Internet Service Providers

Dial up internet service remains a great and inexpensive way to get connected to the Internet. The main advantages of dial up internet revolve around price with plans generally under $10/month and availability. You would be pretty hard pressed to find a location on the planet that has phones without dial up internet access (even without toll/long distance charges). Compare all the top dial up internet providers below:

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About Dial Up Internet

The simplest of all Internet connections, requiring no more than a telephone line, is the dialup connection. Specifically, dial up Internet access uses the public switched telephone netowrk, or PSTN, to connect to an Internet service provider, or ISP, via use of a telephone line. The computer with an attached modem then decodes and encodes the Internet control info and Protocol packets from and into analog audio frequency signals.

Dial up Internet has been used since the earliest computer telecommuncations when computers which ran terminal emulator software needed to be connected to bulletin board systems, online services, mainframes, and minicomputers.

Because the dial up Internet connection requires no more than a telephone line to work, it is the most widely available of all Internet connection options, and is sometimes the only option available to rural communities who can not recieve faster options like cable or broadband services.

Dial up requires a few seconds to establish a telephone connection for data transfer with the Internet service provider. It must also perform a task called “handshaking,” to synchronize protocol. Dial up connections, unlike other types of Internet connections, can be completely terminated by either the user, the Internet service provider, or the telephone company providing the line. However, it is possible to create an “always on” connection if a user is technically proficient enough.

Though broadband services have replaced dial up services in many populated and developed areas, news reports around the time of the recent recession noted a resurgence in dial up, as it was a less expensive way to maintain an Internet connection.

Large sites such as Twitter and Facebook have mobile editions which are designed for mobile web sites, but which also function well on dial up computers. Because of this, dial up users do have access to modern ways of communication.

Dial up Internet connections usually max out at a speed of 56 kilobits per second of information transfer. Things such as multiple users on a phone line or electric “distractions” like electric fences or loading coals can also get in the way of transfer speed and slow this speed down considerably.

Different Types of Dial Up Internet Service

Through the compression of data, information can be transferred through a dial up connection to a modem at rates much faster than the above mentioned limit of 56 kilobits per second. However, data compression does not actually speed up the connection itself. Below are some of the alternatives for those who wish to take their dial up Internet connection to the next level.

Compressed Dial Up

Compressed dial up Internet uses different types of standards to compress data, much like informational Play-Doh. This compressed data can then be transferred to modems at rates which exceed the above mentioned limit of 56 kilobits per second. Compressed data on a dial up connection can reach up to 320 kilobits per second, although depending upon the type of file being sent, this rate can slow or rise tremendously.

Pure text can reach speeds of 1000 kilobits per second. Graphics can reach speeds of around 350 kilobits per second, but they will lose some clarity, around 20%. Users can choose to view uncompressed images at any time while using a compressed dial up connection.

High Speed Dial Up

High speed dial up takes this compression technique even further so that compressed data can be received by a modem at speeds which rival broadband, at a fraction of the cost. High speed dial up also uses caching, a computer’s term for remembering, the pages that you visit often in order to bring them up more quickly.

Dial Up Internet Providers

NetZero

NetZero, started in October 1998, was the first Internet provider to be completely free. Its user base grew to over one million customers in about six months. Its business model was soon to be copied by the later social networks – namely, acquiring a large user base for advertisers to market to. After the dot com burst of 2001, NetZero acquired all of its competitors, most of whom tried to copy its model unsuccessfully.

NetZero began charging for its services in 2001. It was the first company to introduce a 3G solution, and used a mix of compressed and cached storage techniques to achieve transfer speeds which rivaled broadband. It remains a leader in dial up Internet service, although it has expanded its market to include other forms of Internet connectivity.

Juno

Juno is owned by the same parent company as is NetZero, United Online. Juno was acquired by United Online after the dot com crash of 2001.

Juno began in May 1996 as a free email client, attempting to copy the business model of NetZero. It soon added the ability to web browse in 1998, and became a publicly traded stock on the NASDAQ in 1999. As NetZero attempted to acquire it in 2001, litigation ensued over who owned the patent to the “ad bar,” a central invention in the business model of free Internet service. It was found that NetZero owned the rights to the patent. However, Juno had many more members than NetZero, and so the companies merged into the umbrella under which they now reside.

Earthlink

Earthlink currently provides dial up Internet service for around 2 million people. It was founded in 1994 and remains one of the only companies besides NetZero to survive the dot com crash of 2001. This is in no small way due to its merger and acquisition record, which included PeoplePC, an immensely popular dial up service that had more members than any Internet service provider at the time, including the much more famous and widely advertised America Online.

Choosing the Right Dial Up Provider For You

If you need a dial up connection, here are the top 5 things to consider.

1. Bandwidth.

Dial up connections become slower the more people use them. It is to your greatest advantage to use the dial up network with the least amount of customers on the line.

2. Check for hidden fees.

Many dial up companies will offer introductory teaser rates and up front promotions that expire after a certain amount of time. Make sure that you are choosing your Internet service provider based on performance and not a promotion.

3. Access numbers.

You want a dial up Internet service provider with a large number of access numbers. That way, if one number has a lot of customers on it, you can simply go to another one. Call the companies and check reviews to make sure that the data transfer range of your Internet service provider is a large one.

4. Check side by side reviews.

It may seem silly to ask you to check online reviews when you are trying to get an online service, but if you can, the best way to see which solution will work best for you is to see which one is working best for the people like you. There are many web sites dedicated solely to ranking dial up web providers side by side, comparing features and value for the money.

5. Check for the right features.

What will you be using your Internet connection for? If it is for business, you must make sure that you have the ability to create banner free web pages, and that you do not have to share POP email addresses with too many people. Also, will you be needing unlimited access? How much does that cost? Make sure you check in on their technical support features as well.