Unhappy with your ISP?
Lots of us are not happy with the busy signals, slow connect speeds, access
to newsgroups, and e-mail reliability of our ISPs. Before you switch, you might
want to take a look at
Gauging
ISP Performance from PC World Jan '98. A February 1998 Boardwatchsurvey
rates ISPs by connect speed and busy signals. And a site at the
Online Connection gives
information about National ISPs and Online Services.
A slightly older and less comprehensive survey is to be found at
PC Magazine's
August 1997 ISP Survey Results. This site ran tests and lists user
satisfaction rates with access, throughput, technical support, and e-mail
reliability for 13 national ISPs.
C/NET has also done an
ISP Survey. It
once gave you an opportunity to rate your ISP (although this feature has been
removed) and provides advice on how to choose an ISP. It includes a search
engine (by state) and lists over 600 ISPs, including very good descriptions,
prices, ratings, and local POPs.
If you do decide you need another ISP, you might be able to find one
at The List (search engine by area code,
3000 ISPs, no ratings) or thedirectory (search by
area code, 8000 ISPs, links only)
When it's time to select an ISP, I use three main criteria:
- The ISP must have a local POP (point of presence, telephone
number). You may have to check with your telephone company to determine that
the number is really toll-free. Long distance charges quickly overwhelm all
other fees.
- The ISP must provide flate-rate access at competitive rates (currently
$19.95 per month, $40 for cable and $50 for ADSL). Local ISPs may charge less,
but quality can be spotty. Amazingly enough, the service with the worst service
record, AOL, also charges more. And any service that charges per-minute fees
(like AT&T) will quickly become more expensive than their competitors if
you exceed their free limit.
- The ISP must provide reliable connect rates, speedy connections (56k has
become standard, cable and ADSL are becoming common), and reliable e-mail and
newsfeeds.
Alternative E-Mail Options
How can I get multiple e-mail addresses?
These services give you any number of different e-mail addresses - great if
you ever change ISPs (which is why most ISPs won't tell you about 'em.). In
return some put some advertising on the log-in pages (and possibly sell your
address to a spam-list). But if you become the target of a spew, you can dump
this address much more readily than the one your ISP assigned to you. A recent
CNET
Article reviews seven of these services. I've listed a few more that I've
come across. Finally, here's a superb search engine for free e-mail.
The free web-based services provide an option for travelers who can't
contact their own ISPs while away from home. These allow you to retrieve mail
without ever accessing your own ISP - any confuser that will hook up to the WWW
will allow you to read your mail.
These are the web-based ones I've used:
MailCity
Another new service. Seems to be pretty reliable.
Pathfinder Uses
IName. New, but looks professional. Offers forwarding.
Iname A e-mail address with some customization
of domain names.
Flashemail New, but it works. Banner ad
more obtrusive than most. Has reliability problems.
Freemail Friendly E-Mail. Shut down for a
while; back up as of 13 Oct 97. Has been somewhat unreliable since.
poor
CNET review
Hotmail A well-though out user interface;
seems quite reliable.
CNET
review Recently bought by MicroSoft. Now requires
cookies,
so I no longer use them.
Excite A new service. Originally required
enabling of javascript, but now has an alternative. Was quite reliable.
Vacation feature. Now requires
cookies,
so I no longer use them.
Free POP3
Accounts Giving on the Net an extensive listing, includes POP3, web-based,
and forwarding accounts.
Free Email Address Directory Another
extensive listing..
Other services, while not web-based, provide e-mail addresses which will
forward mail addressed to them to a pop account at your ISP: If you change
ISPs, all you need to do is change the forwarding address with these services.
Geocities One of the oldest, this one
provides an 11 megabyte free
web page as well as an e-mail account. Has been very reliable. Appears to
use Iname now.
Bigfoot A permanent
e-mail address with lots of options; this is the only one that will allow you
to forward messages to more than one account.
POBox Netforward; also allows some
customization of addresses
Netforward Different URL, same place.
Yet others require you to accept cookies, enable javascript, use proprietary
software or pay a small fee:
POBox (fee)
Juno (proprietary software)
CNET
review
Freemail
MailCity (required javascript, a
potential security risk, but provides an alternative)
CNET
review
RocketMail (CNET likes them, but
requires javascript and cookies, a potential
security risk). Have recently merged with Yahoo.
CNET
review
Netaddress/USA An
established service, but seems to attract spam. Not entirely reliable. Now
requires JavaScript, a potential security risk.
CNET
review
Yahoo
A new service, but requires cookies, a
potential security risk).
CNET
review
TravelTales (CNET doesn't
like the features)
CNET
review
How can I get my e-mail when I'm on the road?
Option 1: call *your* ISP, either long-distance or with local number if
available. If your ISP supports telnet, you can access your shell account that
way.
I use three e-mail programs fairly consistently - Netscape, Agent, and
Pegasus. All permit me to delete read mail from the server or not, using
preference settings. Since I like Agent's filing system best, I use that to
*keep* e-mail that I want. I set the other two to "leave mail on
server". Thus if I read mail using Pegasus or Netscape, it's still
available on the AT&T's server to be read with Pegasus or Agent later. If
I'm on the road, I just use Pegasus or Netscape. When I finally read it with
Agent, it gets deleted off the server. Bear in mind that your ISP is only
willing to store a limited amount of e-mail on *their* server (generally it's
about 10 meg; some ISP's warn you before you hit your limit, others just bounce
the excess, with or without an explanation.. So it behooves you to clear it out
as often as necessary to avoid exceeding the limit. I occasionally copy the
mail folders from Agent to my laptop, so that all of the messages I saved will
be available.
Option 2: get a web-based mail service.
Free Web Pages
If your ISP won't give you free web pages, here are a few that have proven
themselves to be reliable. Most ask that you put a link to their home pages on
the free site they give you, and some add more or less obtrusive ads to your
pages. Note that many of these ads can be defeated if the viewr has Javascirpt
turned off. There are also more inclusive lists at
Free WebPage Provider
Review,Free WebPage
Review, Free WebSpace Net, PETER
CONRAD'S LIST, The
Free Pages PageFree
Hosting Page and Serge's
Directory. Finally, here's aYahoo
search for free web pages.
Geocities Very reliable;
11 mb; rather obtrusive popup ads and/or watermarks, standard FTP, immediately
accessible. E-mail available. Has a tendency to enforce TOS very literally.
Bought out by Yahoo.
Tripod Very
reliable; 22 mb, popup ads; standard FTP, immediately accessible.
Xoom New; 11 mb, obtusive banner ads; standard
FTP, immediately accessible.
Crosswinds New; unlimited, no
ads; standard FTP, immediately accessible. Undergoing growing pains due to
Geocities' watermark campagin; ftp, but quite slow.
FortuneCity New; 10 mb, obtrusive banner ads, standard FTP, immediately accessible.
Angelfire New; 5
mb, ads unknown; FTP to common "incoming" directory with thousands of
files in it, which must then be moved to your URL. This makes it unusable for
me..
CyberCity Very unreliable; not currently
functioning (well, they're back up, with 7 meg, but not accepting new members).