Dial up vs. cable questions

[[email protected]]

We have had cable internet for about two years now because my son and
his girlfriend who've been living with us needed it for her Ebay
business. Prior to that we had dial up. We generally managed a 45K or
there abouts connection with it. It was sometimes slow but I never
really had serious issues with it. The kids will be moving into their
own place next month and I have no need for the cable or the attached
internet service for 60.00 a month, thank you. So that will be leaving
too. Our needs are very basic. I check my NG's and email occaisionally
and visit a website now and then and my wife looks up things for her
graduate studies. I don't feel that we need the speed of cable or DSL
even for that matter. My son keeps telling me though (and spooking my
wife good and proper at the same time), that if I switch back to dialup
I won't be able to manage the popups and spyware and my computer will
be rendered useless. I find this hard to believe with so much dialup
still out there. Is there NO way to deal with these issues on dialup?
He says he will not have time to come over every other week to rebuild
my hard drive. Unfortunately I am not a real savy computer person so I
can't be sure if this is true or he's bullshitting me. So teally whats
the scoop on this? Also if this can be managed, could someone please
tell me what is the most reasonable reliable dialup service out there?
Thanks very much. Lenny Stein, Barlen Electronics.

 

[Charles Schuler]

We have had cable internet for about two years now because my son and
his girlfriend who've been living with us needed it for her Ebay
business. Prior to that we had dial up. We generally managed a 45K or
there abouts connection with it. It was sometimes slow but I never
really had serious issues with it. The kids will be moving into their
own place next month and I have no need for the cable or the attached
internet service for 60.00 a month, thank you. So that will be leaving
too. Our needs are very basic. I check my NG's and email occaisionally
and visit a website now and then and my wife looks up things for her
graduate studies. I don't feel that we need the speed of cable or DSL
even for that matter. My son keeps telling me though (and spooking my
wife good and proper at the same time), that if I switch back to dialup
I won't be able to manage the popups and spyware and my computer will
be rendered useless. I find this hard to believe with so much dialup
still out there. Is there NO way to deal with these issues on dialup?
He says he will not have time to come over every other week to rebuild
my hard drive. Unfortunately I am not a real savy computer person so I
can't be sure if this is true or he's bullshitting me. So teally whats
the scoop on this? Also if this can be managed, could someone please
tell me what is the most reasonable reliable dialup service out there?
Thanks very much. Lenny Stein, Barlen Electronics.

If you used to like dial up, chances are that you will like it again. Your
son is an alarmist (or perhaps just sounds like one). I'd say go back to
the provider you were once pleased with.

 

[James Sweet]

We have had cable internet for about two years now because my son and
his girlfriend who've been living with us needed it for her Ebay
business. Prior to that we had dial up. We generally managed a 45K or
there abouts connection with it. It was sometimes slow but I never
really had serious issues with it. The kids will be moving into their
own place next month and I have no need for the cable or the attached
internet service for 60.00 a month, thank you. So that will be leaving
too. Our needs are very basic. I check my NG's and email occaisionally
and visit a website now and then and my wife looks up things for her
graduate studies. I don't feel that we need the speed of cable or DSL
even for that matter. My son keeps telling me though (and spooking my
wife good and proper at the same time), that if I switch back to dialup
I won't be able to manage the popups and spyware and my computer will
be rendered useless. I find this hard to believe with so much dialup
still out there. Is there NO way to deal with these issues on dialup?

Dialup will be fine, just download a good virus scanner (try Antivir, it's
free for personal use) and get something like AdAware to clean up any
spyware you have already. A good web browser is Mozilla Firefox and you can
get an AdBlock ad-on for it. All of this stuff is free, download it while
you still have broadband and get everything working, once that's done you're
actually *less* likely to get infected with things when you're on dialup
because the lack of bandwidth and you're only connected when it's actually
being used. Updates for the spyware and virus scanners will take longer but
they can download while you surf, eat dinner, etc.

Another thing you could look into if the slow dialup connection is bugging
you after being spoiled with broadband is DSL, I have it and it's only
$30/month, not a whole lot more than dialup.

 

[Jamie]

We have had cable internet for about two years now because my son and
his girlfriend who've been living with us needed it for her Ebay
business. Prior to that we had dial up. We generally managed a 45K or
there abouts connection with it. It was sometimes slow but I never
really had serious issues with it. The kids will be moving into their
own place next month and I have no need for the cable or the attached
internet service for 60.00 a month, thank you. So that will be leaving
too. Our needs are very basic. I check my NG's and email occaisionally
and visit a website now and then and my wife looks up things for her
graduate studies. I don't feel that we need the speed of cable or DSL
even for that matter. My son keeps telling me though (and spooking my
wife good and proper at the same time), that if I switch back to dialup
I won't be able to manage the popups and spyware and my computer will
be rendered useless. I find this hard to believe with so much dialup
still out there. Is there NO way to deal with these issues on dialup?
He says he will not have time to come over every other week to rebuild
my hard drive. Unfortunately I am not a real savy computer person so I
can't be sure if this is true or he's bullshitting me. So teally whats
the scoop on this? Also if this can be managed, could someone please
tell me what is the most reasonable reliable dialup service out there?
Thanks very much. Lenny Stein, Barlen Electronics.

you dial will be just fine for that.
btw, 60 pm is a lot of money, it sounds to me
that you have the highest package on the service
which allot of times allows you to run a server at
your home, this means a computer stays on a lot.
any ways. i would check into a lower cable
service for internet. i think he has you on the
small business plain, those normally allow all ports
to be used as servers so that one could run a web
page from their home or small office..

 

[ryan wiehle]

We have had cable internet for about two years now because my son and
his girlfriend who've been living with us needed it for her Ebay
business. Prior to that we had dial up. We generally managed a 45K or
there abouts connection with it. It was sometimes slow but I never
really had serious issues with it. The kids will be moving into their
own place next month and I have no need for the cable or the attached
internet service for 60.00 a month, thank you. So that will be leaving
too. Our needs are very basic. I check my NG's and email occaisionally
and visit a website now and then and my wife looks up things for her
graduate studies. I don't feel that we need the speed of cable or DSL
even for that matter. My son keeps telling me though (and spooking my
wife good and proper at the same time), that if I switch back to
dialup I won't be able to manage the popups and spyware and my
computer will be rendered useless. I find this hard to believe with
so much dialup still out there. Is there NO way to deal with these
issues on dialup? He says he will not have time to come over every
other week to rebuild my hard drive. Unfortunately I am not a real
savy computer person so I can't be sure if this is true or he's
bullshitting me. So teally whats the scoop on this? Also if this can
be managed, could someone please tell me what is the most reasonable
reliable dialup service out there? Thanks very much. Lenny Stein,
Barlen Electronics.

and your son won't like the slow speed when he comes visiting.
go for dial-up. popups do not depend on connection speed.

 

[AshTray700]

pop up ads (the really annoying ones) are a result of spyware opening up
inbound communication on your pc, you pick up spyware all over the
internet if you are not carefull what you click on, and sometimes it can
get in without you doing anything, if you are going back to dialup, you
need to download ad aware se and run it to clean up all the spyware you
got with the fast connection, you are less likely to get gobs of spyware
with a dialup connection that is only on when you want it to be, if your
computer is fairly new and you have removed spyware you will have no
problems with dial up connection. at any rate ad aware is a great tool,
install it and make friends with it sometimes it gets lonely and needs
company from his pal Norton Antivirus. and always update your windows
software via windowsupdate. then above all dont click on those stupid
windows that pop up and dont get software off the internet (kazaa, screen
savers, games) you may think they are free, but they get their revenue
from advertising to you and are packaged with spyware.

 

[William R. Walsh]

Hi!

Being as dial up is a slower "pipe" it would seem logical that the
spyware/adware/trash in general problem would be reduced. At the very least
it would take a bit longer for these things to take hold.

No matter how you get connected, these things can happen.

I doubt there is really any one ISP that is any worse than any other in this
regard. Some do offer more e-mail filtering and stuff like that--and that's
where you'll have to make a decision. Once you get connected, it's "all the
same Internet" for the most part.

William

 

[Art]

Can always try using another browser other than Internet Explorer, such as
Firefox, or other available free downloads, that do block many more of these
annoying popups than Micro_Softs codex does?? Dial_Up should work fine for
your application and needs. Happy New Year 2005!

 

[[email protected]]

Does anyone have any experience with Netzero, either their "free"
service or the 9.95 Platinum service. Are the ads in the free service
popups or are they banners? And do they obliterate the screen making
you have to X them out or are they a bit more passive? thanks, Lenny

 

[Andy]

Andy writes;

I have the Netzero free service, but the Juno 9.95 , which seems to
use the same access
numbers in my area.

The Juno works fine for me in North Texas, except from maybe 3am to
7am. Then, the
connection speeds become very slow and I am apparently being swapped
out with
other users....... But after 7am , things go back to my normal 25,400
bps........

The free Netzero has the same problem, but not as bad...... I am
certain it is some sort
of "time of day" thing, maybe they do maintenance or something.....

With the Juno, the occasional ads are annoying, but haven't kept me
from accomplishing
what I need to do...... I bet Netzero is the same........

..... By the way, the home pages are VERY similar. Seem to have the
same newsflashes, too.

Just another input. Maybe it'll help....... You can try the free
service first, and see
if you like it.... for either Juno or Netzero...
Andy

 

[LASERandDVDfan]

The kids will be moving into their

own place next month and I have no need for the cable or the attached
internet service for 60.00 a month, thank you

Ouch!

Don't mean to sound like a jerk, but you could've saved more money by going
with DSL than cable and probably have gotten more consistent performance to
boot.

Although cable is faster than DSL, DSL is not prone to slowing down like cable
is if there are too many users accessing the connection.

My son keeps telling me though (and spooking my
wife good and proper at the same time), that if I switch back to dialup
I won't be able to manage the popups and spyware and my computer will
be rendered useless.

I don't mean to be insulting, but your son is giving you BS.

Spyware, spam, and popups are a problem, period. Regardless if you have
broadband or dialup. BTW, broadband gives you the additional problem with
hackers unless you have a firewall installed and/or if the computer is logged
off the network (which is sometimes only done when the computer is completely
powered down with the settings in the BIOS for an LAN wakeup is disabled).
This is because broadband services assigns you one unique IP number that
identifies your computer to the network every time it's online that never
changes unless you cancel your service. Dial-up services, on the other hand,
gives you a temporary IP number which is different every single time you dial
up to log on. Simply put, broadband allows for faster throughput, but dial up
allows for greater security.

Anyways, helping to reduce or eliminate problems with these things lies in how
you use your internet service and what you are doing to protect your computer.

Running good software, like Norton Anti-Virus, Norton Internet Security, and
LavaSoft AdAware and keeping them all up to date in at least a bi-weekly basis,
are great ways to help keep your computer clean. But, don't be redundant about
the software you are running. For instance, it's a bad idea to run two
different anti-virus programs at the same time. It won't improve your
computer's protection and will only cause performance problems.

Other things you'd want to do would be to access the Windows Update website at
Microsoft to obtain the latest security patches and service packs to address
security and operational issues that pop up with Windows every now and then.

Then you also should do housekeeping on the computer. Scan your hard disk for
viruses, then run scandisk or chkdsk to check and, if necessary, repair your
file system. Then run defrag to reorganize the contents in your hard disk so
that they are in a more organized fashion, which helps your computer to run
better.

I do this every week, although you can do it bi-weekly.

Try not to visit websites that even seem remotely questionable or open e-mails
from senders you do not know. Do not download anything you are unsure of,
including e-mail file attachments that you are not expecting. Use the internet
wisely and with common sense. One way attackers can try to get into your
system is by suckering you to a website that offers some kind of free ride.

Finally, it's always a good idea to have a backup on your computer. Even
better if you keep the backup up to date. With the advent of DVD recorders and
powerful backup tools, there's really no excuse not to backup your system.
Nothing makes you look and feel better than completely recovering from a system
crash by simply loading a disc and having your system come back the way it was
automatically. - Reinhart

 

[LASERandDVDfan]

kazaa, screen

savers, games) you may think they are free, but they get their revenue
from advertising to you and are packaged with spyware.

Kazza Lite has no spyware problems, unlike regular Kazza.

However, I don't think Kazza is a free working P2P anymore.

But, I'm in agreement. Don't go wild and download anything and everything you
see. - Reinhart

 

[William R. Walsh]

Hi!

Does anyone have any experience with Netzero, either their "free"
service or the 9.95 Platinum service. Are the ads in the free service
popups or are they banners? And do they obliterate the screen making
you have to X them out or are they a bit more passive? thanks, Lenny

It's been a while since I had any customers using the NetZero service, but I
seem to remember that the ads were usually pretty subtle in nature. They did
appear in windows outside the browsing session, but I didn't find them all
that intrusive.

William

 

[William R. Walsh]

Hi!

.... By the way, the home pages are VERY similar. Seem to have the
same newsflashes, too.

Juno and NetZero have the same corporate parent--United Online.

William

 

[Kim Clay]

Does anyone have any experience with Netzero, either their "free"
service or the 9.95 Platinum service. Are the ads in the free service
popups or are they banners? And do they obliterate the screen making
you have to X them out or are they a bit more passive? thanks, Lenny

Lenny - the free service is everything you said (except passive)!

I have used the _free_ NetZero since it came out (>4 yrs now). It has
been reliable. Always connects & functions as a ISP. Their e-mail always
seems to work.
Having said that, their free service is... a nightmare mess of ads &
garbage but still useful as a backup for connectivity. Since reading
this thread I realized I had not connected to them for about a year now.
Still having the SW installed I tried connecting & it was the same -
connects OK & e-mail still there but a mess otherwise. I think the free
service is limited to a max of 10 hours/month, has a banner across the
top of the screen, contains numerous pop-ups & is just a royal pain. I
did mention that it seems to still be free Get it for emergencies. If
you go over 10 hours in a month you can not connect until the next
month. That's how it was a couple years back, I don't know about today.

from your previous post:

even for that matter. My son keeps telling me though (and spooking my
wife good and proper at the same time), that if I switch back to dialup
I won't be able to manage the popups and spyware and my computer will
be rendered useless. I find this hard to believe with so much dialup
still out there. Is there NO way to deal with these issues on dialup?

A non-issue! Due to the type of phone line connecting me to the central
office I am limited to 28.8 connections. I survive just fine Read on.

He says he will not have time to come over every other week to rebuild
my hard drive. Unfortunately I am not a real savy computer person so I
can't be sure if this is true or he's bullshitting me. So teally whats
the scoop on this? Also if this can be managed, could someone please
tell me what is the most reasonable reliable dialup service out there?

For the last 2-3 yrs I have been using http://www.aaahawk.com/ - basic
ISP connectivity for $83.40/year. The parent co. hawkcommunications.com
launched the more familiar name Joi Internet in 2002 & it seems to be
the same service http://www.joiinternet.com. It works fine for me & I
recommend it to others.

The "popups and spyware" situation your son mentions has nothing to do
with the speed of your connection. Absolutely nothing!! Be careful what
you download & install on your computer. Some web sites are known for
trying to do bad things to your computer. Some/most xxx sites fall into
this catagory as do many hacker sites. Nothing is different just beacuse
you have a dial-up or cable or dsl access. Everyone _should_ be prepared
to reinstall everything on their HDD should it fail for any reason
(hardware or software). One thing is for certain - your HDD _will_ fail
at some point of time in the future - nothing lasts forever. What are
going to do when it does? This thought is much to large to address here
but come up with a game plan.

You have used a dial-up account before - nothing has changed - it still
works the same way. Some/many sites now expect users to have a high
speed connection & offer bloated web pages of garbage but that was an
issue early on also. It just slows down the time-to-load the page.

I think Joi Internet offers the same newsgroups as the aaahawk service
that I use. It is OK to good, even carrying some/many binaries.
Get a NG account at http://www.individual.net/. You will never be
sorry. They carry everything except binaries.

I think the high-speed "surf the web 5x the speed" junk is BS designed
to separate a fool & his $. Give me basic ISP connectivity please.

I do not work any company mentioned. I am just offering my personal
views.

In short you should have no problems - best wishes - Kim

 

[James Sweet]

Ouch!

Don't mean to sound like a jerk, but you could've saved more money by going
with DSL than cable and probably have gotten more consistent performance to
boot.

Although cable is faster than DSL, DSL is not prone to slowing down like cable
is if there are too many users accessing the connection.

I've had both cable and DSL and have seen surprisingly little difference
between the two. As you say, cable varies a bit more but tops out a bit
faster, but the difference is fairly minor. Overall I was satisfied with
both services, only ever changed because I moved a couple times and at first
could only get one or the other then moved again and shopped by price. In
both cases I found the speed to be far more dependant on the sites I was
accessing than the bandwidth of my own pipe.

 

[James Sweet]

Lenny - the free service is everything you said (except passive)!

I have used the _free_ NetZero since it came out (>4 yrs now). It has
been reliable. Always connects & functions as a ISP. Their e-mail always
seems to work.
Having said that, their free service is... a nightmare mess of ads &
garbage but still useful as a backup for connectivity. Since reading
this thread I realized I had not connected to them for about a year now.
Still having the SW installed I tried connecting & it was the same -
connects OK & e-mail still there but a mess otherwise. I think the free
service is limited to a max of 10 hours/month, has a banner across the
top of the screen, contains numerous pop-ups & is just a royal pain. I
did mention that it seems to still be free Get it for emergencies. If
you go over 10 hours in a month you can not connect until the next
month. That's how it was a couple years back, I don't know about today.

Can you use ad blockers or does that kill the functionality? I remember
there was a free internet service several years ago which had it's own
special software that connected and displayed ads. The thing I (and
apparently many others) discovered is that once you signed up with their
software, you could uninstall it and put the phone number and login info
right into a Windows dialup networking thing and connect that way with no
ads. They didn't last long...

 

[Kim Clay]

Can you use ad blockers or does that kill the functionality? I remember
there was a free internet service several years ago which had it's own
special software that connected and displayed ads. The thing I (and
apparently many others) discovered is that once you signed up with their
software, you could uninstall it and put the phone number and login info
right into a Windows dialup networking thing and connect that way with no
ads. They didn't last long...

Ad blockers - yes - But you must use their dialer program, no cheating
there.

I think I tried all the free ISPs also as they came & went.

I use Privoxy now http://www.privoxy.org/ & Junkbusters before that. It
will stop most of the mess. As I remember NetZero always wants to go to
its homepage which is _very_ cluttered. I would minimize or close that
window & be on my merry way but still missing the top of my screen which
has the ad bar. & they make it quite obnoxious! & still get some
pop-ups. It is still usable & good for emergencies.

I also have IP Cop http://www.ipcop.org on another computer (AMD5x86)
as a firewall (yeah on a dialup). It has a web proxy server which makes
repeated visits to a web page _lots_ faster on a dialup.

The OP could investigate both these ideas if he so desired. Neither is
essential for a novice, just accessories that are nice.

 

[Chaos Master]

I wish I had LASERandDVDfan's angel tonight:

I don't mean to be insulting, but your son is giving you BS.

Spyware, spam, and popups are a problem, period. Regardless if you have
broadband or dialup. BTW, broadband gives you the additional problem with
hackers unless you have a firewall installed and/or if the computer is logged
off the network (which is sometimes only done when the computer is completely
powered down with the settings in the BIOS for an LAN wakeup is disabled).
This is because broadband services assigns you one unique IP number that
identifies your computer to the network every time it's online that never
changes unless you cancel your service. Dial-up services, on the other hand,
gives you a temporary IP number which is different every single time you dial
up to log on. Simply put, broadband allows for faster throughput, but dial up
allows for greater security.

Some DSL services [1] use DHCP, which gives you different IP
addresses...

[1] Most home services... I have seen fixed IP's in "high-end" (read:
guaranteed speed, but expen$ive) DSL connections that were meant for
business.

BTW, I am on dial-up and there is no pop-ups here... I browse almost
everything with Firefox which has a pop-up blocker.

My Internet Explorer also has Google Toolbar with pop-up blocker.

[]s
--
Chaos Master®, posting from Canoas, Brazil - 29.55° S / 51.11° W / GMT-
2h / 15m


"Now: the 3-bit processor, with instructions:
1. NOP - does nothing, increase PC. / 2. HLT - does nothing, doesn't
increase PC
3. MMX - enter Pentium(r) emulation mode; increase PC / 4. LCK - before
MMX: NOP ; after MMX: executes F0 0F C7 C8
5. HCF - Halt and Catch Fire / 6. EPI - Execute Programmer
7. DPC - Decrease PC"

 

[[email protected]]

I would like to thank everyone for their responses. They have been very
helpful. I will check out Hawk this week. Lenny