|
|
The Demise Of Free ISP's And What To Do About ItDec 05 '00 Write an essay on this topic.Like the infamous Get Paid To Surf phenomenon, free ISP's have a very huge following; and the same track record seemingly as well. Some Internet users vehemently refuse to pay for Internet access, and use freebies only. They are in for a wake-up call though - free Internet Service Providers are slowly but surely falling off the face of the Internet Earth, leaving you with a short list of picks, or the possibility of actually PAYING for Internet Access. What am I talking about? - If you keep up with techie news (like me) you've read a story about 1stUp.com, a free ISP provider - they license out their software to major labels. Currently some of their top private label names include Excite, AltaVista, MyPoints Connect, and Lycos. AltaVista recently released a statement notifying users that their free access would be disappearing -I got an email from MyPoints telling me that MPConnect would be haulted too. Lycos and Excite I don't think have issued their own statments, and the 1stUp company themselves haven't admitted the demise of their company yet. But for all intensive purposes 1stUp.com is a goner. Now, also, Spinway, the makers of the very popular Bluelight.com access, also has gone under. Spinway had such free ISP connections as Barnes & Noble, NBCi, Address.com, OurHouse (Ace Hardware & Iwon), and Homestead, along with quite a few more. There is a different catch though - Bluelight company (K-Mart) has bought out what is left of Spinway; and their Bluelight access may no longer be free after they make some adjustments. So basically if you are using a free ISP from one of these two companies, you need to find something different. Or if you are using Bluelight you may have to pay for the access. What's left, and how does a free ISP work? - For those who might have never used a free ISP, a free ISP is your typical 56k dial-up connection, with advertisement banners that pay for you to surf for free. There were some bannerless ISP's in the past; WorldSpy, FreeWWWeb, and IFreedom let you surf without annoying banners. The idea bombed though, because none of those bannerless ISP's are in business anymore. Now that Spinway and 1stUp.com are dead in the water, you have three major choices remaining - NetZero, Juno, and 1Nation Online. There is also WorldShare but because of a silly waiting period to download the software it's a waste of time. NetZero - Probably the most popular completely free ISP, they are the last totally free ad-supported company, and probably will last, unlike the others. Recently they swallowed up FreeInternet.com, after that company spent too much money on Bob and Shaquille O'Neal commercials and not enough on keeping the service afloat. NetZero also was the company that helped iFreedom users transition from that service. Their service has been adequate for me, and doesn't harass the user into clicking ads constantly. Juno - I've always been a fan of their email client software, but not a fan of their Internet access. For one, in the Phoenix market, the 7th biggest in the United States, we have all of two numbers to pick from. Connecting, therefore, is as close to impossible as you can get. Plus lately they have developed this oh-so-friendly pattern of targeting frequent users and demanding that they pay for the access. That has alienated a lot of users and I would think so. But nothing is stopping you from making up a bunch of ID's and logging in under each one at different times. Juno has made some strides in the market, gobbling up WorldSpy and FreeWWWeb. 1Nation - I've never used this service because the signup process almost asks you to send them a urine sample and your first-born child (then again so does Juno), but it's the only remaining major bannerless ISP. Some say the connections are great others say they are terrible. But if you want a bannerless ISP give it a shot; even though I would bet at this rate it won't be around much longer. A freebie prediction - I wouldn't be surprised in the least if Juno stops their free access, and 1Nation goes under. That would leave NetZero, and without competition they might go under too. If you're a loyal freebie user it might be time to think about finding an ISP to pay for. The other end of the spectrum - paid ISP's - Pay ISP's are typically much better than their free counterparts (I'll exclude AOL from this because technically they aren't an ISP - they only give you a gateway to the Internet, you pay for THEIR content). And despite the popular opinion, there are quite a few ISP's to pick from; just not a lot of National ones. Why isn't their access free? - I'm sure they would LOVE to make their access free but there is a problem - when you connect to the Internet, you connect to a PHYSICAL computer. That computer is your network server and your gateway to the internet. And guess what? It costs money to keep those servers running well for you to log on to them. So they charge you the access fees to upkeep their servers. The other free ISP's can use the money generated from the advertisements to pay for their server maintenance, but with falling ad banner rates, that isn't possible anymore, thus the death of 1stUp and Spinway. The major contenders - There are 4 or 5 major providers out there for your dollars.. AT&T WorldNet - I'm biased. I admit. I've used AT&T for years and I've never ever had a major problem. The connections are always good, even though I get some disconnects. PC World Magazine readers actually voted WorldNet #1, so I'm not alone in praising the service. $21.95 for unlimited access sounds like a lot, but you get a lot - 6 email accounts and 10MB of web space for each account. Not a bad cut for the price. MSN - MSN has gone through some tough times - their original MSN service was complete garbage. Of late their access has improved, and has a pretty strong following for the most part. AOL - Hey there are a million AOL reviews; I can't add much to it except 6.0 is a legal virus. Compuserve - It's okay coming from AOL, but there are a lot of connection troubles (I consistently hear my neighbor screaming at the computer because Compuserve won't connect - but hey he is the one who took the $400 rebate thing not me!). Earthlink - I've got a personal vendetta against Sprint so I've never used Earthlink, but it's a very good ISP from what has been said - they give you a lot of access numbers and enough email addresses for a family to use. It's not a bad choice. Other pay choices - There are more local (regional) choices, like Pacific Bell, Qwest (formerly US West), Bell Atlantic, Verizon, and Ameritech. Normally those ISP's are considered more user-friendly due to their locale and have plenty of access numbers; most also offer local DSL as well. What to look for in an ISP - Because there a lot of choices in the ISP world, you definitely need a checklist of what YOU want in an ISP. This applies for the remaining free ISP's as well. -Email addresses - AT&T and AOL are the most plentiful in this category - WorldNet gives you 6, AOL gives you 7. If you have a big family and want email addresses for each one, these aren't bad choices (though you can all get webmail addresses and be okay too). Be wary of ISP's offering only one or two email addresses if you are going to use that email service. -Access numbers - That is probably the most important thing; having lots of numbers to choose from. Thankfully most of the major ISP's offer quite a few numbers; though for a while Phoenix had only one number, now they have three. -Web storage space - If you like to build webpages most ISP's offer some space (generally 10 MB or so) for building your website. It's not a major thing, but if an ISP doesn't offer that, it's odd. But there are a lot of choices in website development if it doesn't offer that. -Price - Obviously the cost of the ISP is important. $20 bucks or so is the medium, with Juno paid access going for $9.95. Most ISP's also offer a limited plan - i.e 150 hours for 5 bucks like AT&T (though I believe that service is ad supported). If you don't use the internet a lot this might be your best option. Cost is important, especially for those who use free ISP's if they are on a budget. So basically.. - If you are a free ISP user you might be in for a shock one day; chances are you might log on to nothing. As much as I hate to say it, free ISP loyalists may one day soon be up a creek without a paddle when it comes to the internet; and actually have to pony up and pay for service. But if it comes to that, hopefully you'll be able to use a cheat sheet like this to make your next online decision.  |
| Read all comments (8)|Write your own comment |
|
Ads by Google
|
