Cheap Dial-up

I

irq21

Limp Gawd
Joined
Oct 22, 2003
Messages
224
I know most of you will not think there is anything "hot" about Dial-up, but for some of us the choices are still limited to dial-up or satellite access.

I read about VT Rocket somewhere in my web browsing, and found out that they offer unlimited access for $9.95 a month, which is a warm deal. But they also have plans that offer limited connection time for much less.

30 hours/month for $34.80/year
120 hours/month for $5.40/month or $55.40/year
240 hours/month for $7.90/month or $82.80/year

I haven't signed up yet, since I'm locked into Earthlink (for $21.95/month) for another couple months. But as soon as that contract expires I'm signing up (unless someone can get me a good reason not to).
 
Try them out before committing to any long-term contract.
There's usually "30 day free trial" periods available from PeoplePC, AOL, NetZero, etc. If you sign up via one of several 3rd-party sites (such as mypoints.com, or searchcactus.com), they may have an added bonus payment incentive, also.
 
Unfortunately doesnt help me here, not only is my only option dialup, but my phone company also charges for local minutes. i have to pay a 50 dollar fee + 18 for dialup service every month

Its a massive monopoly and just rediculous that they can charge me a total of 68 for dialup that never connects faster than 28.8
 
Im in the middle of getting my masters :(, i cant, got at least another year and a half here sadly. Then im moving out west and getting a 30mbit/15mbit business line for 80 a month (thatll provide quite the stark contrast)
 
$2.90 for dial-up per month is not bad imo.

jbrukardt said:
Unfortunately doesnt help me here, not only is my only option dialup, but my phone company also charges for local minutes. i have to pay a 50 dollar fee + 18 for dialup service every month

Its a massive monopoly and just rediculous that they can charge me a total of 68 for dialup that never connects faster than 28.8
Click to expand...

Is there any other plans available from your phone company? A plan that doesnt charge you for local calls possibly? I believe if you subscribe to a lower plan rate, and they find that you are using the phone line mainly for internet, they charge you a fee.
 
I am on the plan that allows me to have unlimited local calls (thats what the 50 buck fee is). Also, as a contrast, they charge 120 a month for 256/64 dsl within 1 mile of their hub. Im 8 miles away
 
jbrukardt said:
Unfortunately doesnt help me here, not only is my only option dialup, but my phone company also charges for local minutes. i have to pay a 50 dollar fee + 18 for dialup service every month

Its a massive monopoly and just rediculous that they can charge me a total of 68 for dialup that never connects faster than 28.8
Click to expand...


Wow, and I thought I was on the low end of the spectum. At least I have a local number and dont get charged for the calls to it. But the crappy lines in my rural area never get a full 28.8, fastest I have seen for months is 26.4.

On the other hand our phone bill averages $120 a month with very few if any long distance calls and absolutly no "frills" (call waiting, caller id etc).
 
jbrukardt said:
Im in the middle of getting my masters :(, i cant, got at least another year and a half here sadly. Then im moving out west and getting a 30mbit/15mbit business line for 80 a month (thatll provide quite the stark contrast)
Click to expand...

Move now. Use that nice connection to finish remotely.

Take classes / do project work from afar and transfer credit / travel back for important presentations or something.

:p

 
That 650Dialup doesnt seem to have many access numbers, and not any in my area.
 
I just switched to blue frog (www.bluefrog.com). $15 for the first month and than $9.99 per month afterwords. Service has been about as good as Dial-Up can get. This was the only cheap ISP I found that didn't increase rates after the first few months.

I keep telling myself that High speed will reach my home one day, but our street always get's overlooked.

BTW, I'll get a free-month of service if you list me a reference, so PM me if you would be so kind ;)
 
jbrukardt said:
Unfortunately doesnt help me here, not only is my only option dialup, but my phone company also charges for local minutes. i have to pay a 50 dollar fee + 18 for dialup service every month

Its a massive monopoly and just rediculous that they can charge me a total of 68 for dialup that never connects faster than 28.8
Click to expand...


does your phone company charge you for toll free calls? I use a Dial-up ISP now for backup when my cable goes down which is frequently :( they have a toll free access number.
 
Look into switching to MCI or AT&T for all your callling. I have my local and long distance through MCI and they charge me $69 for unlimited local and long distance (within the States) per month. I don't think that your phone company can stop you from switching to them. Then you can use a free ISP on the east or west coast since you won't be paying per minute for long distance.
 
I am in wisconsin, and the availability around here for high speed internet is very scarce, only the people in town/cities get it, the rest either get dial up :( , or splurge the $600 setup fee and $60 a month for satellite that is sub par at best compared to dsl. I have been talking to SBC's people about DSL too, I was talking to him about getting dsl for like 20 minutes, he kept saying stuff like, he's been working there for 11 years and he knows all about dsl, blah blah blah, ok, can I get dsl, yes...I want dsl :mad:
 
If you have AARP, ask them about their discounted dial-up internet access. If you have AARP you can get unlimited net access through PeoplePC for $5.00 a month. That comes with dial-up accelarator.
 
Before I got Wildblue satellite internet, I used ISP.com at only $8.95/month - no setup fee. They were great, especially for what they DON'T do, like no spam, advertising, locking you into 'their' browser, calling you for sales pitches, etc. All it is it internet and email, pure and simple. 24/7 toll free tech support (quite good too) and a large number of local access numbers. Give them a try. You won't be disappointed.

-PGPfan
 
Netzero has free internet capped at 10hrs.

Before I got dsl I used it and only charged 5$ a month.
You just sign up and call in to cancel after a month. They then offer you 5$/month subscription for you to stay, which doesn't expire, unlike some promotions.

But if you log on under 30minutes a day then the free account should be enough. Surf at school ;)
 
www.cya.net (spanish) http://iwlink.com/index_current.html (english)


10 bucks a month with a debit card or credit card, 40 bucks for 3 months and 6 months for $60 or $99 for a year or $150 for 2 years .... they are reliable because i had them for 3 years before switching to cable .... they have great tech support for you noobs out there.. they have lots of local numbers ... By the way its not like netzero with their ads ... they have no ads or limit ... they just give you a user name and password and you just create a connection .. or you can download their connection manager of their site ...
 
I've been taking advantage of every free trial I can for dial-up. There are so many companies out there that i'm now on my 6th month of free unlimited internet. I just cancel before the 30 days and keep going. 3 of those months are from AOL, I call to cancel my free trial and they extend it by another month even though they see i've got hundreds of hours of usage, they are crazy like that.

Might seem kinda lame to do that but i'm a bitter dial-up user and I feel for what we go through companies should pay us :)

Now actually when it comes down to it i've got pretty good connection. Rarely disconnects, maybe twice a week (and i'm online A LOT) and I connect at 46k.

I would actually suggest finding one of those promo AOL cd's and using it free for 2 months. AOL is surprisngly a very stable connection and it never cuts you off. I just minimize the browser and use firefox.

After your 2 months are up on AOL call to cancel and tell them you're moving to people PC, they will ask you to stay another month for free to compare the 2 services. HAH!
 
jbrukardt said:
Im in the middle of getting my masters :(, i cant, got at least another year and a half here sadly.
Click to expand...

Congrats man on getting your masters. Way to go!
 
I think im on the edge of town where i barley get any access from the cable company. So it goes down regularly so i have to depend on dial up to get me by. i use erweb.net 9.95 they use a toll free access number so thats why i use them. they arent too bad i usualy connect around 41 - 46 kbps
 
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