| Free Internet Service Providers
If you are like me, then your ears perk up when you hear the word FREE. Then I think back to
when my Dad told me that very little in life is free. He was right, however there are a few
things. When T.V. came on the scene, all you needed, to receive programming was a T.V. set
and an antenna. The programming was brought to us through advertising. This is also the way
free internet is brought to us, through advertising. Somewhere on the start page you will find
an ad banner, or sometimes the ads are in the body of the page. Either way, this is how the
service is being provided at no cost to the subscriber (us).
There have been several of these free internet service providers appear in the last couple of
years. Most of them were not able to get the funding or the advertising to survive. There were
some that made it and are still around. There are also several that have appeared just in the
last few months. I have tried about a dozen of them and am still trying some of the new ones.
Of the ones I have tried, there are two that I prefer to use. There are several things to consider when trying these services. First you want to see
if they offer a local dial up phone number for the area that you are in. They all have a list
of access numbers to check, pick the wrong one and you may be paying long distance charges, so
be careful and be sure the number you select is a local call. Most all of them offer free email
as well, this is most always with a pop3 server and most times you can configure your mail to
come through your outlook express mailbox. You may chose to use the mail box that the internet
server provides as well. After you have picked the one you like best, you will find it very easy to change access phone numbers as you need to when you are on the road. Like all internet
service providers, you will from time to time not be able to find a local access number in some
areas of the country. This applies to the ones you pay for as well as the free services.
I have tried most of the pay for internet service providers. These free services now offer
just about everything that they do. You can even keep in touch with your friends that are
still using AOL, by downloading AOL's instant messenger.
You can get it at http://www.aol.com/aim/ ,also free. You will find that on some of the start
pages of these free services, that the ad banner can be docked at either the top or bottom of
the page out of the way. The banner ads that can't be docked are a nuisance and may not be your
first choice.
When traveling and using these free services or the pay for services, you can increase your
chances of getting a local phone number to connect to by staying near the populated areas. The
farther you are from the big cities, the less likely you are to find a local number. This will
mean that maybe you will only be able to connect to the internet every few days. That is the
price us travelers will have to pay for now.
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