Is there a Free Lunch?
I'm cheap. Right now, I pay $14 a month for 56k dialup access to a local
ISP. Recently, some ISPs have offered free 56k Internet access. I decided
to take a look at some of the offerings in the free ISP world, and decide
whether they could replace my pay Internet service.
The competitors:
The major differences between the ISPs in terms of features are ads and E-mail
access. Some of the free services depend on ads for their revenue. The ads
generally are in a window that takes up some of your screen real estate,
and is always on top. Another important difference is the method of E-mail
access. POP E-mail allows the use of a program such as Outlook Express (free!),
Eudora, or another app resident on your PC to access E-mail. Web based E-mail
is read through the browser. I prefer POP E-mail because I can download and
filter my mail with my E-mail application. Others prefer web e-mail because
it is available from any machine on the Internet.
The tests:
I signed up and accessed each of the Internet services above.
I took notes on any interesting restrictions in the EULA, and what sort of
personal information they asked for. I took a look at how many access numbers
were in my area (Northern Virginia), and looked at how easy it was to set
up the dialing number (I need 10 number dialing). I dialed up a couple of
times, did a little web browsing, and tried to play Quake III (demo of course)
on line. I also attempted to launch my Internet connection from Quicken 2000
Deluxe (Not a free app). I didn't perform any large file download tests because
the amount of testing that would be required to get a meaningful result would
be too large, and results might vary by user location. For those that care,
I used a US Robotics 56K ISA PnP faxmodem for my tests (not a Winmodem).
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