Attractive but Problematic
Written: Dec 08 '99
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: No Banners. Reasonably fast connection.
Cons: Bulky Software, Software Bugs, My Own Personal Paranoia
|
|
|
| SwedishChef's Full Review: Worldspy |
Too good to be true? Or maybe not that good, and not that true...
I downloaded and installed Worldspy.net on the advice of my fellow epinionites and was initially enthralled with my discovery: a free dial-up ISP with local access (at least to D.C., my home area) that didn't make its money through banner ads that clog up my screen space. Instead, Worldspy simply dialed in and minimized and disappeared from my computer, save for the small taskbar dial-up icon.
I almost came on Epinions right away to express my joy. Something stopped me. And after about a week of using Worldspy, I'm ready to give up and go back to Altavista. Something just doesn't work with the software.
I should have begun to be suspicious when the download size for a simple dial-up protocol was eight megabytes. I think that must expand to thirty when it loads in my RAM, because after running Worldspy my computer (300 Mhz PII, 96 Megs) slows down remarkably. Worldspy does not fully close if you disconnect your dial-up; instead, you have to open and logout through their minimized icon and then wait for some time for the disconnect window to pop up and fix itself.
Furthermore, Worldspy does not support Windows-based email sending. This refers only to email programs that use W95 or W98's mailbox support, most especially Outlook or Outlook express. Sure, NetZero also has this limitation, but it's most frustrating in both circumstances. Another point for Altavista.
I don't like banner ads. I don't like them one bit. But unless you're running 800 by 600, or 640 by 480, when a banner ad really does take up the entire screen, it seems a small price to pay for software that really works without slowing down your system remarkably and clogging the memory-based programs. Maybe it's just my machine; maybe it's just my system. But at least from this end I've stopped liking what I once thought was sooooo cool.
A small endnote: It is just a bit scary that Worldspy.net can afford to do this. How many companies did I really want my information sold to? How much do they make for my address, my phone number, my frequently-visited web pages... I'm not usually one to have a 1984 complex, but this one scares me a bit. At least with banner ad ISP's I know that they don't need to sell me out to make money.
Recommended:
No
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
SwedishChef
|
|
Member: Matthew Gaventa
Location: Washington, DC
Reviews written: 20
Trusted by: 20 members
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.