I keep hearing about these ISPs that make you pay for each message or each kilobyte, but I have yet to find out who they actually are! Could someone please tell me so I can be sure and discourage anyone I know from using such services? There are lovely ISPs out there that simply charge a monthly fee (and not an hourly one as AoL does), have good connectivity, and have only raised their rates by a single dollar in the last couple of years (Earthlink, for one). There are also free ISPs out there which simply require you to browse while keeping their advertising bar on at all times. There might be a limit to the amount of mail you can store on their servers at any one time, but once you download it to your own machine there's no more issue.
And if you use an online e-mail service (such as Yahoo, Hotmail, etc.), you're not having to pay for *anything* other than your monthly ISP connection! My feeling is, if you're using a service that charges by the message or kilobyte, you really need to get a different service! Especially considering all the available options out there.
Yes, I'm online 24/7 (but not with DSL or a cable modem, can't afford them - I have a separate phone line installed). And if I didn't have my e-mail program set to download new messages every few minutes my box would probably exceed its limit every day. But I'll venture a fairly safe bet that I'm subscribed to much more than the average number of groups and newsletters.
I'd also suggest to those paying for access by the minute (cybercafe's and the like), ultimately you're spending a lot more for your access than most people are. Find a more economical way of accessing email and surfing the web - for your own sake!
Just my $0.04 worth. (I've been awfully opinionated the last few days I'm afraid).
Laura
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