I want to be an ISP

:)

[j4mes]

Well, no, I'm not sure I have that kind of money, but I'd be interested to know how it works.

Do ISPs connect to bigger ISPs? And what do they connect to?

Just interested :)

Thanks.

[jo1ene]

I have a friend who started up as an ISP, with two modem banks with eight modems a piece. He bought them used for next to nothing. You "connect" to the phone company which leases you the T1 or whatever. I suppose it depends on your area.

[peterdaly]

To answer your question, yes!

They connect to larger ISPs who eventially or directly attach to what are considered "backbone" providers and links.

Run windows? Open a command prompt and type in "tracert www.webmasterworld.com", it will show you what "hops" your request goes through to get here.

Mac OS X? traceroute www.webmasterworld.com
Linux? /usr/sbin/traceroute www.webmasterworld.com

(Did I get those right?)

It should show you the domain names of some if not all of the routers along the way. Usually you can tell what ISP's things go through by the router names, and sometimes even the physical location.

Traceroute is a tool usually used for network troubleshooting, but it's interesting to see where your packets go even when things are working fine. It also helps in instances like this to see how the network is constructed.

[mincklerstraat]

you can be a 'mini ISP' for your appartment block - [forevergeek.com...] - as long as you don't charge for it I believe - see [news.com.com...] - other laws may apply.

[maddie]

You can become what is called a virtual ISP. Check out companies like www.ikano.com www.alliancesolutions.biz, www,cisp.com, or www.dialupusa.com.