We bought a new Dell and, with it, we were given 6 free months with AOL. It will run out soon and we have no idea who to sign on with. We will be switching to DSL because I hate the wait of dial-up. Does anyone have any recommendations? TIA

By Colette on Tuesday, September 28, 2004 - 07:44 am:

We go through Adelphia cable. Before that we were with Verizon DSL. I like Adelphia better.

By Kernkate on Tuesday, September 28, 2004 - 07:45 am:

I have my local cable company with cable modem and I really like it. I hated dial-up it was so slow!! But then again in my area I have 2 opinions...through my cable company or through my phone company. Can't get local dial ups for the big companies around here.

By Karen~moderator on Tuesday, September 28, 2004 - 07:53 am:

We have Cox cable, but we also have AOL since the kids are in college and Jen lives with her Dad right now, who has NO internet service. I also have my mom on my AOL account. I can count on one hand the number of times the cable has been out, so we've been pleased.

We use Bellsouth DSL at work and have had NO problems with it.

By Brandy on Tuesday, September 28, 2004 - 08:34 am:

We have aol usually it's fine somedays i could just scream lol = )

By Christylee on Tuesday, September 28, 2004 - 09:16 am:

We use our cable provider with a cable modem. I could NEVER use dial up again after having this. lol...

By Palmbchprincess on Tuesday, September 28, 2004 - 09:18 am:

I had AOL broadband, and Time Warner Road Runner. Both are powered by TW cable, but I had much better service with just Road Runner. I'm not a big AOL fan. Now that I can't get a cable modem at my house, I'm going through the same dilemma, since I'm not happy with my choices for DSL.

By Emily7 on Tuesday, September 28, 2004 - 09:48 am:

I use our cable company as well.
My Aunt uses AT&T.

By Boxzgrl on Tuesday, September 28, 2004 - 10:05 am:

I use SBC Yahoo! DSL , so far it's great, no complaints!

By John on Tuesday, September 28, 2004 - 11:03 am:

Cablevision Optimum Online service. Very happy with it. UNBELIEVABLY fast. We're spoiled.

Check if you can get cable modem access in your area. In general, Cable is about 5-10 times faster than DSL.

Look at this site:

http://www.dslreports.com/

for reviews of broadband access in your area.

By Rayanne on Tuesday, September 28, 2004 - 11:20 am:

We have Verizon DSL. It's the only thing that I've ever had so I cannot really compare it to anything else. It has been fine. Sometimes, it can be a little slow, but not always.

By Boxzgrl on Tuesday, September 28, 2004 - 11:33 am:

I think Cable and DSL can run hand in hand as far as speed goes. My Dad switched from DSL to Cable thinking I was faster but its actually noticably (sp?) slower and my DSL is a lot faster than his cable. I really think it all depends on the company and where you are located.

By Janet on Tuesday, September 28, 2004 - 11:37 am:

We have a local one in our little town...it's wonderful~ no long distance dial-up fees! And if there's a prob, you just trot down to the hardware store and talk to him! Thinking of going to high-speed, but I haven't been able to scrape together the money for the start-up yet. Still, we almost NEVER have a busy signal, so I have little complaints.

By Cat on Tuesday, September 28, 2004 - 11:41 am:

We have Adelphia wireless now. We had Prodigy for years. Dial-up is SO slow! lol

By Katherine on Tuesday, September 28, 2004 - 11:50 am:

I had AOL for years! Drove me nuts.......Cable all the way for me!!!!!!

By Vicki on Tuesday, September 28, 2004 - 11:59 am:

Local cable (which is Adelphia) have never had any problems at all!!

By Tonya on Tuesday, September 28, 2004 - 12:38 pm:

Local cable which is WOW we go through them!

By Mommmie on Tuesday, September 28, 2004 - 01:46 pm:

Comcast cable. Will never go back to dial up. You can still access your AOL mail though.

By Dawnk777 on Tuesday, September 28, 2004 - 02:29 pm:

Charter Cable. We would have a mutiny on our hands if we ever went back to dial-up.

We got free internet with our Dell, but we never used it, since we didn't want to use AOL.

(oh, and my Dell is three years old now. The chumpiest computers in our house have been rebuilt into fast machines. Now I have the chumpiest one in the house! LOL! I'm wondering why I have never gotten a computer with a snazzy new case! I have one picked out at the computer store! DH builds his own, since we can buy lots of computer parts right in town.)

By Amy~moderator on Tuesday, September 28, 2004 - 03:22 pm:

We have DSL Extreme through Bellsouth.

By Kaye on Tuesday, September 28, 2004 - 03:45 pm:

Same question...new twist...just how much do you pay? WE pay 40 a month for cable. I wonder how much dsl is and even if it were a touch slower would it be worth saving the money? You can get dial up here through netxero for 10 bucks...what a steal!

By Boxzgrl on Tuesday, September 28, 2004 - 06:44 pm:

$29.95 through SBC Yahoo! ... it really *IS* a steal. I only pay like $5.00 a month more than I did with dial-up and I had Earthlink then.

By Mommmie on Tuesday, September 28, 2004 - 08:57 pm:

I pay $50 for cable. It was $25 for the first 3 months and I paid no installation fees.

By Dawnk777 on Tuesday, September 28, 2004 - 09:04 pm:

$16.23 for basic cable tv (local channels and a few cable channels

$34.95 for cable internet

$51.18 sub total

$ 3.74 for goofy fees

$54.92 total

It's enough money to pay out. That's why we don't have the expanded basic.

By Mommmie on Tuesday, September 28, 2004 - 10:38 pm:

Oh, are you talking my *whole* cable bill?? That's $145, of which $50 is high speed internet.

By Cocoabutter on Wednesday, September 29, 2004 - 12:34 am:

Well, I am the oddball here. I have dial-up (UGH!) and I hate how slow it is, but I am really happy with my ISP, which is MSN. I pay $21.95 a month, and the software includes pop-up blocker, internet filtering, email, MSN Messenger, a calendar which will send email alerts, and photo sharing, among other things. MSN also offers broadband access.

I like MSN because of the security. About 95% of all internet users use Microsoft Internet Explorer and Outlook Express to access the net and email. This makes those programs ideal targets for hackers and spammers and adware and spyware. Having an internet/email program that is not as widely used provides more security, though nothing is infallible. Always keep your anti-virus up to date, and especially if you use DSL or Cable, always keep your firewall up and running with the latest updated software. Then there are the adware and spyware programs that you can download for free to check your system.