How You Access the Internet Survey Results

TechSoup's How You Access the Internet survey ran March 6 to April 3, 2006. With 2,289 respondents, the survey generated the highest turnout of any previous TechSoup survey. Thank you to all who participated!

How You Access the Internet was designed to help us better understand how TechSoup users access the Internet. In particular, we were interested in learning more about you use the following technologies:

• Browsers
• Internet Connection
• Screen Resolution

Highlights

Who took the survey?

As with previous surveys, respondents held a vast array of different positions. IT managers were slightly more represented in this survey, making up 17.1 percent of respondents. High-level managers (meaning executive directors, board members, CEOs, CFOs, presidents, and COOs) made up 28.8 percent of respondents.

Respondents came from primarily smaller organizations: 55 percent had budgets below $1 million, while 17 percent had budgets below $100,000. This is consistent with previous surveys.

International Participation

Although 20 percent of TechSoup's visitors are from outside the United States, only 5 percent of survey respondents were; of these, Canadians made up the majority at 78 percent, while a full 13 percent came from countries where English was not the predominant language.

Browsers and Operating Systems

Among survey respondents, Internet Explorer is still the browser of choice: 65.6 percent of respondents indicated that Internet Explorer is their default browser. At 25.7 percent, Mozilla Firefox is also popular.

The survey also found that only 25 percent of respondents plan on changing their default browser within the next year. Among those who do plan to make the switch, Mozilla Firefox is the browser of choice at 71.9 percent of respondents.

When it comes to operating systems, Windows is number one, with 91.3 percent of respondents reporting they use some version of Windows. The survey also found that the operating systems respondents use are up-to-date, with a full 78.3 percent reporting that they use Windows XP. Windows was consistently popular among both U.S. and international respondents.

Only 7 percent of respondents are looking to change their operating system in the next year. Those planning on making the switch are not planning to switch from Microsoft, however, but upgrading: 66.7 percent indicated that they are switching to Windows XP.

Connecting to the Internet

Survey respondents have sophisticated connections. Over 50 percent of survey respondents use a DSL connection, 24 percent use a cable modem, 11 percent use a T1 line, and 4.9 percent use a dial-up connection. This breakdown was across all organizational sizes and international respondents.

Screen Resolution

Most respondents use a high screen resolution, with 63.3 percent of respondents reporting a resolution of at least 1024x800 pixels. A full 30.5 percent reported screen resolutions less than 800x600 pixels.

Only 3 percent of respondents are planning to change their screen resolution; of those planning on making the change, 83 percent are planning to use 1024x800 pixels or higher.