onfused with a Point-of-Presence, which is a local access number for an ISP.) Outgoing e-mail is essentially the same process in reverse. When a person sends a message from their e-mail program it is uploaded right away to the ISP. It is temporarily stored in an outgoing mailbox on a computer known as an SMTP server. Usually the message can be delivered right away, but if there is a problem delivering the message, it will be stored on the SMTP server until it can be delivered later. A person doesn’t need to stay dialed-in to assure delivery. A persons ISP will also provide them with the address of their SMTP server. In some cases, it may be the same address used for the POP server. (SMTP stands for Simple Mail Transfer Protocol.) An ISP is also sometimes referred to as an IAP (Internet access provider). ISP is sometimes used as an abbreviation for independent service provider to distinguish a service provider that is an independent, separate company from a telephone company. When talking to Derrick Lea, an IT specialist at Airborne Express, about the future of ISP and the ISP market he said “It is my view that the conventional ISP market of individuals is unlikely to be profitable for most people entering at this time. Many people have started thriving businesses based on this idea; but now it's more the formerly auxiliary efforts such as web pages and electronic commerce, which dominate the universe of small companies.” It is my view that smaller ISPs are not going do very well in the future. It will only be the large ISP’s that will succeed. In doing more research on the market of ISPs, I found out that only 20 percent of the Internet service providers operate nationally, but these generate 80 percent of the revenues in the market, according to my research. My research also found that hosting accounts for almost 30 percent of all business revenues for ISPs, and those consumers remain unwilling to pay for value-...
