(IDG) -- Chris Dixon loves to surf. And so does the rest of the staff at Surfer magazine, based in San Juan Capistrano, California. When it became obvious that they needed to surf the Web as well as the waves, online editor Dixon was faced with a dizzying array of decisions to be made.

The single America Online account he and the staff were using was "woefully inadequate," says Dixon. "We needed e-mail for everyone and a more convenient, reliable connection."

But how much more did they need? Access to the Internet for research? A good idea. Their own Web site to promote the magazine? Sure, if it wasn't too expensive. An online payment system so they could sell regional surf reports? Whoa, dude--could they do that?

"We were blown away by all the choices," Dixon says.

Small-business owners everywhere are asking the same question: What's the best way to hook up to the Net? Lots of factors determine the answer, but it really comes down to how much Internet you need.

A small two-person office that needs to send and receive e-mail and roam the Web has vastly different requirements from a 20-employee company with plans to sell products over the Net. Finding an Internet service provider takes some digging, and costs run from a few dollars for a single e-mail account to hundreds a month for multiple-user accounts with a full range of Internet features. Simply put, the more data you want to move, the more it will cost you. So you need to choose wisely.

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In this article, we'll look at three small-business scenarios with different Net needs. Whether you're a one-person start-up, a small networked office, or an established firm with a staff of 30 looking to sell your wares online, we'll help you find the right hardware, bandwidth options, and ISP. Along the way we'll identify products that can make your life easier--and maybe make your business more profitable.

Scenario 1: Bare-Bones Internet

"I use the web for research, to look up financial information on companies, and for networking with colleagues," says David Kaufman, a market research consultant in Boston. He uses a Pentium-60 desktop with a 33.6-kilobits-per-second modem and a P-120 laptop with a 28.8-kbps modem--not as fast a setup as he'd like, but "it gets the job done."

Kaufman works out of his small office and connects to the Net via AOL and The Internet Access Company, a local ISP. He's living proof that if your online needs are moderate, you don't need the latest, greatest hardware to get value from the Internet.

If your business is small, if you want to connect only a few PCs to the Net, and if you're interested primarily in e-mail and Web access, don't be afraid to think small. There's no need to spend a bundle on fancy hardware and high-powered connections--a simple ISP account and a modem will suffice.

The Old-Fashioned Way

Internet connections are measured by the maximum speed at which your computer can soak up data from your ISP. If your business PCs are already connected to the Net, you're probably using a 28.8-kbps or 33.6-kbps modem and a standard analog telephone line. That's more than enough speed for e-mail, but for comfortably downloading pages from the Web, you'll want more juice. You'll be better off with a 56-kbps modem. Most 56-kbps modems download files about 50 percent faster than 33.6-kbps models and cost around $120 to $250.

If you use two analog phone lines in your office, one for data and one for voice, there's a new option for speeding up downloads that should be available by the time you read this. Diamond Multimedia has developed Shotgun, a software technology that lets you combine the bandwidth of your voice line, or of any additional line, with that of your existing data line to (theoretically) double your throughput. And it's smart enough to release the voice line for incoming or outgoing phone calls.

The catch is, you need a modem for each line, with two open connections to the ISP, and your ISP must support the technology. Although Shotgun will work with any modem, Diamond has also developed a two-in-one modem, the SupraSonic II.

Of course, attaining your modem's full rated speed depends heavily on the quality of your local telephone lines, some luck, and which way the wind is blowing. To get a clearer signal and a faster (and much more expensive) connection, you'll need to go digital.

An ISP of Your Own

For a non-networked office that has two or three people using analog modems, getting an ISP account for each user may be the simplest solution, and the cheapest. Most ISPs have a $19.95-per-month plan that provides unlimited connect time and all the standard features, such as Web access, e-mail, and access to Usenet newsgroups, so choosing which company to go with is primarily a matter of preference or taste.

But for more than three users, $19.95 per person plus the cost of a phone line can add up pretty quickly. Some service providers, such as MindSpring and EarthLink, will let you add additional mailboxes to a single account--usually for around $5 a month. And for an extra per-hour fee, many ISPs let more than one person log on simultaneously. MindSpring, for example, charges $1 to $2 an hour, depending on the plan, while EarthLink does not offer this service.

Of course, some of the service providers prefer to steer their business users toward more comprehensive (and more expensive) Web-hosting accounts; these companies open their $19.95 unlimited access plans only to individuals and families.

If you've got ISDN, you'll need to find an ISP that offers digital access in your area. PC World Online's ISP Finder (link below) can help you. Expect to pay an extra $40 per month for the higher-speed connections. Fortunately, establishing an ISDN account with your ISP is no different from starting an analog account; it's all done by voice over the telephone.

Scenario 2: The Networked Office

"A beautifully made table must be seen to be truly appreciated," says Gordon Whiting, chief operating officer of Berkeley Mills, a maker of fine hardwood furniture in Berkeley, California. "We saw a Web site as a potentially more persuasive medium than mail order for generating sales."

For the past year Gordon has overseen his company's successful push to develop an Internet presence as well as an e-mail link for communicating with its branch factory in Santa Fe, New Mexico--but not without a few snags.

The firm's first ISP was unreliable and offered no help when staffers had questions. But he hit pay dirt on the next try with LanMinds, a small local ISP and network consultant. "We installed an ISDN router with no trouble," says Whiting, "and when an obscure FTP problem kept our Web page developer from loading pages to our site, LanMinds worked on-site with the developer and another consultant for four hours until the problem was solved."

Hooking Your Net to the Net

Getting a small office of five to ten people onto the Internet is simplest when each user's PC is linked with a local area network. Let's say you want Internet and in-house e-mail, comfortable Web-surfing capabilities, and a company Web page. By making a single connection to your ISP, a LAN lets you avoid the costs and hassles of separate online accounts and phone lines for each PC.

Once you've got a network, what else do you need? If only five or six of your users surf the Net regularly, there are several products that will let them share Internet connections using existing analog phone lines rather than a pricier ISDN line.

Artisoft's I.Share provides simultaneous Internet access to everyone on your network using only one connection, eliminating the need for multiple accounts. Simply install the software on any computer on the LAN, and a modem hooked to that PC connects to the ISP. I.Share costs $249 for 32 sessions (Internet applications being run simultaneously). You can download a trial version at www.artisoft.com.

Think one measly connection might not do the job? MidPoint Gateway from MidCore could be the answer. This $299 software package provides an Internet connection simultaneously to all users on the network. But it combines the bandwidth of two modems to do the job, speeding up Web page downloads, file transfers, and other Net traffic. And it does this independent of your ISP. The only catch is that you'll need a separate ISP connection--and a separate account--for each modem.

You can install both I.Share and MidPoint on any networked PC. That system can function as a workstation while simultaneously accessing the Web, but heavy traffic may slow it down. And if that PC crashes, so does your Internet connection. These programs are best suited for use on a dedicated PC, or for users with smaller networks and casual Net needs.

If you don't want to tie up a whole PC, one alternative is the $439 WebRamp M3 from Ramp Networks. It's a little black box that connects to your PCs through the same 10Base-T wires that make up an ethernet network, and it even includes a four-port hub (the common connection point for all computers on a network). But the WebRamp's main function is to control data traffic between your ISP and network using an analog modem.

WebRamp M3's advantage is that it can handle up to three modems at once, theoretically tripling the speed of your connection. And more than one user can log on to the Internet at a time using that hyped-up connection. But the increased download speeds apply only to documents saved in HTML and other data formats that can be carved up easily into separate data streams. Downloads of graphics files and spreadsheets, for example, won't benefit. And since each modem logs on with the ISP separately, you may have to pay additional connection fees. But given the hundreds of dollars a month you'd pay for a LAN-based ISDN account, you'd still save money.

ISDN for Everyone

If you've got more than, say, five people who need constant Net access, you'll want to harness the higher speeds of an ISDN connection. But with a server-based or peer-to-peer network, an ISDN modem alone won't do. You'll also need an ISDN router to connect the network to your ISP. A router works as a digital post office, sorting all the incoming and outgoing e-mail, Web pages, and other data and preparing them for delivery. Expect to pay $500 to $1000 or more for a router from one of the better-known vendors. The Netopia 635, for example, costs around $800 and comes with a phone or fax connection.

But your router isn't smart enough to separate and deliver individual e-mail messages from the batch to each recipient. To do that, the LAN must be running an e-mail management program, more commonly known as an e-mail server.

Make sure the e-mail server is compatible with the SMTP format that Internet mail uses; Eudora Worldmail Server 2.0 ($159 for ten users) is an example. An SMTP-compatible server can automatically recognize and deliver e-mail formatted for travel over the Internet. If you have an in-house server that's not SMTP compatible (like Lotus's cc:Mail), you'll need to buy and install an Internet mail gateway program that translates Net e-mail to and from that system's protocols.

Another option for the small company with limited in-house MIS support is the $1995 InterJet 100 from Whistle Communications. It looks like a toaster and has a mail server, Web server, and router all built in. Sold through over 150 participating ISPs, the InterJet 100 is configured before you receive it to work with your ISP. So setup just means plugging it in and typing a simple initialization code that your ISP gives you.

You'll also need an ISDN LAN account with your telephone company. Pacific Bell, for example, offers one for $400 a month. And if your phone company wants to sell you a router and install it, consider the offer: The company knows what works best with its lines--as well as the best way to install it.

Hanging Your E-Shingle

When it comes to building your company's first Web site, choosing the right ISP becomes even more important--you want one that will host the site and help you maintain it. Just about every ISP, from AT&T to the guy above the local 7-Eleven, offers a different Web-hosting package. At the low end, most ISPs have a basic account, like EarthLink's Startersite package that includes Internet access and a 10MB plot of Web space for $19.95 per month. If you want help building and maintaining your site, there's also the Basic Business Website package, which starts at $89 a month for 15MB of disk space and climbs to $289 per month for 100MB. (If you want fancy graphics or interactive features like searchable databases, you'll need at least 25MB of space.)

Some packages, such as Concentric Network's $39.95-per-month Small Business Service plan, will throw in a custom domain name free; others charge up to $100 plus registration fees.

Finally, someone has to design your site. Unless you (or someone in your company) have lots of free time and loads of programming experience, I recommend getting expert help. Some ISPs offer Web site design as part of a premium package. Bell Atlantic, for example, will get you up and running with a basic graphics-and-text Web site for $500. Designing more-sophisticated sites can easily cost many tens of thousands of dollars.

Scenario 3: Doing Business on the Web

"We were the creative force, with no clue about the technology," recalls Whitney Moss, technical coordinator at Reel.com. A virtual video store that started on the Web last April, Reel.com moved to the "real" world last July with the opening of its first retail outlet in Berkeley, California.

In three months Reel's handful of employees had expanded to become a staff of 35. And because the company was doing online commerce from day one, its online needs, and its technical problems, changed daily. That's why Moss says it's vital to hire good technical people and develop solid, long-term relationships with them. "In a fast-growing company," she says, "independent consultants can often do more harm than good. You always need something changed. And when they're gone, they're gone."

Hitting the Big Time

If you plan to put more than 20 users on the Internet, need a big Web site with online sales capabilities, and want the site in place yesterday, the most crucial piece of advice is to get good help. If you can't afford to put a qualified Webmaster on staff, you may have no choice but to hire a consultant. And finding a good consultant is like finding a good dentist: The safest approach is to ask people you trust for their recommendations--or you could be in for a world of pain.

You need solid advice when weighing all the options for types of connections, hardware, and electronic commerce packages. Your biggest decision: whether to go it alone, maintaining hardware and Web operations on-site, or to keep everything on an ISP's server and conduct your business through a ready-made (or turnkey) Web-hosting and electronic commerce package.

For newcomers, the solution is clear: Stick with the ready-made route. Turnkey applications and hardware will save you money while you get your feet wet.

More Speed Means More Money

If you have both the inclination and the finances to host your own big, high-traffic Web site, you're going to need an even faster Net connection, along with some pricey hardware.

The next step up from ISDN is a dedicated leased line that's always connected to your service provider. Leased lines sizzle; a T1 connection allows transmission speeds of up to 1.5 megabits per second, more than ten times faster than ISDN. But the price of a leased line can be as dizzying as its speed.

Just installing a T1 line runs into thousands of dollars, and monthly fees can exceed $1000 as well. You'll also need a router and a CSU/DSU (the T1 equivalent of a modem), which will cost another $2000 to $5000. And obviously, a high-powered site needs a high-powered computer--whether it's a Pentium Pro PC or a high-end Sun workstation--with lots of memory and storage.

So unless you're expecting very heavy traffic on your Web site or have more than 30 employees who constantly upload and download large files, it's not worth forking over the big bucks for a leased line.

"Many small businesses are sold a T1 line that they don't need," says Drew Taubman, managing director of the Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia offices of U.S. Web, a Web-hosting solutions provider. "Unless your small company has exceptional demand, a fractional T1 or frame-relay connection should suffice."

As their names imply, fractional T1 and frame-relay connections offer a fraction of a T1 line's speed, starting at 56 kbps and rising incrementally to match the T1's 1.5-mbps throughput. For example, a 128-kbps frame-relay connection from Pacific Bell costs $1650 to set up and $795 a month, compared to a full T1 line, which costs $2900 to set up and $1895 per month. Prices may vary depending on where you live. Once a 128-kbps line is in place, you don't need to add more hardware to get more bandwidth; you can activate the higher speed with a phone call--for a price.

By comparison, the same company offers an ISDN LAN line--it also runs at 128 kbps--for a $400 setup fee and $400 per month. So why pay more for a leased line when ISDN is so much cheaper? Leased lines provide a continuous connection to the Internet for Web servers located at the business. A 24-hour connection and an on-site server are a must if you sell products on your site--another good argument for letting someone else host your site.

Also, keep an eye open for new high-speed technologies. Cable Internet access, which pipes the Net into your office through two-way cable TV lines, is slowly becoming available around the country. And xDSL, better known by its variants, including ADSL and HDSL, is a new digital technology that uses existing copper-wire phone lines to deliver high-speed data. Cable Internet access and xDSL are still in their trial stages.

E-Commerce on the Cheap Side

With more merchants and consumers becoming comfortable with the online world, and software becoming more secure and user-friendly, setting up shop on the Internet has never been easier for a small business. But it's still expensive--so before you leap, look closely at the costs and make sure they're justified.

Setting up a Net commerce system on your own used to mean licensing expensive software like ICat's $3495 Pro Commerce Publisher 3.0, hiring developers to build a storefront, and linking it with credit card verification and payment systems like Cybercash and Veriphone. Combined with hardware and connection costs, the bill could run into the tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Our advice? Don't bother. Many ISPs (mostly regional and national) offer much cheaper commerce packages. AT&T WorldNet's SecureBuy service, for example, works with business Web sites hosted by AT&T. With the service, visitors can complete slick, secure credit-card transactions by clicking an icon on your Web page. Fees range from $395 to $595 per month for up to 500 transactions, plus a $500 setup charge. Of course, that doesn't include the cost of designing the site.

If your needs are more modest and you're looking for a faster, simpler solution, ViaWeb can have you selling your products online in minutes, literally. Its Web site has an online editor that lets you build a simple storefront on ViaWeb's server and stock it with your products. It doesn't get much easier. For $100 a month for up to 50 items or $300 for up to 1000 items, and no per-transaction fee, it's a good deal.

Another online solution worth watching closely is the alliance between American Express, Hewlett-Packard, and Mercantec, the maker of the popular Softcart commerce package. Still in trials with EarthLink and MindSpring at press time, the group's pilot program, ExpressVault, will cost $120 per month, with no per-transaction fee, and will offer coordination with popular accounting packages like Intuit's QuickBooks, as well as secure payment backed by American Express. It should be available by the time you read this.

When all is said and done, if you're thinking of hooking up your business to the Internet, you've got two big decisions to make: what kind of hardware to use and which ISP to choose. Both choices hinge entirely on your company's needs, so do your homework and assess what those are before you lay down your cash.

Kirk Steers is a contributing editor for PC World.

Related CNN Interactive stories:

The cutting-edge couch surfer - June 23, 1998
Eight ways to work across the Web
Busy Signal' survey rates national ISPs - February 19, 1998
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