I am a happy @home user. However I know many people that are just the exact opposite, and I know people that are kind of undecided. Lets take a look a this old school style. Pros vs Cons.

Pros
The speed. As with any cable ISP it is fast. Webpages load up to 30 times faster. Downloading. With 56k you are lucky if you get 10kb/s. With @home you are unlucky if you get 100kb/s. I can usually get up to 200kb/s depending on who and where I am downloading from. Pings. When playing Diablo2 and CountrStrike it's the difference of pinging 300-500 with 56k and 50-100 with @home.

No second phone line. Since it is through cable you can say goodbye to the second phoneline or say goodbye to the dozens of busy signals people will get when you're on the net.

Customer service. I have heard mostly bad stuff about the @home customer service. Whenever I have needed them they were excellent.

Cons
High Price. 45 dollars/mo is regular for cable internet in Canada. It's not expensive for cable, but it's expensive compared to the traditional dialup. You can also expect to pay a installation fee of 150 dollars Canadian unless you get it during a special or you know how to install it yourself.

Not available everywhere. I know many people that were eager to try @home, only to find out that it's not available in thier area at the time. There is nothing more disapointing then not being able to use the only cable ISP in your city.

Unstable mail server. The mail server goes down quite frequently, so having a hotmail address is quite helpful. Also, the entire ISP goes down a couple of times each month. Just two days ago I tried to play CS only to find out the red light on my modem is lit up.

Overall @home is a good ISP. I am still convinced that the stability of the mail server and the ISP will improve with time. I don't mind the price, as the download speeds and pings that I get while playing games is excellent. However, if you're not an online gamer and you don't download alot then @home is not necessary. The traditional dialup would work just fine.

Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 45CDN
Version Number or Year: 2001