Excellent Free Dialup, BUT....

[RayH]

This is an excellent free dialup, avialable in both the US and Canada, but you have to be an American Express Cardholder, AMERICAN EXPRESS ONLINE.

[SARGE]

Yeah, they took over Webflyer, which was great (very small ad).

[LawyerRon]

I also heard today that Alta Vista is discontinuing their free service and will begin charging at a later date.

[Kubie]

Interesting. They even have an access number for my town.

[glc]

Expect Netzero and Juno to be the only 2 surviving free ISP's real soon.

1stUp is closing shop this weekend - they are the provider for Free Altavista and many others. Spinway went bankrupt - and Kmart took over operations temporarily just to get Bluelight.com customers through the holidays. I would expect Kmart to drop this after the holidays because they are supporting some of their competitors (ourhouse.com which is Ace Hardware, and others).

Carl - you better find out who Amex is using - it might not be around too long.

FreeDSL is in trouble too.

[jeresimo]

I dl'd "StartFree" as a replacement of Altavista
The ISP seems to be OK as of now.

[RayH]

I've been an internet nomad for two years now. I haven't paid a cent to connect, using only free ISPs. Actually, until the last 45 days or so, I've actually had excellent service. I thought that the numerous disconnects were due to phone line disturbance because it was happening across the board. I didn't realize they were all going south.

I wouldn't recommend anyone quit a decent service for the free ISPs anymore. Had American Express Online not come along, I'd probably be signing up for DSL right now.

But it just occured to me, that if I wanted to cheapskate dialup, I could probably stretch another year of no pay at least through "introductory" offers!

[Batman]

http://www.internet4free.net/ratings.htm
http://www.vmirror.com/forums/load/c...227071477.html
http://freeguysfreebies.tripod.com/freeisps.htm
http://www5.50megs.com/fnc/
http://www.cdsdetroit.com/PCTech/
http://www.mindgamezz.com/freeisp.html
http://www.addlebrain.com
http://www.madoogali.com/Frameindex.htm
http://www.isps.8m.com/freeisp.htm

[etLux]

Just a side note, but I've seen really great performance from some of these freebie providers -- which, I admit, surprised me. We keep AltaVista and a few others around as backups for when our T1 takes a walk... lol... but routinely see 44-52K connections with them.

[RayH]

A lot of them are biting or have bitten the dust recently. Being a poor business model (for making money) doesn't necessarily translate to having provided poor service.

Through American Express, I'm still connecting with service as good as any (56K) service I've paid. I'm currently running with no backup ISPs at this point, although I do have an active account with both NetZero and Juno. Juno seems to be testy about letting freebies online, demanding subscription to their $8.95/mo service for more than five minutes of surfing!

NetZero is Netzero. The connection is reliable, but they are constantly reviewing attendance. But, they do provide a solid connection.

The only two other major services I know of right now, FreeLane and Bluelight seem to be in a bit of chaos. FreeLane is impossible to get a connection, although I did once. I tried Bluelight and it did work.

But at least for me, I still have time before free dialup bites the dust for me. By then, it's probably time for broadband.

[Den]

RayH. What kind of adds or bar do you have to put up with when using amex. dial up service. Thanks
Den

[RayH]

The American Express doesn't have an ad bar per se. It's more of a button that drops an ad ocassionally. But when you hit a key on your computer, the ad disappears.

But you have to have the button because it's necessary for certain navigations, like log ons. It wants to be active after you log off. So you have to close it manually.

Don't be scared. If you're qualified for it, it's the smallest thing you'll ever see. On my 19" scree, I don't even know it's there!

The advertisements aren't for unknown stuff. Bricks and motar or clicks and motar stuff! I think the freebies went bankrupt because they were advertising feebie sites, like e-fax, etc. These guys advertise Gap, etc.....

[Den]

Thanks RayH. I have already downloaded it and I"ll install it tomorrow.
Den

[luisr]

There is a company called "NoCharge.com". http://www.nocharge.com

They do not put ads in your screen or force you to use any special software. They even have the settings needed for connecting in their home page and you can login using the "guest"/"password" combination if you don't mind not having e-mail with them. To use e-mail you must register but it is still free.

Their only limitation is that it is only available in New York City, Washington State, Oregon and Puerto Rico. I live in PR and have tried it a few times. Very hard to get in - always busy, no local access in my city and never get connected as fast as my normal paid ISP. I do keep the dial-up configuration here as a backup if ever needed.

How do they make money? If you ever need support from them, it is only available via a 900 number call at $10.00 per call. OUCH!!!! And they don't hide it. I found this in their "Support" page under "News for the Millenium":

"Our goal to become the frontrunner in a new generation of Internet Services allows NoCharge.com the ability to provide Absolutely Free Internet Access! What is the catch? Technical Support is not free, however dealing with the friendly and knowledgeable NoCharge staff is certainly worth the $10.00 charge! If they can't fix the problem with the first call they are more than happy to return the call, at no cost to you, armed with the solution to your problem!"

Perhaps they consider that the average user will need to call at least once to get the service up and running.

I you do know how to setup the system, the information is right there in their home page.

They also have a dialer you can download that will configure the system for you but it is not required to use the service. Looks like the almost perfect free Internet provider. Lets see how long it lasts.