Free dial-up for a laptop?

03-26-2003, 11:14 AM

This was easier when we only had dial-up at home....

Now my spouse needs some sort of dial-up for going out of town next week. The hotel doesn't have a high-speed connection. He will be in Louisville, KY. We have Comcast at home, so that won't travel well. He downloaded NetZero's free software, but I'm worried abot spyware and crap.

He's gone back to college part time, and we have discovered distinct advantages to that when buying software.

I'm thinking that he may be able to dial in for free to a local college, since he's a college student.

Anyone have any ideas on what we should do for this?

John_Berger · 03-26-2003, 11:39 AM

Does Comcast offer ANY dial-up services? Many broadband providers will have dial-up service as a convenience in the event that the broadband service goes down, but they'll allow a certain amount of time per month even if there are no broadband problems. Since Comcast is nationwide, I'd be surprised if they don't have dial-up as a secondary method.

Tony-B · 03-26-2003, 01:46 PM

Quote:

He downloaded NetZero's free software, but I'm worried abot spyware and crap.

There is a program called AdAware that is sort of like Norton AntiVirus, but it's for spyware. It will scan your computer for spyware, and remove it. When you get rid of NetZero, you could just run that.

I don't know of any other free dial-up services. I honestly would check with that college and try to get access from them. It would be the most reliable connection.

I just thought of a really good option, if the college won't let you connect or you don't want to worry about spyware. You could always use a free trial of AOL to connect. Just make sure you cancel it as soon as you are done using it.

Mike LS · 03-26-2003, 01:47 PM

Comcast does not offer any type of back up dial-up service. When your service is out, you're out of luck. This is according to their FAQ page.

You can check out

http://clarkhoward.com/topics/internet_deals.html

for a couple of free and a few more low cost dial up alternatives.

Brian E · 03-26-2003, 03:35 PM

Don't know anything about these guys, but they offer unlimited dial up for $6 a month. Seems pretty good. Don't know if they have access in your area or not. You can also check http://www.isps.com to find other low cost options. I know my isp offers 20 hours a month dial up, but sounds like that's a no go with Comcast.
http://access4less.net/indexisp.htm

AFAIK NetZero is the last of the "free" isp's, but IIRC they keep cutting back the time on the free access for each month.

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brentl · 03-26-2003, 03:46 PM

I use both NetZero and Juno and I don't have any spyware.

Brent

Tekara · 03-26-2003, 05:04 PM

well most universities do offer free dial-up service, but they tend not to keep them well serviced and there is typically a very limited number of people that can dial into them. this is very much university specific though, so it really does depend on them as to how easy it will be to use their dialup.

you could always look into using your cell phone for internet. I know my sprint phone offers 112kbps internet service and all you need is a computer kit to attach your cell phone up to the computer.

03-26-2003, 11:52 PM

Thanks for the reponses, guys!

I think we'll go with the Netzero/Adaware combo.

Tony-B · 03-27-2003, 05:59 PM

Silly me! I should have posted the link to the Adaware site! The site is http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/, and the program is free.

Robert_Gaither · 03-28-2003, 12:52 AM

I'd advise going to www.freedomlist.com and using their referral there as lot of the really cheap ISPs charge a one time activation fee. I would advise against netzero as it's loaded with spyware and actually take some of the better any spyware programs (such as spybot search and destroy) to find them (adaware is due for another update imho). Access4free is a very good budget dial-up connection and this is what I use as my backup as it has a lot of good access points, good connection speed for dial up, and costs no more than $10 at most to use.