls. If this part is really small, you will have at best the benefit of any service-level guarantees that your ISP has managed to negotiate with its telecommunications supplier.

Hand in glove with services will be the issues of security and limitation of liability. The contract with the ISP should provide for the ISP to have firewalls to reduce the risk of security breaches and virus damage. Including the firewalls is an addition to the usual security arrangements.

Limiting Liability

The issue of limitation of liability is always a difficult one. By raising this issue, it's as if one party is questioning the ability, if not the bona fides, of the other. This is especially so when it's remembered that ensuring access to your Web site is likely to be a very important part of your e-commerce business strategy. How then to cope with the ISP seeking to limit its liability to the fee paid by you? Where such a provision is included in a standard contract or in standard terms and conditions of business, it may be possible to challenge its validity under the Unfair Contract Terms Act.

It may be better instead to seek to negotiate a higher cap on the ISP's liability rather than put your trust in the possibility of future litigation. You should also bear in mind that the issue of liability is a two-way street. Cases on both sides of the Atlantic have questioned the liability of ISPs for the material which they may carry. As a result you may be asked to give an unlimited indemnity, which may be hard to refuse. Ultimately, all ISPs are equal but some ISPs are more equal than others.

Website Design

Having given thought to the ISP you want to use, you will naturally want to get a Web site designed. But here too lie traps. The first thing to note is that if a Web site is to be designed by an independent developer, it's not simply a question of discussing ideas and proposals with the developer.

Contractual issues become very important. An key issue is one of deadlines. If the launch of the site is intended to coincide with a critical date (for example, the announcement of a new product), deadlines need to be enshrined in the contract with the developer.

Hand in glove with deadlines goes the issue of payment. A designer will often start from a position of a variable fee depending on the amount of work undertaken. This is natural enough. But it can mean that the company is writing a blank cheque. It's therefore common for the company to try and insist on a fixed cost, with payments being made in installments according to the completion of various stages - the passing of acceptance tests, for example. Such tests should enable the company to be satisfied that, when developed, the Web site performs according to the agreed specifications. Such specifications should be not only functional but performance-related. In essence, the company will want to be satisfied that the Web site will perform in the way required on the designated server on the basis of expected usage levels.

The next issue to be considered is the ownership of the design of the Web site and the software code that enables the site to function. If these are not to be owned by the company, special care will be needed. First, to ensure that the design can't be challenged by a third party. Second, to provide the company with access to the software code, (perhaps, for example, to update it) if the designer dies or becomes insolvent. This may be achieved by putting the code into escrow with a third party. The current fashion is for a Web site to be updated regularly. Those that aren't look outdated at best when compared with the sites of competitors. At worst, failure to update can result in criticism by third parties, particularly if the company is well known or enjoys a high media profile. It's therefore important that the basis on which updating is to be undertaken by the developer is set out in the agreement. Even if the amount of updating is limited, the discipline involved in considering the issue of updating should serve as a useful aide-mémoire to think through what's necessary.

Threat to security Within a computer context, the Web site can provide a way for an outside third party to access the company's internal computer system. It is, therefore, absolutely vital that the designer has included the necessary security provisions within the software code. The Times recently reported that 59 per cent of companies with Web sites don't have the benefit of Web site protection. By way of comparison, a government report published by the Department of Trade and Industry in April pointed out that 60% of companies connected to the Internet had suffered a security breach within the last two years.

Depending on the purpose of the Web site, consideration may also need to be given to encryption techniques and digital signatures. If a Web site is to work, it needs to work well. Addressing these issues will assist the company planning its own Web site to achieve this objective. While designing the Web site, some thought also needs to be given to your terms and conditions of sale. The need for up-to-date standard terms and conditions is accepted by many companies. Most of these will also be aware of the need to properly incorporate the terms and conditions into contracts made by them. The situation in respect of contracts made via your Web site should be no different. But it's not simply a question of referring to the standard terms and conditions on your Web site. Nor is it sufficient to simply include the terms and conditions as part of your Web site.

The starting point is that the Web site terms and conditions of sale need to clearly state that anything posted on your site isn't an offer. Instead, the offer is made by the customer. It's only accepted by you when you send out a confirmation of order (and acceptance takes place when you send the confirmation, not when the buyer receives it). You should retain the right to cancel the agreement for whatever reason. The aim of this is to allow you to avoid mistakes. For example, the situation where the ordering process displays the wrong price and you have accepted the customer's order at the incorrect price.

You also need to consider whether you may have logistical difficulties in fulfilling orders which may come from other continents or remote parts of the world. You may wish to consider having an automatic mechanism for not accepting offers from such places. Once again, though, in the absence of a mechanism, the cancellation clause will provide you with protection if it's effective. Your Web site ordering process needs to deal with how deliveries are made. Standard terrestrial terms and conditions often provide for an alternative mechanism for delivery: either you are responsible for delivering to the customer or the customer is responsible for collecting the goods from you. Will this alternative still be available for your Web customers? If so, how is the decision made? If you'll always deliver to customers, amendments are needed to remove reference to the customer collecting goods from your premises.

Putting paid to problems

The issue of payment is critical. Will the customer provide a credit card number which will be sent to you via a secure server for payment? If so, changes to the terms and conditions will be needed where, for example, they provide for payment to take place on the last day of the month following delivery.

If payment will be unchanged from the mechanism in the terms and conditions, this may entail your accepting a higher credit risk than when you deal off-line with customers whom you know. Terms and conditions often state that all descriptions are given for general information purposes only. There should be inserted into the relevant condition a reference to this, also applying to the descriptions given on your Web site. It should go on to state that information on your site may contain certain inaccuracies or typographical errors. This issue can be addressed by stating that no guarantees are given that the information accessible via your Web site is accurate, complete or current. Usually, there's a provision for notices to be given in writing. This should be amended to deal with notices by e-mail. In addition, you should consider when written notices are deemed received. If it's on the next working day following posting, this is likely to be an inappropriate time period if you are dealing with customers from other countries.

Web site terms and conditions need to be clearly brought to the attention of the customer before he orders the goods. Further, it's vital that he should be in no doubt that they form part of the agreement he is entering into. This can be done by displaying the terms and conditions in a box in the middle of the page, for example. Before completing his order, the customer will need to scroll to the end of the terms and conditions to click on a box showing his acceptance of the terms and conditions forming part of the agreement. There is much to be thought about before you sell via your Web site. But the value of being able to do so without fear of tears may make it all worthwhile.