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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