If all you want to do is surf the web and use one email account on one computer, then don't read any of this. Order Verizon's packaged consumer DSL solution or Road Runner instead.

If you're not absolutely sure that all you want to do is surf and email, then read on.

We'll show you the Island Network Solutions DSL solution setup costs right now.

$100.00 Activation Charge billed to your Verizon phone bill (sometimes this is waived during promotions)
$199.00 Modem Charge billed to your Verizon phone bill (sometimes this is waived during promotions)
$70.00 ISP Setup Charged billed by Island Network Solutions, LLC
$200.00 Firewall router billed by Island Network Solutions, LLC
$150.00 On-site DSL modem and Router installation + 1 computer activation billed by Island Network Solutions, LLC
$699.00 Total one-time setup costs

See Table 1 Bronze and Table 2 Gold for the recurring monthly charges.

Before you consider ordering your ADSL service from us, understand these facts:

• DSL stands for Digital Subscriber Line. It is a physical method to connect to the Internet, such as a modem or a cable modem.
• ISP stands for Internet Service Providor. This is the service that actually connects you to the Internet.
• DSL is better than modem and cable modem if you plan your service properly.
• DSL comes in varying speeds, most commonly referred to as Bronze and Gold.
• DSL works over your existing telephone line, yet does not interfere with it. You can talk and web browse on the same line at the same time.
• DSL service charges comes in two parts: 1) The telephone company who connects the DSL circuit to your propery, and 2) the ISP who connects the telephone company to the Internet. *
• In Hawaii, Verizon is the only vendor of the DSL circuit to your property.
• In Hawaii, there are many ISPs who can connect the Verizon circuit to the Internet. They have varying prices, reliability, services, and support.

Knowing the above, it follows that our DSL solution is charged to you in two parts. (*There are exceptions which will be discussed below)

Charge #1: The monthly Verizon DSL circuit connection charge. This is an additional charge on top of the regular phone line charge that you pay to maintain the phone line that the DSL circuit will use. However, we don't include the regular phone line charge when pricing DSL because you pay for that anyway.

Charge #2: The monthly ISP Internet connection charge. This is a separate charge you pay to the ISP to connect the Verizon DSL circuit to the Internet.

Paying two separate vendors for one service sounds kind of complicated, doesn't it? It is, but for good reason. It will benefit you greatly if you understand the reason:

Verizon owns all of the copper wires that run across town and to your doorstep. They are the only ones who can physically connect your phone line to the rest of the world for talking or web browsing. There's no exception to this. There are other telephone companies in Hawaii, but they all must eventually go through Verizon to provide you a dial tone. It's a monopoly for sure, but one that can benefit you if you read on.

During the advent of DSL in the late 1990's, Verizon knew that they would lose money because they did not provide the ISP component with the DSL circuit connection. So in 2001 Verizon started offering "one stop shopping". For example, *you can now order a complete DSL package from Verizon and get the circuit connection and ISP services for one monthly charge on your phone bill. This is attractive because it is simpler than the two part charge descibed above. Depending on the DSL speed you need, it may be cheaper than the two part option. For home users who only web browse, and will never connect to an office network from home, this is a viable option. However, there are many situations that you can run into that make this an unnacceptable approach. If you let the bottom line dictate your decision, or can't manage your books with two vendors, or can't grasp the technical advantages of the two part method, you may regret not having finished reading this whole article.

Anti-trust law says that Verizon must allow you to select a third party ISP if you want to order DSL from them - if that is your choice. Choice is good when it comes to your Internet connection. We've been picking and choosing the best ISP for years, and have established a standard procedure for anyone who wants Island Network Solutions to handle their DSL setup.

Here's the process to get the best DSL service in America and probably the whole world. It's only availabe in Hawaii.

Call us and say you want the best DSL connection in America.

• We check you out and decide if you are progressive and responsible. Our DSL solution is going to revolutionize your computer experience. It will also open profitable and money-saving doors you've only dreamed about. This will create a relationship in other areas. For example, networking all of your computers so they can share the DSL connection.

On the other hand, if you don't want a partner in your computing success, but just lackies to get you connected, then don't call us. We don't have time for people who think they know more than us when it comes to networking.

• If we decide to help you, then all we need to know is your phone number, and we'll take care of the rest. Our DSL solution is just as simple as the one stop shopping Verizon offers.

• If your phone line qualifies for the DSL circuit (some doorsteps are too far away from Verizon's central office) then we order the DSL service from Verizon on your behalf. You won't have to answer technical questions or listen to sales pitches. We have one mission: To Get You Connected. There is a lot of behind the scenes work to qualify your line, but we don't charge for that.

• Then we order the ISP subscription on your behalf. The ISP we order from is Flex. You are welcome to visit their website, but be prepared. Flex has even less time than we do to deal with people who have been brainwashed by AOL all of their computing lives. Flex has one mission: To Provide the Best Connection. They do not help users figure out how to install DSL. That's what we do.

We pay for your Flex ISP service. In reality, we resell Flex's service to you. We are upfront with you about that fact that we markup Flex's service. We markup Flex's monthly rate an additional $10.00. We do this to be your point of contact when there is a problem or you have questions. Flex is not a computer support company like we are. They are able to provide the best DSL service for the cheapest rate precisely because they do not pay staff to answer the phone. In deed, they don't answer their phone. Their whole DSL ordering process is conducted online. You had better know what you are doing before ordering. Go ahead, check out their site and see if you are not scared and confused by the whole process. They sound mean and act like they don't want your business. The truth is, they want your business, but the vast majority of computer users are so ignorant, they would either go out of business or raise their rates to keep up with customer requests. That's where we come in. We are not mean, and if you heed our advice and agree to our terms, we'll do everything we can to educate you.

• After the Verizon circuit has been ordered and your Flex account is established, Verizon will set an activation date and send you a DSL modem. On the activation date, we come to your premises and install the DSL modem, test the circuit, work with Verizon if there is a problem, and connect the DSL modem to your computer or computer network. If you have a network, we also install a Security Router that provides firewall protection for all of the computers that will share the DSL connection. We also configure each computer to use the DSL connection.

• When everything is working, we bill you for the Flex ISP circuit for one full year. You begin paying the Verizon circuit charge on your regular monthly phone bill.

What are the monthly charges?

That depends on the speed of your DSL connection. There are two solutions. The only price difference between the two is the Verizon circuit charge. Read below for the meaning and use of the different speeds, along with comparisons to modem and cable modem.

• Bronze Plus Speed. This is a 768kb download speed and a 128kb upload speed. For now suffice to say that browsing/downloading is fast and sending/uploading is slow.

• Gold Speed. This is a 768kb download speed and a 768kb upload speed. It's the same as Bronze Plus, except that sending/uploading is fast.

Before you do the math and judge the prices, remember that DSL is an Internet solution best suited for the long run. In other words, it is best for an organization who projects annual fiscal costs. DSL is a solution for people who are tired of switching service providers, and email addresses, and on and on. DSL is a long term solution for business-minded individuals. So for price comparisons, we'll refer the subsequent years monthly cost of each speed, because the first year has setup costs that don't have to be paid in subsequent years. Read on if you are this type of person.

In summary, our Bronze Plus Flex DSL Solution total monthly charge (Verizon + ISP) is $83.49 a month. How do these costs compare to Verizon's package DSL, Road Runner cable modem, and other ISP DSL services?

From this comparison, our DSL solution is more expensive than Verizon DSL and Road Runner, but less expensive than other ISPs + Verizon. But this list is like comparing apples to oranges. That is because Flex offers standard features which are NOT offered by Verizon and/or RoadRunner. In order to receive the same features from Verizon and/or RoadRunner, you must purchase "Commercial" or "Enterprise" level services. Look at the features of Flex. Those features make all the difference, which are explained at the end of this article.

Let's look at an apples-to-apples comparison. In other words, let's add the standard Flex features to the other vendors and see what happens to the prices.

Verizon's Commercial grade packaged DSL service is still cheaper than INS/Flex. Verizon also offers domain name hosting, which seems to be a pretty good feature on the surface. But commerical grade Road Runner and other ISP services are almost double in price.

Now it's time to talk about Gold Speed and see what happens to the pricing.

Wow! The price for INS/Flex Gold DSL solution did NOT go up. However, Verizon increased by $100.00 per month. Road Runner doesn't even offer Gold speed, and other ISPs are over twice the price. So if you need Gold DSL speed, Flex is the way to go. Even with our markup to get it for you, it's still cheaper than any DSL service on the market. But there's more to the story than cost.

Why would you need Gold speed? The short answer is - you need Gold if you want to run your own website and your own email server. Actually, you can run your own website and email server quite well from a Flex Bronze plus connection. But if you have the foresight to run your own website and email server, then you'll probably want to do much more, such as remote office networking or on-the-road connection back to the office, or an online shopping cart. Remember that Gold speed offers fast upload speed as well as fast download speed. If you run a website and send mail, you are in effect uploading data to the Internet. For that to work quickly, you need fast upload speed.

So let's talk about the Ultimate Internet Connected Office (UICO). A UICO is one that does not rely on any other vendor for Internet services except the connection to the Internet. Flex is the purest, most reliable internet connection available in Hawaii. "Purest" because they do not attempt to tack on extra services or restrictions to your service. (Verizon and Road Runner place debilitating restrictions on your connection. Other ISPs monitor your bandwidth and charge you extra if you go over.) "Most reliable" because they focus on the connection, not on hosting your website, your email accounts, your domain name, etc. We establish those services for you, which is why the INS/Flex solution is the most "flexible" one available.

A UICO enjoys a server that runs it's own web sites and email server. That is to say, with our guidance and a Flex DSL connection, you will never have to pay for web site hosting. Think about it. One computer can host dozens, even hundreds, of websites and thousands of email accounts. If one web site hosting subscription can cost you hundreds of dollars per year, and even if you only need one website, the long term cost of a single hosting subscription can pay for your own web and email server.

What is the advantage of hosting your own website and email? In a word - peace of mind. With your own web and email server, you can do anything you want to do and never pay more than the cost of some simple hardware and your time to learn how to do it. But let's say you don't have the time and want someone else to set up the server in your office, register a domain name, make you a simple website, and program all the email accounts you might need. Here's a concrete example of the cost to do that.

New Apple iMac $799.00

Website Template design + 3 info pages -$450.00

Domain registration- $20.00/year

10 Email accounts- free

Office setup- free

This is a very simple example. An Apple iMac is used because an Apple web and email server is hack proof. Plus the webserver and and email software is free.

This article will not go into all of the benefits of running your own internet servers. This article focuses on the DSL connection that makes professional grade internet services possible. To make the proper choice, you need to know and understand 2 things: 1) What your needs are today, as well as what they will be in the future and 2) how your financial projection(s) will meet your needs.

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