Although NetZero does provide free internet access, it also provides some things that you may not want to deal with, such as an annoying advertising banner, spyware, a long log on time, just to name a few.

The ad banner sits on your screen; you can dock it basically anywhere you want, but if you don't have at least a 17" monitor, it is almost impossible to play games or work on a webpage (if you use a pagebuilder). We've tried in the past to play games, but the ad banner would time out and knock us offline, because we had to move it to a spot where we could see the game, and this was not acceptable to NetZero. Making a webpage in a pagebuilder is worse, because you are constantly having to drag the ad banner around to work on your page. Did I mention the ad banner freezes up constantly, making it stay where you last docked it...right in your way?!

Another annoying thing about the ad banner is that you have to click on an advertisement at least once every 30 minutes or so. This would not be a problem...I actually wanted to see some of the ads in more detail...but the ad will not open in a new window. Rather, it opens up in a window that you are currently running an application in, totally messing everything up. I've noticed it will open up in the middle of a game or your pagebuilder application.

Another problem I had with NetZero is the "spyware." We had constant problems after loading NetZero when trying to run a scan disk or defragment the system. It would say there is a program running. We turned everything off in the system tray, but we still got the same message. I eventually had to call Windows tech support, who told me of the possibility of spyware running in the background. I was told this does not run in the system tray, and it is almost impossible to turn off unless you know the exact hidden file to look for. Fortunately, this technician did know which file, so we disabled it. Alas, then NetZero would not work properly.

Upon logging on, one has to wait for a little TV program to play, and the dialing takes forever. The bad news is, we never could get on at a decent rate, having to disconnect and reconnect, going through the same program everytime.

NetZero was one headache after another, and in the end, we decided we would rather pay for internet access rather than deal with the hassle.



Recommended: No