M$SN su.cks

[bob]

I have had enough. $10 per month is to much.

Dial up and get "...contacted site waiting for reply"

Dial up with M$SN home page open and no problem.

Getting to the point I need to keep the home page in a open browser and a sub link of it folloewd just to surf elsewhere.

OK. I may be wrong.....but it does not matter - something is amiss.

The best - free access will be my next choice.

In a big city, LA Calif. should be no problem.

28.8 - 56K dialup no bull. Free or cheep. No thrills, no ads, - let them watch - privacy (well if they care they can see this) anyway seriously, If I pay I get the same. I am sure-unless dedicated access.

This is almost a rant but it is an honest plead - with hopfully a single perfect solution.

[Xayd]

Why not go DSL or cable? You can find cheap ADSL/Cable modems on E-Bay from folks who moved out of the coverage area or just cancelled and are lookin' to ditch their gear. Add a 20 dollar network card and 30 or so a month and you'll get 25 times dialup speed.

Xayd

[nightsky]

Can't believe it when I saw your post. The same thing started happening to me about 3 days ago and I never had
a problem with msn for the yr. I have been on with them.
Unfortunately I got drawn into signing up with msn through
a 3yr rebate contract for a dumb laptop I had to have! lol
Oh well live and learn. When i get the extra money I will
end the contract with msn and give them back whatever part of the rebate I have to return. I will start using free ISPs for my modem connection. Either u pay to get bombarded with advertising or u just get swamped by advertising. I turned off my annimation and graphics on the browser ;) Hopefully its just a temporary server problem with msn.

[glc]

M$N is trying to be like AOL - need we say more?

[RayH]

If a 56k dialup connection is sufficient for your needs, I've found that the freebie ISPs provide an adequate service. Individually, they do not do as good a total job as the BEST pay. But they do a reasonable facismile.

I've found the only category that they wane is in overnight downloading. Other than that, for 56K dialup I just use feebies. If they start to backtalk or otherwise get antsy, I just use an alternate service.

People who are really concerned about speed actually need some other type of service, like DSL or cable.

Two tricks for the freebies, the first is just use univeral online e-mail services. Don't use any e-mail service provided by the ISP. Both Yahoo and Hotmail will work just fine with Outlook Express 5x.

If ad banners really bug you, go to SHAREWARE.COM (http://wwww.shareware.com) and get Windows Sniper. It's a $15 shareware (30 day trial) that will hide the ad banner.

The ad banner works like a cookie. People have all kinds of schemes and programs to eliminate the ad banner. But once dectected, you're account gets seized (along with your e-mail--which is why I recommened using online services). But Windows Sniper just hides the Window. From the ISPs end, it's still open and operating. From your end, it ain't on your screen!

[nightsky]

Its great having people to talk to who understand what the real deal is. I don't mind paying for a good ISP its just that i am tied into a rebate contract w/MSN for another 2yrs. My first ISP was Sprynet and they were great with their 1(800)tech support 24/7 and online BB geez I learn so much and so quick with them. Mindspring bought up IDT.Net
is great too for service @ 14. never experienced any down time with them but no BBs but adequate 800 support and online info that may have grown since I was with them.
AOL offered me over 300 free hours and I said no way! Told them I was too much of an online junkie and all those free hours wld just make it worse! lol Question what are some opinions on Maxtor HDD vs. Seagate HDD? Is Ultra ATA/66 SCSI? I started designing websites and have loads of programs to load Web Browsers, graphic stuff, and a cple of
html editors to try out with 1GB left on my 5GB Drive. Figured i wld get a 10GB or 15GB and my mobo supports Ultra DMA ATA33 ATA66 so are these SCSI? B/c the documentation claims the mobo supports SCSI- Soyo6BA+IV mobo. What is the word Fellows?

[RayH]

Nightsky Since you're stuck with MSN for two more years, why don't you try a couple of free ISPs? They'll actually work better than the pay. I recommend Address.com and Juno freebie.

Both of these services will support both Yahoo e-mail and Hotmail through Outlook Express 5.x. You won't need any ISP based e-mail.

Then go to Shareware.com and get Windows Sniper. This program will hide the ad banners. Ad banners work like a cookie. They need to be detected by the ISP. Windows Sniper just hides them from YOUR view. But as far as the IPS is concerned, the banner is active.

This way, you'll have three "no ad banner" ISPs: MSN, Address.com, and Juno. Actually, Juno in this form works better than their $8.95/mo. special!

[Edited by RayH on 10-21-2000 at 10:36 PM]

[nightsky]

Since i started reading this thread i installed a new hdd and instead of win98 i installed 95C. I proceeded to manually setup online connections for msn and address.com
It seems that unless I let either ISP automate the dialup connection I cld not get online w/o being disconnected unexpectedly. Finally in frustration after two weeks of contortions to get win95 running just right w/hardware and programs, i gave up the idea of being in control of my pc and installed msn network onto my win95!! Whatever happened to multiple connections!!!