Best Dial Up Service

[TallPaul]

I use dial up and currently have Juno, which sucks. I am told Juno (and its clone Netzero) are bottom of the barrel dial up services. My best choice of switch would likely be SBC (my phone company) because eventually they will bring in DSL and then I will be all set to upgrade, but they have been promising DSL for at least a year. Someone told me PeoplePC is a good dial up. I realize most of you probably left dialup in the dust long ago, but maybe a few still use it and can advise. Won't go cable as I do not want to pay the higher cost and I don't have any cable services to piggyback off of (I assume cable TV is separate from cable internet but uses same lines).

Anyway, my problem with Juno is mainly that the stupid thing leaves files open that prevent me from signing back on and I have to go into the Task Manager every time and kill 2 or 3 files before I can connect with the net. It's the software as it did this on the old computer and the new. I just upgraded my computer from:

Gateway Solo laptop with Win 98SE
512 MHz Celeron processor
96 MB RAM
6 GB hard drive

to:

HP Pavilion S7700N Slimline Desktop PC Dual-Core, wireless AMD Athlon 64 X2 Processor 3800+ 2.0 GHz, 2x512KB L2, 2000MHz FSB 1.0 GB PC2-4200
DDR2 Memory 250GB 7200-rpm DATA hard drive Windows Vista Home Premium

So things run a lot faster even with the dialup.

 

[Mystic]

I used dial-up internet for many years. It has only been in the most recent years that I have had DSL. I use both Apple and Windows computers.

I actually like dial-up in many years even though it is slow. All you have to have is a modem, ISP, and plug a telephone wire into a telephone outlet. You are not online all the time and you are safer because a lot of the cybercriminals want to make use of a person's highspeed internet connection (so they can take over computers and use them to send spam).

The drawbacks are that you either tie up your telephone line while you are online or you need to get a second line, the internet is a lot slower, and the big problem for me was that it was almost impossible to get updates from Microsoft or Apple because of the size of the updates, the time it would take to download the updates, and some ISPs put a time limit on how long you can be online with at least with no activity (going from one internet site to another), so even leaving the computer on at night to download updates was impossible.

With my Apple Computers I had a good thing going on-I could get updates from Apple Computer through a nearby Apple store that would sell me operating system and other updates on a CD-R. As far as I know they still do this although with DSL I have not had to buy CD-Rs in quite a while.

DSL or cable internet is still affordable when you consider you may have to have a second telephone line with dial-up internet.

With my Apple Computers one of the best internet services I ever had was with Syracuse.net. When some loser with no life tried to do a denial of service on my computer (my NetBarrier software stopped the attack cold) the head guy at my ISP even on his own tried to track down the jerk. When I went to DSL internet it was with great regret that I left Syracuse.net as a customer; I had a lot of second thoughts. Even today I miss the simplicity of good old dial-up. Since I was able to get operating system updates by buying CD-rs every once in a while the only drawback was tying my telephone line up while I was on the internet.

I don't know if there is some way to get updates from Microsoft on CD-R, either free or for a small amount of money. If it is possible to get updates from Microsoft on CD-R and if I still can get updates from Apple on CD-R I might even go back to dialup. But I would go back to dial-up mainly for security; you don't really save money on dial-up if you have a second telephone line. And I would have to find a very good ISP before I returned to dial-up-they don't seem very commonplace nowadays. In order to get good service you might have to be willing to pay $20.00 or so even for dial-up. But you would still save money unless you purchased a second telephone line.

I like the security of dial-up, as long as I have some way to get system updates. You are less of a target if you are online only briefly, don't have highspeed internet, and if you use an Apple Computer you are not much of a target anyway. It is almost worth getting a little Mac Computer just for the internet even if you are a Windows kind of guy. And once you have the info from the ISP it is so simple just plugging a telephone line in. It works just about anywhere, even in rural areas. You still need a good firewall and antivirus, especially for a Windows computer. If you don't use a second telephone line you save money. I kind of liked those old days.

 

[Laminar Lou]

I've got all of our sales people in the field using Earthlink and they have almost zero problems. It's fast, reliable, and seems to be in almost all metropolitan areas.

 

[eljefino]

FWIW my cable modem has a "suspend" button that I could conceivably shut it off with when not in use. To deliberately use a slow connection to keep hackers at bay seems like hiding under the bed.... losing out on a lot to mitigate a small risk... a modern day agoraphobia.

Back around y2k the wife was using AT&T's dialup that was part of a "7/7" plan-- $7 a month internet, 7 cents a minute long distance. Not sure if they still offer dialup but I used it and it was snappy.

You can always see if you can "sublet" wifi from a neighbor you trust. Maybe only plug that card in for your big download events.

 

[97tbird]

until 3 months ago, when we got DSL and wireless routers, we used dial up. We had Compuserve, and they were pretty good. we used it for 4 yrs @ 14.95 a month, and never had any problems.
we had it on a pretty "old" Compaq presario with 704MB RAM, and a 1.6 Ghz AMD Athlon.

 

[CivicFan]

Strange. When I was still on dial-up service, I had Netzero and it was quite good. I never had any problems but might have changed during these years.

 

[brianl703]

Quote:

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the big problem for me was that it was almost impossible to get updates from Microsoft or Apple because of the size of the updates, the time it would take to download the updates

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I have enabled automatic updates on my mom's Windows XP system, which is only connected with dialup, and it WILL download the updates in the background. It's very interesting to watch--it transfers the file slowly so as not to use up all of your bandwidth (which there obviously isn't much on a dialup connection)--if you didn't see it downloading the file on the notification bar you wouldn't know that it is. It is apparently designed to throttle itself when downloading on a dialup connection.

Also, if the dial up connection is terminated or the computer shut down it will resume right where it left off when the computer is brought back up and the dialup connection re-established.

It obviously takes a while to download the updates this way, but they do get downloaded and installed. I'd guess that they are all installed within a few days of release, and that's with my mom using the dialup only 30 minutes a day. I NEVER see the computer downloading updates when I use it on Saturday, and I know the updates come out on Tuesday, so between Tuesday and Saturday, just with my mom's normal dialup internet usage, the updates are getting downloaded and installed.

My mom uses http://www.copper.net , it's $10 a month and there has never been any problem with it. It's even good enough to stream Sirius online

 

[obbop]

Been with high-speed cable for 3 months now. I am spoiled. Rotten.

From 1996 to the end of 2006 I was a dial-up dude.

Very first was with AOL, back before AOL was widely known as being amongst the low of the proverbial low.

Within 5 months I learned so off to MSN, the earlier MSN stab at being an ISP. What a joke.

Next when on to the local ISPs. Most areas have a slew of 'em unless you are rural or very rural. Suburbs and urban areas have a large variety.

My best luck has been with the local folks. Very good service and the market has become so competitive an ISP has to offer good service or lose out to the many competitors.

I didn't worry about trying to save a few bucks monthly. I would rather pay $60 more per year to have a good reliable connection.

I would drop a local ISP if their service declined in any way or if a spambot defeated their defences and harvested my address resulting in a horde of spams.

My last dial-up deal was with a local ISP who had very good protection to keep my e-mail addy from being stolen from their computers. My connection was as good as a dial-up connection could be. In four years there was but ONE time when their systems failed, keeping me from the Web, and that was rectified very quickly. I was very happy with their service and when I first started with them the first year was 1/2-price. Lots of deals around here. Even if an ISP doesn't advertise a deal ask for one!!!! Especially the local hometown boys.

Going cable I also switched my phone to the cable company. The telephone cost savings paid for the extra cost of high-speed cable internet connection. With my security set-up I am not worried about hacking or cracking though it is conceivable such an event can occur.

Try the local ISPs. And, with time, I expect high-speed connections to fall in price. The time may come when there isn't much, if any, price differential between dial-up and high-speed connectivity. In my case, as mantioned, the cost savings from reduced telephone costs, brought high-speed down to dial-up price.

Wheeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[eljefino]

Quote:

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Try the local ISPs. And, with time, I expect high-speed connections to fall in price. The time may come when there isn't much, if any, price differential between dial-up and high-speed connectivity. In my case, as mantioned, the cost savings from reduced telephone costs, brought high-speed down to dial-up price.

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My sister is living this life with $18/mo DSL. It's a loss leader for Verizon as she had to sit through a sales pitch for caller ID, call waiting, voicemail, yadda yadda.

Over the last year my cable company (I'm an internet only customer, though a cartoon channel makes it through the bandpass filter) silently announced two tiers of service and bumped everyone to high/expensive automatically. When the PUC/FCC-required rate card came with my bill, I studied it, inquired, and had my service slowed down. Recommend anyone with cable internet look into this, as the "rest of the web" is generally slower than the cable pipeline.

 

[TallPaul]

Thanks for much great discussion. I reloaded Juno and it seems to be working a bit better. Time will tell. I wonder if I can use their access numbers and dial up directly through MSExplorer instead of having to suffer through the Juno opening screen full of advertizements.

 

[JustinH]

The best dial up service is the cheapest one with the good ratings.

There are several ISP review sites, and search engines that search for the cheapest service by your zip code.

My uncle rarely uses the internet, i set him up with a company called bluefrog that offered internet for like 50 bucks a year.

But, with the cheapness of dsl (9.99 a month in some areas, 14.99 in most).

It makes sense just to get dsl if you are on a budget.

As for the comment not being safe with always on internet, setup a nat firewall, and don't worry about it. You can buy a linksys router for 30 bucks that serves as a nat firewall, then you can share your internet with other computers in your home.

 

[Pablo]

If I had to go back, I'd use a local dial-up. I always had OK luck with them. Do such places still exist?

I've been cable for several years and will not go back. I doubt speed = unsafe, I do have double protection and put the network cable modem in standby when the PC's aren't attended. (Price diff now is not that much)

 

[Anduril]

Surely one of your neighbors has a wireless signal that you can leech off of.

 

[ekrampitzjr]

After a great deal of comparison shopping online at the library when I received my gift computer, I settled on Internet Express. It's based in California but has local access numbers all over the country, and it meets the V.92 standard. (The local access number is in my exchange and does not even require the area code in front of the phone number. Consequently, our second phone line does not even have a long distance provider assigned to it.)

Our phone carrier made our second line operational by assigning a phone number to it and activating the other pair of wires already running to the service box on the house. I simply had to run a phone line from the service box to the modem jack. When all of this was set up in late 2005, I still worked in corrections and had to have the primary (voice) phone line available in case the institution called, so the second phone line was a necessity as much as a convenience for Internet service.

Standard cost for Internet Express service is $12.95 a month and the additional cost from Verizon for the dedicated second phone line is about $20.00 a month. The connection works well enough that I routinely do large PDF document and software update downloads. I still use the library machines on occasion for large print jobs using their laser printer, since I use an inkjet printer at home, and for viewing a really large PDF file or other really large file.

We're in the sticks, and Verizon has not made DSL available so far despite comments that it was around the corner. That's some corner. But we're lucky Verizon doesn't just give us two tin cans and a string for phone service.

As has been well hashed on other forums here, satellite Internet service is horribly expensive and often leaves a lot to be desired. So here I am still with a dialup modem—and generally pretty happy.

 

[TallPaul]

I have a Juno package compatible with Vista coming. Will try that next. For some reason it was not on their download page.