Great for an ISP
Written: Oct 09 '00 (Updated Jan 30 '06)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Free!
Cons: Ad Bar; Memory Hog; Slow Connection
The Bottom Line: Switch to Cable...
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| merryann's Full Review: NetZero |
01/30/06 Update - I have had Cable internet for a few years now - I would not go back to any dialup service in the WORLD! No matter how free it is!
**Please see the bottom of this page for my updated comments about Netzero.**
I have had Mindspring for as long as I can remember. We recently moved to a new house and the phone lines out here leave something to be desired (Thanks Bellsouth). My husband and I am on a tight budget trying to get debt free so I cut my Mindspring down to the Lite plan and downloaded Netzero. (Actually in the reverse order)
My husband has been against free internet saying that it would junk up the computer. He told me not to download any. I don't listen well! LOL
What are the good points of Netzero? It's free. For the people out there that say " I don't have internet because it is too expensive and I don't have any money", they need to get Netzero. If it were a tossup between not having internet and having to put up with a ad bar, I would have the ad bar for sure!
I get disconnected a lot less now. I still get booted from time to time but not nearly as much as I was (maybe it's not all Bellsouth's fault after all! It still is some though)
The start page comes up with ZStart and I don't use that page and close or stop it as soon as it comes up. But my husband has checked it out quite a bit and he seems to like it. SO I am not sure if that is a good point or bad point. Depends on what you like!
The bad parts? There is a ad bar at the bottom (or top) of the page. It always is there but once you get used to it, it's not that bad. I don't even really notice it is there. ** We edited the programing and made this ad bar disappear. Unethnical? Maybe. **
One thing that I am curious about is that I read an epinion where it said that once an hour or so that you can to click on a banner in order to stay online. I get a notice about once an hour that says something to the effect that you can click on banners and stay on the same web page that you are on or something like that (I pay attention a lot, huh? ROFL) and it has an OK button to click. Then the other 1/2 an hour, I have to click on a "resume" button in order to stay connected to the internet. Not a biggie unless I am away from my computer while I am downloading something. Maybe what the person was saying about the banner was on an older version. I have version Z 3. There are ads automatically on the ad bar therefore, I don't have to click on an ad to see one ! They are there all the time!
I have had a lot of luck with Netzero and would consider canceling Mindspring for a long time but have had my email addys for just as long! One of these days, I will tell everyone my other email addy for Netzero. My luck though, something would happen with Netzero that I hate then would lose my other email addys!
This is definately a good Free ISP so give it a try!
** One day, Netzero decided not to connect. It keeps saying that my user name was not recognized, yada yada yada. We hadn't changed any settings. It had developed a mind of its own! So I have switched back to using Mindspring full time again. I thought it was an isolated incident and decided to try to sign on the other computer with the Netzero account my husband had created. Same problem a week after mine. Hmmmm.... maybe I didn't pay the bill??? LOL
During the use of this ISP, I was annoyed by the fact that I seemed to run out of system resources much faster. I am running on a system that has 256 megs of memory.... had nothing running other than ICQ and Internet Explorer and I AM OUT OF MEMORY????? Yeah Right! It continued on that anytime I tried to do more than a few things at once, it ran out of memory! The only thing I can credit for that was Netzero. Even without the Ad Bar running. As soon as I switched back to Mindspring, I can have ten programs open and not a problem. If I wanted memory problems, I would still be using my other system which only has 64 megs and a 166 mhz processor! I was having a hard time staying connnected which we found out was NOT Netzero but was my harddrive. I had to replace my harddrive this past week (Luckily still on warranty) and haven't had problems staying connected anymore BUT Netzero took FOREVER to connect after it goes through the movies, etc. and when you are being disconnected every two minutes, this can get a bit on the annoying side.
I will not reload this ISP on my harddrive again but my husband still has it on our other system. He decided it wasn't bad for FREE so if he wants to deal with it, fine. Me? Nah... don't think so.
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
merryann
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Member: Marianne Bailey
Location: Sarasota, FL
Reviews written: 56
Trusted by: 51 members
About Me:
Own www.BaileysBizSolutions.com
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