Internet service provider

An Internet service provider (or ISP) is defined as “[a]n entity that provides its customers the ability to obtain online information through the Internet. ISPs purchase analog and digital lines from local exchange carriers to connect to their. . . subscribers. . . . The ISP. . . combines computer processing, information storage, protocol conversion, and routing with transmission to enable users to access Internet content and services.”

“ISPs provide two basic services to their clients: access and presence. Access services consist of an account through which the client can access the Internet and send [e-mail]]. A presence account generally includes hard drive space that permits the client to have a web page or file transfer site. Persons who wish to run a site at their own domain, rather than at the domain of their service provider, can either make the significant investment in computer hardware, networking hardware, and high-speed access necessary to make their domains available on the Internet or can rent space and services from a service provider. This latter alternative, which is analogous to renting from a landlord who makes available offices in an office complex, is called domain [[hosting].”