Great-ISP-Deals.com Site Map

AOL Dialup
America Online -- you know it and you either love it or you hate it. AOL has always been a popular Internet service provider because it contains an entire community of users, along with news, information, and cool features. It's almost like it's the "best of the Internet." But with all the competitors and the high speed ISPs all trying to take AOL's customers, the Internet giant had to do something. Voila! AOL 9.0 Optimized is the latest version of the company's online service and ISP, and it has a number of killer new features. For example, AOL provides anti-spam technology -- to keep your email inbox clean of those nasty critters -- as well as parental controls to make sure your kids are safe online. You also get access to tons of free, exclusive content online from AOL's parent company, Time Warner. That includes movie previews, access to online magazines, and (for music fans) you often get offered tickets to performances before the rest of the world.

AOL for Broadband
This isn't really an ISP service in the traditional sense. Instead, it's the AOL service you know and love -- but optimized for broadband. You need to have a cable modem or DSL Internet Service Provider already installed, but once you do, you can add this on top of that service to get access to some truly awesome content. AOL is the king of the online services for good reason. Remember that AOL is part of Time-Warner? That's the reason that AOL members are always getting access to Time-Warner content -- books, movies, online magazines, music tickets, etc. -- before anyone else. Couple that with the power of high speed Internet access, and AOL for Broadband is a lot like a multimedia movie theater crammed into your PC.

Juno ISP
Juno is a very early player in the Internet service provider business, and a couple of years ago merged with NetZero. The result is a similar pricing arrangement and similar service. Of course, that means that Juno is a free Internet access provider. You can use the Internet service to log onto the Web and surf away with the peace of mind that comes from knowing that you're not spending a dime on it. Not too bad! That doesn't mean that you'll get the best ISP experience out there. Instead, you'll probably get a lot of ads, since Juno supports its free Internet service with advertisements -- delivered when users log in and during their surfing session.

Juno Platinum
For folks that think of Juno only as a free Internet service provider, I'm here to set you straight. Juno Platinum is the company's paid, value-priced Internet service, and it competes with AOL, EarthLink and the rest. It does a good job at that. Juno offers thousands of national numbers and the service is generally reliable. Juno Platinum doesn't bombard you with ads the way that you might get on the free Internet access services. It's true that you still see some advertising from Juno, but the ISP overall has less advertising, which makes for a more pleasant Internet experience.

Juno High Speed
Juno combines its value-priced Juno Platinum Internet access service with advanced technology to make dialup go faster. Sounds like a plan! Like NetZero High Speed, Juno High Speed uses ISP technology that I don't understand to compress and optimize your online surfing experience. The result is that you can surf many Web pages up to five times faster. That's pretty close to the speeds you get with a DSL ISP -- at a fraction of the cost. That's right... you can basically get broadband Internet service speeds from a dialup modem.

PeoplePC
PeoplePC aims to bring the "power to the people" by giving us cheap Internet access through dialup, with good reliability and support. And that it does, and then some. First of all, PeoplePC gives you inexpensive Internet access with thousands of local numbers -- rivaling the footprint of the larger and more well-known ISPs. PeoplePC also provides spam filtering for email, as well as Webmail access. It also gives its users an instant messaging center, where you can connect to AOL AIM, MSN Messenger, or other services. PeoplePC also boasts "smart dialer" technology that takes a lot of the pain out of finding fast, local numbers for Internet access.

PeoplePC Accelerated
PeoplePC aims to bring the "power to the people" by giving us cheap Internet access through dialup, with good reliability and support. And that it does, and then some. First of all, PeoplePC gives you inexpensive Internet access with thousands of local numbers -- rivaling the footprint of the larger and more well-known ISPs. PeoplePC also provides spam filtering for email, as well as Webmail access. It also gives its users an instant messaging center, where you can connect to AOL AIM, MSN Messenger, or other services. PeoplePC also boasts "smart dialer" technology that takes a lot of the pain out of finding fast, local numbers for Internet access.

Verizon DSL
You might know Verizon as one of the country's biggest phone companies -- but it's also a major force in providing Internet access, with fast digital subscriber line ISP service. DSL gives you always-on Internet access, so you don't tie up a phone line while you're online. And of course, your connection to the Internet is super fast, so browsing and downloading is a snap. The major downside: You've got to use Verizon for your phone service to get their DSL service. To convince you to switch to Verizon DSL, the Internet Service Provider kicks in a ton of useful add-ons. For starters, you nine email accounts and 10 megs of Web space each. Verizon DSL also gives you access to the Rhapsody Digital Music Service, so you can listen to thousands of music albums on your PC.

Netscape ISP
Netscape is part of the AOL empire, but is purely focused on the "value" side of the equation, as far as Internet Service Providers go. That means it competes with NetZero, Juno, PeoplePC and a couple other ISPs who offer dialup at low cost. To stand out from the crowd, Netscape offers not only cheap Internet access, but access to some of America Online's special deals. It also provides one email address and Webmail access. But not much else -- not that this is a bad thing. As a cheap ISP, Netscape provides the full Internet service provider experience while holding back on features that value-oriented folks don't want. For instance, the ISP charges $10 for each support call. But if you never need support, you've saved the money that most Internet Service Providers charge everybody to keep a support staff.

Netscape Web Accelerator
Netscape knows that dialup Internet access might be significantly cheaper than broadband access, but that it can't compete on speed. Or can it? Netscape ISP recently added high-speed, accelerated dialup Internet service to its offerings, using special technology to compress Web page data as it's being sent to your modem. The end result? With Netscape Internet Service with Web Accelerator, you get speeds up to five times that of normal dialup Internet service when you're browsing the Web -- about as good as basic DSL service! And you can't beat the cost, either -- only a tad more expensive than Netscape's regular Internet access service. Netscape with Web Accelerator ISP service doesn't require you to purchase any new hardware or change the way you browse, which is a serious plus for folks who are staying away from a broadband ISP because of the costs.

EarthLink Basic DSL
EarthLink has been a major force in Internet access for ages. But with competition from rivals both old and new, the giant has expanded to offer Internet service in a bunch of categories -- different broadband types and dialup plans. EarthLink's Digital Subscriber Line is one of its most popular broadband products, and it shows. The ISP has two versions of its DSL Internet Access. EarthLink Basic DSL offers speeds of 384 Kbps downstream, and 128 Kbps upstream, while EarthLink High Speed DSL ups the downstream speed to a staggering 3Mbps -- faster than most cable Internet service providers! Both services offer eight email accounts, and 10 megs of storage space on each. Both also provide you with 20 hours of dialup access per month -- which is helpful if you're a laptop "road warrior" and need to log on from when you are away from your home PC.

EarthLink High Speed DSL
EarthLink has been a major force in Internet access for ages. But with competition from rivals both old and new, the giant has expanded to offer Internet service in a bunch of categories -- different broadband types and dialup plans. EarthLink's Digital Subscriber Line is one of its most popular broadband products, and it shows. The ISP has two versions of its DSL Internet Access. EarthLink Basic DSL offers speeds of 384 Kbps downstream, and 128 Kbps upstream, while EarthLink High Speed DSL ups the downstream speed to a staggering 3Mbps -- faster than most cable Internet service providers!

EarthLink High Speed Cable
EarthLink is probably better known for its dialup and DSL Internet access, but the company also is a major player in the world of cable ISPs. How does the service compare? EarthLink High Speed Cable offers super-fast download speeds of up to 3 Mbps, and upload speeds of 384 Kbps -- that's faster than the speeds offered by most cable or DSL ISPs! You also get two powerful tools for blocking spam and pop-up ads -- two of the Internet's most annoying features. EarthLink also throws in 20 hours of free dialup access, so you can log onto your account and get online even when you are away from your home computer. (This feature is usually used when traveling with a modem-equipped laptop.)

EarthLink Dialup
EarthLink offers good ol' dialup, too -- it's where the ISP got its start. For that reason, it's a sound and very popular offering, with millions of people using EarthLink for their dialup Internet access. EarthLink's dialup Internet access service, which it calls EarthLink Unlimited, offers tons of nationwide access numbers, and promises to deliver a more consistent experience than its rivals (which translates to fewer busy signals and drop-offs.) It also offers advanced spam-blocking technology as well as a pop-up blocker to defeat those pop-up ads.

NetZero ISP
NetZero, like its sister company, Juno, was one of the first major ISPs built around offering free Internet access for dialup. That's right, FREE. How does the company do it? For starters, people who use NetZero's free ISP service see ads when they log in and during their session. Their use of the Internet access service is also "capped" -- meaning that NetZero limits the amount of time you can spend logged in to your ISP, or the number of times you can connect every month. That's to stop bandwidth hogs from monopolizing the ISP -- but it can be a limitation on your use of NetZero's free Internet access, too. As a result, you might find it tough to connect to NetZero sometimes, or you might you're your connection often if you're a power user.

NetZero Platinum
NetZero got its start as a free Internet provider. But when it came out with NetZero Platinum, it made the jump into value ISP service -- looking to steal customers from AOL, EarthLink, and the other major players. Not surprisingly, it's been very successful, mainly because of its low cost. While the free Internet service tends to hit you with tons of ads, that's not the case for NetZero Platinum. You still get some advertising with Platinum's ISP service, but not nearly as much. Its on-screen navigation bar, for instance, doesn't have any banner ads -- so you get more room on your screen for actual Web surfing. In short, what you get is fairly reliable dialup Internet service, pure and simple. No frills, no real bells and whistles.

NetZero High Speed
NetZero is trying to compete with the popularity of broadband Internet service by offering its own version, which isn't really high speed Internet access, but is a step above regular dialup. How does it work? Who knows? But it does. NetZero High Speed (which it sometimes calls NetZero HiSpeed) promises to deliver Web surfing speeds up to five times as fast as normal dialup. On paper, those speeds rival DSL Internet access speeds! That's on top of the bare-bones Internet service that NetZero specializes in. You get the Internet, nothing more and nothing less -- so you're not paying for tons of extra features and online content like you do with the other services.