BlueLight Free ISP -- More Bad News (2/22)
Written: Nov 13 '00 (Updated Feb 22 '01)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Free
Cons: Ad Bar, Personal Data, Major Restrictions
The Bottom Line: We Can No Longer Recommend What Was Once The Best Deal In Town.
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| AytchMan's Full Review: BlueLight.com |
Update (2/22) -- Bluelight has now reduced your monthly allowance to 12 hours. In addition, they are routinely kicking us off the service after 45 minutes. Therefore, we're reducing the rating to two stars. See ya, Bluelight.
Update (12/28) -- Unfortunately, Bluelight is cutting back on their service. We are now experiencing frequent disconnects. In addition, it now appears that BL is preparing to curtail or eliminate their free service within a couple of months. Therefore, we're reducing our rating to three stars.
The original review:
Welcome to the chaotic world of free ISP's -- they're here, they're gone, they're back, they're part of some other dot.com. We've been using the competing AltaVista for months and have been moderately satisfied with it. But, since your loyal reviewer is always eager to experience confusion and turmoil firsthand, we thought we'd look at another free ISP on your behalf -- BlueLight.com (BL). Having used BL for several weeks, we can now offer you the latest poop.
We'll Have The Special. BL is operated by the lovable KMart retailing gorilla in conjunction with the technocrazies at Yahoo. So, you can pick up a BlueLight CD at the local KMart. Or you can download the software directly from the web. Or you can get them to mail you a CD by requesting it from the website. Apropos of nothin', we elected the latter. About ten days later, the mailer actually arrived. Score one for BlueLight/KMart.
Installation. Just what you'd expect here: put the CD in the drive and run Setup. The process is straightforward -- it provides default selections but you can install the program in any directory on any hard drive. It includes an option to install Yahoo Messenger as well. Installation is almost instantaneous and puts an icon on the desktop. That was it. Score one for BlueLight/KMart.
But we're thinking: this is too easy, we're walking into an ambush. Sure enough, when we fired the mother up, they disconnected us on both tries. So we got on the web with AltaVista to get the local access number. This solved the problem but there's some sort of delicious irony here. As well as a reason to always maintain access to two ISP's. Finally, even though we negged out the Yahoo Messenger option, BL added a whole new line for Yahoo on the IE toolbar. Boo.
The Fine Print. The terms of service are pretty standard. In a nutshell, they want marketing data but they agree to settle for aggregate, not individual, data. For what it's worth, KMart assures us (and we quote from the site), "...we will not sell your personal information to mass marketers and our partners will not contact you without your consent". Sounds good but we could drive a truck through the loopholes. Plus, they use occasional surveys and promotions to solicit data. Not great but it is more or less consistent with what the rest of the industry does.
Registration is simple and straightforward...and a little intrusive. Because you're not just getting a free ISP there, Slim. Not on your life. You're getting Bluelight, Yahoo, the Bluelight Rewards Program and, as near as we can figure, home field advantage for the upcoming World Cup. The forms ask the standard, objectionable personal questions such as age and income level. If this troubles you, BL is not for you. Of course, there are answers and then there are answers.
Making A Connection. Speedwise, we've found BL to be a little faster than AltaVista. We have consistently dialed up and logged on more quickly. Our general surfing also seems to go a little faster and dropped connections are few. As always, your mileage may vary.
The Eyeball In The Grey Flannel Suit. During dial-up, BlueLight will gently serenade you with the now-standard Annoying Startup Ad. Your initial page will be the BlueLight/Yahoo home page. You're then free to surf your socks off anywhere you durn well please. As with most free ISP's, BlueLight displays a movable ad bar on the desktop. The ad bar is a thin strip that stretches half way across the bottom. At 1024x768 resolution, we barely notice it. But, if you're running your display at 800x600 or less, you may find it too distracting. In any event, it's the price you pay to get the free service. BL also enforces a 15-minute inactivity policy so you can't drift off into Electoral College cosmology for very long.
Bottom Line. In spite of the annoyances, we like BlueLight better than most. It's a tradeoff (free Internet access versus ad bars and some personal data) but we think it's a pretty good one. Backed up by the gargantuan KMart organization, perhaps Bluelight will have more staying power than its competitors. And, quite frankly, why you're still shelling out 22 clams a month for AOL is beyond us.
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
AytchMan
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Member: H Mushinsky
Location: Austin, TX
Reviews written: 35
Trusted by: 44 members
About Me:
Dr. Feelgood, your ferociously loyal reviewer, is on the case.
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