It provides dedicated communications links to each member's location through which its users access the Internet. Host computers can be almost any computer, including mainframes, mid-size servers and workstations, PCs, and Macintoshes. This heterogenous computing environment demonstrates the interoperability made possible by Internet networking protocols. Unlike many other Internet service providers, ARKnet does not provide dial-up access to the Internet. All of its connections are through dedicated communications lines.
Individual members can, of course, provide dial-up services to their own constituents, and many do.
ARKnet connections are designed to extend full service to each institution, regardless of size. Each site has a plan for ensuring access to its faculty and students, enabling these constituents to use the resources of larger institutions statewide and worldwide through the Internet. The Consortium has a cooperative working agreement to share communications costs and data paths where it makes sense to do so and to cooperatively design and build networks within the state.