The Road Fast Traveled

Don't touch that dial-up. You don't need it. We mean it-hands off. This isn't about sending e-mails to Grandma or stocking up at the Target.com online clearance-you're starting a business. You've probably already figured out that 56 Kbps might as well be two cans tied together with a string for all the good it'll do you. When it comes to Internet access for your growing Web business, the parable of the tortoise and the hare just doesn't apply. You want the fastest rabbit you can get your hands on.

Even if you're hosting your Web site on somebody else's servers, where it can benefit from their high-speed connection, your office needs speed, too. You need to conduct regular checkups on your site, send in updates, upload and download, and handle all that office e-mail. So when it comes to bandwidth, would you rather have a Yugo or a Ferrari? That's right-take the Ferrari.

In this column, we'll look at what's available for your business to connect to and give you a few pointers on picking out your new speed-demon Internet access.

This article was originally published in the April 2001 print edition of Entrepreneur with the headline: The Road Fast Traveled.