Once upon a time, in an apartment not all that far away, I had Comcast Cable internet. It was ridiculously overpriced, and ridiculously fast. Just click on that Internet Explorer icon, and the internet is there. Done. Checking three e-mail addresses took only a few minutes. I could even reply to messages in just a few more minutes. Downloading large files was possible, often in just a few minutes.

Times change, and not always for the better. My situation changed, and I needed to save money. You see, I now have a house, and houses eat money. Lots and lots of money. Houses eat money faster than Kirsty Alley eats twinkies. So I decided that I would rough it for a while, and go with dial-up internet. Based strictly on somewhat funny stick men commercials and cheap unlimited access, I chose People PC Online.

Getting Started

I called the 1-800 number, and talked to a somewhat helpful and slightly pushy man who agreed to send me a start-up disc, once he had secured a credit card number. I'm not really sure why this was necessary, as that could have been taken care of during the software loading process. But I didn't care, and just wanted some internet access.

The disc arrived about a week later. Loading the software was easy, and I soon entered the realm of People PC online.

The Experience

People PC Online is a plethora of annoying experiences, all for just $11.95 a month. $11.95 a month? Yes, it is very cheap. And you will soon find out why.

First, why don't we open the Internet? Pretty easy, right? First I click on my Internet Explorer icon. After the initial password entering, I would expect clicking on the icon would just automatically connect. Evidently People PC didn't pay their software engineers enough for such fancy features and user friendliness. Instead it opens a window that asks you if you would like to connect to the internet. Why yes, I would like to connect to the internet. So I click on that button, and have now done two separate things to connect to the internet. Is that enough? Not quite. Next People PC opens another window, where I must click the logon button. Three separate things just to connect to the internet, a process that takes about 3-4 minutes. The salt in the wound is that People PC insists on calling this program a "Smart Dialer."

When People PC does connect, it immediately launches a specialized People PC page in addition to any homepage that you might have chosen. This annoying little page must stay open. If you close it, it closes your Internet connection. Hurray!

Connection speeds leave a lot to be desired. I usually connect at 31.2 kbps. Which would have been pretty good, sometime in the mid '90s. Once in a great while you might connect at 44.1 kbps, and life is good. Unless you take more than a few minutes composing an e-mail or writing a review. Then the whole thing freezes. It says that it is connected, but when you try to do anything it is hopelessly frozen. It is necessary to close the whole thing down and go through the whole "Smart Dialer" experience again. Often I end up copying whatever I have written, log in again, paste it in, then send the e-mail or submit the review. I am looking forward to doing this in a few minutes when I try to submit this review.

A Silver Lining?

Not everything about this ISP can be bad, right? Well, it is cheap. And People PC does have a lot of local access numbers. That is it for the positives. Oh, wait, you also have a right to cancel this service. That is surely a positive! I have read several reviews suggesting that canceling People PC is not so easy, which made me somewhat apprehensive. They did have my credit card number, which they charged automatically every month. I have read that it can be hard to get them to stop charging you every month after you cancel. Update (01/20/04): I cancelled People PC. It took several calls, about 30 minutes total, to finally get through to a customer service representative to cancel. The rep insisted on trying to get me to stay on People PC, even after I said I already had cable internet. Yeah, I would love to give up my blazing fast high-speed nirvana for your slow, buggy torture service. Anyway, he did cancel my account and I haven't been charged since. So I guess it was a happy ending.

Overall

There must be better cheap ISPs than People PC out there. People PC is inexpensive, unlimited, and has plenty of local access numbers. It is also slow, frustrating, and has a lot of unnecessary quirks. Try other ISPs first.


Recommended: No

Amount Paid (US$): 11.95/month
Version Number or Year: 2004