My current ISP, ATT Worldnet, has announced it’s cutting off the local access # for San Juan as of Jan 7. Maybe not enough of us to meet their profit projection. I have been offered the option of migrating from Worldnet (the service for us private individuals) to “Business Internet” (a different service, for (duh) businesses), which will still have access from here – same price, but now limited to 150 hrs/month (which I admit, at 5hrs per day should be manageable if I remain gainfully employed).
Now, the reason my ISP was Worldnet was because (a) at the time (1997) the local providers stank to high heaven (b) I wanted to be able to dial up to a free local # from my notebook whenever travelling across the USA.
Today the homegrown ISPs tend to charge hefty “roaming fees” for dialing up to their “partners” stateside, if I travel; and their performance still bites lamely. So it seems I’ll join the many others forced to migrate everything, and I’ll probably take them up on their offer.
My other choices down here for a “nationwide” provider are Earthlink, MSN and AOL – not exactly the Hall of Fame (and besides, all also owned by yet more Nefarious Global Conglomerates[sup]TM[/sup]).
So, Dopers… How have YOU managed this situation when you have encountered it? Any horror stories? Any suggestions? Are my alternate choices really as sad as I believe? Anyone know “Business Internet”?
I currently use Earthlink (to change later this week when I get DSL) and have had good luck with it. I also have about 10 accounts for my client that has construction jobsites all over the western states.
I occasionally get busy signals but have other numbers to choose from. If my client needs to access the 'net from a place where they don’t have local numbers, they do have an 800# that you can use and it’s a flat rate. It’s not expensive but if you are in the middle of nowhere, it’s better than not having access if you truly need it. You just have to call up Earthlink and activate it it’s an addition and they wont let you just “use it” until you recognize it will cost you more.
One rule of thumb though, whatever service you use, try to find one (like Earthlink) where you can set up dial-up networking without all the crap software. Yes, Earthlink sends you a disc with lots of fluff software but you will have fewer problems if you just set it up yourself.
So chalk me up as one that recommends Earthlink. Lots of access numbers and its’ not AOL, you can actually use the internet.
< I use AOL via BYOA as well but know it’s limitations when surfing the net >
I forgot to add, my brother uses MSN for his business and HATES it. His mail gets all screwed up and I will find that he has sent 3-5 of the same email to my address. It will come up with some error and it tells him it didn’t send. So he will try again and again…only for my email to get a buttload of emails from him.
He’s learned to wait but he is frustrated by it. My best friend uses it at home and is satisfied but she’s on it about 1/50th of the time my brother is on his account.
Even though I wont be using Earthlink (will still have account active if my DSL fails – in the web business) I do recommend it for those seeking access points in many places.
AOL is worth keeping as a backup connection method (use AOL 3.0 to avoid the mess that AOL Installer will inflict on your operating system).
For everyday use, I have a babybell DSL connection, and I still have Earthlink dial-up because it is through them that I obtained my original email address and web space and I’m not changing that now (aside from which the Earthlink network is almost as accessible as AOL when roaming).
Maybe Netzero is a better backup connection, since you get some hours free? I’ve never used AOL, but the times my cable modem is down (rare, thankfully) Netzero worked well, at least temporarily. And I never spent a dime on it.