Sure it crashes. What's a little system instability?
Written: Jul 27 '00 (Updated Jul 28 '00)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
| Connection Reliability: |
 |
|
|
Pros: Free dial-up access. Fifty points a month, provided that you use the service for ten hours. SMTP and POP3 e-mail services.
Cons: Still buggy. Advertisement window takes up screen space. No Usenet access.
|
|
|
| elegiac's Full Review: MyPoints Connect! (by 1stUp) |
Looking to save those monthly internet access fees? Here's a potential solution from MyPoints and 1stUp.
MyPoints Connect! offers free unlimited dial-up service. You'll need to register for MyPoints at http://www.mypoints.com/-- then follow the "Free Internet" link. Download the client software (595KB). Installation is painless. Run the file, follow the prompts, and let the program walk you through setting up the dialer.
Nothing better than a wide range of local access numbers-- except, perhaps, a dialer that can be set to try all the access numbers you desire, several times each. Want to dial ten different numbers nine times each? No problem! Kiss those busy signal blues goodbye.
MyPoints Connect! also offers POP3/SMTP services. You should be able to use your standard e-mail client with MyPoints Connect! by setting your outgoing and incoming mail servers to mail.mypointsconnect.com. I haven't had any luck using The Bat! with MyPoints Connect!, but all of 1stUp's co-branded ISPs seem to conflict with my chosen e-mail client.
MyPoints Connect! also gives its users fifty points per month, provided that the service has been used for ten hours. Points can be used for merchandise discounts-- you can even spend points for gift certificates to stores such as MediaPlay or Eddie Bauer.
The 1stUp advertising bar can be docked on the bottom or the top of your screen. Or, if you prefer, you can float the bar around your desktop. The advertising bar has a number of buttons that will allow you to visit websites such as DealTime, eTour, Ask Jeeves, and Epinions.
1stUp's client software isn't flawless. It isn't a nest of roaches, lice, and maggots any more-- for that, we can be thankful. But it's still not bug free. For one thing, MyPoints Connect! loads itself not once, but twice. Try checking it with the three-finger salute (CTRL-ALT-DEL), or use a process viewing application. In addition, there's a bit of trouble closing MyPoints Connect!-- after logging off the service, the advertising bar closes. However, it remains an active process, taking up system resources even though it should be closed. I've been killing the process with ToolPro-- no reason one couldn't use an application with similar process viewing and terminating capabilities, such as the freeware ATM.
The MyPoints Connect! FAQ sensibly leaves out any suggestion of using the internet filtering CYBERsitter. Perhaps Solid Oak Software has fallen out of 1stUp's good graces. Wishful thinking, anyway.
If you're already a MyPoints member, you can sign up for MyPoints Connect! at http://www.mypoints.com/mp/freeIsp.p_main. Windows 95/98/NT/2000 and MS Internet Explorer 4.0 or higher are required.
Recommended:
Yes
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
elegiac
|
|
Member: Gregory Chin
Reviews written: 70
Trusted by: 407 members
About Me:
My family operates a computer services business. Bit of hardware, bit of webstuff. Kooky, no?
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2008 Shopping.com, Inc.