I have a friend (seriously!) who wants an ISP.
The only problem is that she doesn’t have a CD drive, and that seems to be the preferred way that the various providers want to deliver them now.
She does have communication software and a modem, though.
So, the question:
Do any of the ISP’s allow you to dial them directly and download the software that way?
With just some cursory looking, it seems that you already have to have an ISP to access their website, then download.
FWIW, here’s Juno’s home page. http://www.juno.com/fab.shtml
It’s free Internet, the only catch is you have to live where they have an access number. For $8.95 a month, you can get Premium Juno, that has more access numbers.
AFAIK, you can just download it from their website. But yeah, I guess that you’d need an ISP to get online in the first place. It’s possible she might be able to use someone else’s computer to tell them, “Hey, download this to such-and-such an URL or e-mail address.” I dunno, I got online with a CD myself.
Don’t let her go the “I’ll just use bluelight.com (or whoever) to get started, and then switch over” route, because the rejected ISP will have its feelings hurt and will find a way to leave lots of fragments and .dll files all over her hard drive, confusing it as to which browsers and access numbers it’s supposed to be using, eventually screwing it up so badly that she’ll have to reformat it.
You don’t have to have ISP-specific software for most ISPs. I’ve never used their crappy software. I always just configure dial up networking and my e-mail clients, etc for that ISP. You can usually get someone to talk you through it on the phone or get the specifics from their website. This is unless she wants to use something like AOHell or Prodickgy, etc…
Somebody else around here asked the identical question and was told that there were lots of free ISP threads all over and to search. Sounds like a plan. My free ISP is FreeLane from Excite. No disk. Free. Don’t make me repeat it- write it down.
“She does have communication software and a modem, though.”
You need more than that. You need the operating system that works for the net. Having no CDROM she must have W3.1?
Can’t tell what to do without knowing what operating system.
You can get her the software for the operating system like Juno [W95 or higher only] or some other stuff at download.com & send it to her thru her modem communication software, which is probably BBS software not Net software & probably on a little floppy disk.
Some ISPs will mail you their software if call them and ask.
Also, at some ISPs website’s, their software can be ordered through the site by filling out some form. Since your friend is not able to do that using his/her computer, a lot of public libraries are now incorporating Internet access which can be used for free.
Additionally, if your friend is in college, he/she can always use the school computers.
Some ISPs will mail you their software *on disk[/i ]if call them and ask.
She has Windows 95, but does not currently have an ISP to access a website. She does have “dial up” software, though.
I haven’t seen any diskette software packages lately. Everything is on CD, which does not read well into the diskette opening.
I got Earthlink recently, don’t get it, it really sucks and the software wouldn’t take on my pc for some reason. I talked with a techie and got my dial up networking set up to the proper IP addresses and phone numbers and it works alright. I have a problem with constantly being booted so I set up frewwweb to my dial up networking. I don’t have any crappy software to deal with and with frewwweb, I haven’t been booted yet (knocks superstitiously on wood). I just can’t get my email consistently but that is not a problem for me. I would much rather read email on the net with my main addresses anyway.
HUGS!
Sqrl
Download the software for her then split it so it fits on floppy disks, then combine them on her HD later. Use RAR or Zip & span to disks. But if you are in California you can use RedShift.com, which has a 800k setup program.
I should say with the frewwweb I didn’t have to download anything. I just had to set the dial up networking and start an account online. She will have to do this at the library or something since she doesn’t have access currently. She will need to take a pencil and write down the IP addresses needed. It is really quite simple.
HUGS!
Sqrl