Quoted:
EarthLink stinks as far as customer support (i.e, when your email stops working or they change email servers and then mail you bad instructions) - and they're EXPENSIVE, about $20/month - they're trying to compete against AOL.
You should only have to pay $10 or less per month (esp if you pay on 1/2 year or yearly basis. I'm paying about $7/month right now for Hawk Comm. and am quite happy.
While the NRA-adverstised "pro-gun" ISP may be a nice concept, it's WAY overpriced at around $20/month. And prob only a buck or so of that, best-case, goes to NRA or hunting/fishing interests. They are prob just a reseller program for AT&T or EarthLink or some other bigger.
If you live out in the sticks, your options may be a bit limited (for free local dialup). But if you're anywhere in/near suburbia, look at Hawk or NetZero, etc.
Bill Wiese
San Mateo, CA
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I rarely use tech support, but I'm not surprised as most tech support gurus will tell you anything to get rid of you.
[aol-rant]But I would use anything over AOHell. Even if I had an hourly usage cap. Those plastic disks are creating a landfill nightmare. They must have punched out over 20,000,000,000 disks since their inception. Grocery store, cereal box, magazines, banks, post office, must I be inundated with AOHell disk sightings everywhere I go? Not to mention they literally take over your computer and add an aol adapter. Bring back [i]alt.aol-sucks[/i]! Disclaimer, I have never used them and never will, but I do know of these AOHell problems exist. My brother used their crap back in the days of their infamous hourly service charge crap. Guess he didn't care about money too much back then because I saw one stinking bill for the month that was like $94.00 dollars!
Anyone catch the new Netzero/Juno commercial? Pretty funny advertising. They make fun of AOHell and it's, "You've got mail" line.[/aol-rant]
I started out with Netcom and the service was average at best. There were sometimes busy signals and unexplainable lost connections. I would always email them warning of my impending cancellation if they didn't get their shit together. Mindspring bought them out and service improved a great deal. Threats were literally non-existant. Very rarely would there be a busy signal or connection problem. Then Earthlink bought out Minspring and I haven't had to make any threats since. The only minor problem is that sometimes the smtp mail server would be busy, but it's usually up in a bit. Only happens about once a month.
bwiese- What was the problem with your email?
With the price increase last year or so, the cost is now up to a staggering $21.95 a month!
My friend uses Netzero Platinum and is satisfied. $10.00 bucks a month.