I have broadband at home, and I used to keep a dialup ISP for when I was traveling. It was hardly used, though, so I canceled it. So now, of course, I have a vacation in HI coming up, and it’s unclear (although likely) that I’ll need dialup if I want to connect while for those 2 weeks.
So: what do folks who already have broadband at home and work do for the occasional times when they need dialup on the road? Sign up for one week of AOL or whatever? Or just pay $20/month (or whatever) for a rarely used service? Or are there short-term alternatives that cater to folks that don’t need longterm dialup?
I use an iPass reseller, Roam International, for this purpose. They not only support dialup, but also wired and wireless broadband. Rates are very reasonable and you only pay for the time you use – no monthly fee.
Note: For some reason, the web site seems to be down low. I hope this is temporary.
International Dialer have a similar service. No setup fees and no monthgly charges. No use no cost.
You may be able to connect via a cellphone w/ a $30 cable, or bluetooth. I know Verizon Wireless provides a ISP, and some others also. The thing is you need to get a digital cell sigal, speeds are low (19.4 kb/s), and does chip away at your minutes, which is OK if you have unlimited nights and weekends, and only connect then.
International Dialer is $.06/min, or 3.60/hour, which seems a bit pricey (and that's the cheapest tier; they go up to .36/min). They do have a hotspot in Kailua-Kona, but I doubt I’ll be within range; they require 50ft distance or less.
Roam’s website seems to be crashed; I get a ‘secure sockets’ error message, then a blank page.
My cell phone doesn’t do internet for a computer, and I’d be roaming in HI, so that doesn’t seem practical.
I guess I’ll just sign up for Earthlink, pay 1 month ($20ish), and cancel when I get back. Hmph… you’d think there’d be some market for short-term ISPs, especially in a vacation spot like HI, where I could pay $5/week or somesuch for dialup, more for highspeed, but still a temporary contract.
Are you sure your ISP doesn’t already include a limited-use dial-up account? When I had Earthlink DSL I also had (I think 100) minutes per month dial-up, just for traveling or when the DSL was down. They gave you the dial-up number and you used your same user name and password as you used on your DSL.
It may well be that Earthlink is the only one that does that, because SBC and Comcast neither one offer it. But it wouldn’t hurt to check it out - Earthlink didn’t ever let it be well-known that they offered this, I found out almost by mistake.
A good thought, but I have cable internet, Charter, and they don’t seem have any dial-up service, at least as I read their web site.
I have dial-up at home. I used to take my old laptop with me when I travelled and used the local access number. Last time I did that I found that my 166mHz laptop with Win95 wouldn’t support the webmail page. And it barely allowed SDMB to work. So I got a new laptop. My PowerBook G4 has an Airport, so I could use it at a hotel that has WiFi. Theoretically. I haven’t taken it to a ‘hotspot’ yet. Will your laptop support a wireless connection that you can use at a hotspot?
Yes, I can do that. It’s just so much more convenient to connect from the condo we’ll be staying at if I can. We tend to be out hiking/swimming, etc. all day; I sleep about 50% less than my wife and kid, so a good time to surf is at night/early-morning.
Followup:
I ended up finding a low-rentish ISP, FlexNext, that seems ideal: $9.95/mo (+ $5 setup), no frills, no support, just an access number. Works for me. They claim to be nationwide, which I haven’t taken the time to affirm.
Best feature: you must re-sign up each month to get access. If you want to quit the service, do nothing, and service terminates automatically. This sounds ideal for occasional travelers with hi-speed at home.
My trip is next week, but I’ve already dialed into the Flex network in Hilo, no problems. Looks like I’m good to go.