Okay, it’s official: AOL is the worst. You probably all know it and are laughing at me even as I type this. I’m a sucker.
Okay, so who do I switch to? Yahoo? Earthlink? MSN? Who’s the best? Who has the best features? Price? When I dump AOL, what am I going to miss? Am I making a mistake? Puleeeze tell me there’s a better service out there…
[twilight zone]No, there are no better services out there. There is only AOL. AOL has you. It owns you, and can shape you to fit their ideals. PURCHASE THAT $5,000 ORIENTAL RUG!!! CHECK OUT OUR NEW CHATROOM FEATURES!!! WE NOW HAVE SMILIES THAT SUCK-A-DICK!!![/twilight zone]
Whats wrong with me?
Yahoo is an ISP??
Just cuz it’s the biggeest don’t mean it’s best. I just plug into the cable with roadrunner http://www.rr.com , $40 a month, but it just flies!
Or why not try one of the free ISPs?
get cable modem or DSL.
as for dialup: local=good, national=bad!
Hi poohpah chalupa! 
I’ve got Earthlink. $20/month for unlimited hours, which is a good deal for me and my 3am->online habit. I’ve been online almost every day since I signed up in January, and I haven’t had any problems with the service. I’m happy with it.
I’d love to get Road Runner, though, because it takes forever for me to download stuff. But the cost of it would be twice what I’m paying now for my dialup service. Can’t afford that right now.
The free ISPs I tried were okay. I didn’t care for the ever-present banners, though, and I got cut off a few too many times for my liking. YMMV.
I say get the best you can afford.
Try your local ISP. My dad subscribes to an ISP literally down the street and if there’s any trouble, he can walk a couple blocks and ask what’s up in person. He pays $15/month.
I have Juno, which is fine. I joined when they sent me a CD for a bunch of free hours, and I didn’t have an ISP, so I figured “why not?” It’s $10/month, and I’ve never had any problems with it. The only bummer is that it only allows you one email address, which doesn’t bother me, but could affect others. I am completely neutral towards Juno, which I guess is a good thing. I use it and it works. (I think it’s booted me two or three times in the last five months, which is a sight better than AOL). It doesn’t do anything fancy, but it does let me see the SDMB, so that’s good.
That is NOT an absolute. I’ve seen some real stinker local ISPs in my day. I had one that simply refused to get another T1 despite the fact that they were overflowing with customers. So I simply refused to use them anymore.
I’ve had better luck with some large ISPs. BellSouth wasn’t bad, as far as dialup goes. AT&T Worldnet was okay, too. Of course this was three years ago. I have no idea how good they are now. I’ve had cable for the last two years.
I’ve got AT&T Worldnet. Never a problem. But if I had my way? Go for a DSL. Or one of the free internet providers. It really depends on what you are doing, how much, and why. I use mine for work so I can’t tolerate the ads from the “free” guys. It’s really a question of what you want and what you need and also what you are willing to put up with…
How much are you on line? Business or pleasure? Fun or profit?
I have AT&T Worldnet too. Not many problems at all - although I wish for high-speed access. (We do get frequent disconnects, but I think it’s noise on the phone lines more than the service provider. We had the same problem before we went to AT&T.)
ANY provider would be better than AOL, with the possible exceptions of Prodigy and CompuServe.
mostly i hate the bajillion peices of spam i get, and their always wanting to sell me some shit.
hopefully i will not have to use aol too much longer.
my best friend will be getting a computer soon and she wants to run aol on it, right now i use iT and i loathe it, please help me convince her to not LOAD IT,
DO ANY DOPERS USE MSN?
anya marie,
My mother-in-law uses MSN. It’s pricy unless you have a teacher discount like her, but it seems to be an ok ISP. Even if they are owned by the Evil One.
Take the computer away from your friend if she insists on using AOL. Maybe you should find a real ISP and show her what net access is SUPPOSED to be.
Also, many pages will not load successfully on AOL.
Hope this helps…
i am certainly curious to find what a real isp is like. i wast a dsl or an at&t broad band connection. 56k is getting on my last nerve.
you wannt to know the worst part?
it is being made for her by a friend, a hand-made custom computer andthen to install the evil aol.
all i could think was “what a waste.”
am i crazy?
am i just being shallow or what?
Check out The List. Nearly 10,000 ISPs are listed, local and national. And if yoiu’re lookign for DSL, CNET has a finder for DSL service.
Get one of the free ones. That’s what I do. I notice no difference, and the ads are only about twice as big as the task bar. And did I mention that its free?
We use bluelight.com