My husband is planning on changing internet servers, and he is thinking about going back to AOL, or perhaps Earthlink.
AOL -
BADEarthlink -
BETTERIn PC Magazine's annual reader's survey (published back in July), AOL came in dead last. On a scale that ranges from A+ to E (they don't give F's - but E is pretty much an F without actually being an F
), AOL Dial-Up received an E for overall satisfaction, initial setup, rates, technical support, connecting at the highest speed, connection reliability, speed of page downloads, and e-mail service. AOL Broadband did slightly better: D-
On the other hand, Earthlink Dial-Up received B+ across all those categories, whereas they received a C+ for their broadband service.
If I were you, I'd give serious consideration to going with a local Internet service. They provide much more personal service and they tend to be more reliable. Several are available in MA, but the biggest are probably:
ABCisp -
http://www.abcisp.net/ $15.95/month Dial-Up
2 e-mail accounts
5 MB Web Space
RCN -
http://www.rcn.com/internet/dialup/index.php $19.95/month Dial-Up
1 email account (more available with no additional fees)
10 MB Web space
True Computing -
http://www.truecomputing.net/ $21.95/month Dial-Up
1 e-mail account
5 MB Web space
I can't vouch for ABCisp or True Computing, but I use RCN (they're available in 8 states and the District of Columbia) and I have no complaints. Setup is very easy - you just follow a few steps that they've laid out on their site.
However, if you'd rather go with a nationwide service, I'd suggest either Earthlink or AT&T WorldNet. I've used both AOL and Earthlink, and I totally agree with PC Magazine's survey results.
As for AT&T, they also received a B+ across all categories.
