My first provider way back in the 1980's. I didn't give a rat's ass about the Net in those days, I was just tired of what passed for local BBS and wanted something more. I'm not sure but I don't believe one could access the Net from CI$ in those days. Reason for leaving: They direct billed in those days, and were expensive. When I got a bill for $1100, I knew it was time to stop.
Sorry gang, I've always had a soft spot for AOL. The chat rooms have always been an easy place to find a consenting adult late at night when you realize if you don't find something, you might hurt the dog. Now that it's flat rate, it's even better. However, if you're fool enough to think you can surf the Web using AOL only, you're in for quite a wait, since it's SLOW. Get a regular ISP and sign up for AOL's BYOA (Bring Your Own Access). It's the best $9.95 a month deal going, and there are no hassles trying to get through.
I hacked AOL shamelessly. It was fun. It was also illegal so that's all I'm going to say about it. I maintain an account to this day.
My first real ISP. Pretty cool but not for a newbie. I didn't even know what a browser was, and being confronted with a UNIX shell was intimidating. Also, it was virtually impossible to log in on a Friday or Saturday night.
Reason for leaving: They wanted money. I had a problem with this for some reason. Go figure.
Nice folks. The one of the highest levels of service I've found.
Reason for leaving: I have no idea, really.
Not a bad provider. The main problem I had with Earthlink was they started off with direct billing (I despise credit cards cuz people are always demanding I pay for what I get when I've already paid for it with the damned credit card) but then stopped and insisted on credit cards only. Also, if you send me a bill it will languish for a long long time, so this was doomed from the getgo. I discovered newsgroups here and life would never be the same.
Reason for leaving: Hard to connect. Not a great newsgroup site. THE PASSWORD FROM HELL(it was 26 chars if it was one) and they kept asking for it over and over again, case sensitive, of course. ARGGHH!
Started out great. Nice friendly people. very supportive of various lifestyles. Tried to login one day and couldn't. Worked with the folks for awhile and when it came down to it, they had no idea why I couldn't login Hand frankly weren't very nice about it.
Maryland Online.
What can I say about this company. I have no idea, since I tried for a week to login and never once managed a connection. Just kept ringing.
Where do I start?? Horrible newsgroups, email maybe one third of the time, a screwed up system that makes it impossible for anyone to reply to your email without typing your entire address in again, and most importantly, non-existent support. You have no idea if your cries for help have been heard cuz the same system that makes a simple reply impossible also prevents you from receiving error messages when you send it to a bad mailbox. I was here for less than 2 months and wound up owing them $48, even after the free setup and first month free. I managed to get a $24 credit, but it's never appeared on my telephone bill. What are you going to do? They're the phone company and they can do anything they want. Apparently competent Internet service isn't one of these things.
Prodigy Internet
Hahahaha. First the good part: the service actually connects. The bad? it doesn't connect for long. In one 3 hour period, I was disconnected almost 40 times. That's about once every ten minutes. I've spoken with others who have the same problem. Also, try getting your email. I'm sure it's there somewhere but they don't tell you where. You get the first month free. Thanks for an eventful 2 weeks.
Ok. Erols Internet. Nice people on the surface. Good connections. the newsgroups are a different matter. Erol's is based in Virginia..a very conservative state. Apparently a local church approached Erol's and warned them about allowing access to certain newsgroups. they threatened to sue Erol's. Erol's gave in. Granted they were not newsgroups I would have bothered with in the first place, but since they were banned without telling the users which ones were banned, one has no idea what wasn't being allowed. Sorry, I spend between 100 and 200 hours a month online. I don't want my Internet controlled by a church.
These people ROCK!!
I have not once called and gotten anything less than a 36.6 connection. In the 3 or 4 months I've been here, they system has been down 3 times, two of those were for less than 15 minutes. Each time there was a notice on Mindspring's newsgroup that explained what happened. And newsgroups! An impressive amount of groups, but not yet complete. Still I can live with that. All questions are answered within 24 hours. I'm here and probably won't be going anywhere for awhile. Problem: No 56k or 2x access yet. I'm told mid-late January. Keep up the good work!
UPDATE*UPDATE*UPDATE*UPDATE
The Search For Speed!
I recently got a 56k modem and set out looking for Speed!!! What a production.
I tried the following ISP's. AGAIN! This time, searching for the fastest:
MCI, Concentric (56k at an additional charge), Compuserve (14.4k!!!!), Earthlink, Netcom, AOL, Bell Atlantic Net, ATT, ToadNet (my password lasted about an hour, then refused to let me on), Erols (since has been sold, no longer church dictated, judging by their newsgroups), MSN and Earthlink. I'm sure I'm missing a few somewhere in there, but I'm burning out here.
The Winner(s)(with v.90)
49333k
Since April 1, 1998
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