The regional networks and tributaries of the major commercial networks intersect at four main network access points (NAPs) near New York, Washington, D.C., Chicago, and San Francisco.

In general, the NAPs interconnect with each other and with major cities that feed into them with T-3 lines. MCI includes a large ATM network with OC-3 lines.

The Chicago NAP provides high speed and high degrees of scalability. For example, connectivity to the NAP can be made in speeds ranging from T3/DS3 to OC12 and the network can support hundreds of ISPs at these speeds.

The Chicago NAP has been operational for almost four years and continues to grow. The operations record is excellent and the performance realized by attached ISPs is exceptional. Some providers connecting and exchanging traffic (peering) at Chicago NAP are AT&T, MCI, CompuServe, Netcom, Digex, and Sprint.

We use the U.S. English "Kbps" as the abbreviation for "thousands of bits per second." In international English outside the U.S., the equivalent usage is "kbits s-1."

In it's most basic terms   "Kbps" is equal to a thousand bits per second. "Mbps" is equal to a million bits per second.

With our direct backbone access to Chicago NAP, our goal is to make your site available to the World at acceptable speeds during peak usage times. We monitor our resources very carefully 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. We also implement other measures such as directing our JavaChat scripts be run from specially designed servers for this purpose only. This careful planning in network resources guarantees speed and reliability so your site is available 99.95% of the day or night. As you can see SpringWeb is SERIOUS about providing unparalleled service and satisfaction in internet services.