NetZero

[cment]

Anyone try this yet. Free internet, other than having a banner up on the screen, works better than my existing account. better connect speeds, other than you cable and T-1 ect account gods. can't beat free.

Cment

[hai]

cment, you probably live in a place where netzero just started to provide its service. As time going, more and more people jump into netzero and you would find it became the same as your regular isp. More and more busy signal, frequently disconnected, random crash and froze by the crappy java banner, no newgroup support, all your outgoing email added netzero advertisement. No support for linux, os2,mac os and even win2k so far.
The only and the biggest advantage of netzero is you pay nothing, save $240 a year. Besides that, there's nothing good. Well, $240 a year should be enough for many people. /forum/smile.gif

[IRED]

hai,

You are the most pestimistic{Glass is half empty} person I've heard since cowpie.

cement, if you like NetZero try Alta-Vista

Look here for even more.

FREE is for me /forum/wink.gif
http://www.nowonder.com/ultimate/Forum13/HTML/000403.html

[reddog4629]

I use both alta-vista and netzero. They're never both down at once and they are free.
They would have to be a lot more aggravating for me to ***** when they are free. Netzero's mail has worked good for me but av won't let you send netzero's mail-can read it though. When I had trouble setting netzero up I got hold of netzero's tech. support on email-those guys blew my mind-very
knowledgable and prompt. Bet there will be more free isp stuff coming soon.
dam right--free

[This message has been edited by reddog4629 (edited 09-28-99).]

[Joel Kleppinger]

I used NetZero for 6 months until I just couldn't take it anymore. There would be service outages for 1/2 day to 3 days on end. Sometimes I could connect, but it would just be incredibly slow.

On the other hand, in Kansas City, I could connect at 50 kbps and dowload at 4 K/s. Still, my parents who are there regularly fight NetZero connection problems.

And that's all without mentioning the banner. Sure, on a PC with a 19" monitor, it can even be ignored, but it doesn't take much less before it starts to get annoying fast. Online gaming can be a real pain since the banner wants to be on top - it interferes with some games. NetZero also has to be recontinued every 30 minutes, another annoyance because many games must be closed in order to return to the desktop to either click the banner or click the stay online button.

The banner also is a serious RAM hog. It doesn't even run decent at all on less than 32 MB, and really needs a system with 64 MB before leaving enough RAM for a usable system.

Of course, if you have a Windows proxy set up (as I did) and you have an autoclicker set up (as I did), then you get the good without most of the bad. There are times where the xfer rate is noticeably slower because NetZero is downloading a new banner or two.

In the end, NetZero is ok if you really need free and you can put up with, or don't happen to have connection problems. It's also nice for a backup Net connection. But for real world users, it's often simply easier to pay your dues and get simple clean access (like Earthlink - in the top 2 ISPs I've ever had)

[Nathan G]

My wooden nickel on netzero:
I found the banner about 20% larger than i wish to tolerate with a 17" mon. The thing that really turned me off was the banner was messing up online gaming..THAT IS SOMETHING I CANNOT ACCEPT, even for free. But i keep the netzero account as a backup to my regular ISP, which also has problems at times. /forum/smile.gif

[johnpaul]

Joel,
You hit it right on the head in your last paragraph. Its main value lies in the ability to give you a backup connection to the Internet.
My ISP is local, dependable, and allows me to connect at 50,600. However, they are a small company and tech support is limited to 9AM-6PM, Monday through Friday. So the last two weekends, when they became undependable, NetZero and Alta Vista filled the void.
I agree that the flashing, dancing and highly animated banners (which are always in the way) are annoying at best and quickly tiresome.
The connection speed using Alta Vista is poor (28,800), but NetZero usually gives me 50,600. The banners, however, take forever to load and slow down the overall operation. I use an ad blocker, InterMute, which works fine on all ads I've encountered on the Internet except the banners on these two free ISPs.
I guess I shouldn't complain - it IS free, but like my daddy told me, "Son, there's no such thing as a free lunch."

JP

[Joel Kleppinger]

I wouldn't suggest trying to block NetZero's ads. If they detect you have (and they can in most cases), they'll bill your phone bill some insane sum for access (like $50/month or something like that). If you go with NetZero, ad clickers are quite ok, but don't mess with ad blockers... you can get toasted much worse than you ever thought.

[chad174]

you want totally free with no banners??i dont know why they do this, but they do here it is. www.freewwweb.com (http://www.freewwweb.com) try it, i cant cuz im in alaska.

[cment]

Well free is free, and I play starcraft alot, and starcraft takes over the whole screen. Just need to make the banner on the top so you don't inadvertantly hit one of the buttons under the game. Other than that seems to work fine. I just make the IE window move up to avoid the banner. 240 a years is ok for me. I can understand some not using it because of what they use the internet for, but for me its fine. Thanks for the input tho and the other isp's that are free.

[daveleau]

I have been very happy with NZ as a second option but could see it working as a primary too. We've had it here a while and it isa little slower than in the beginning.

[hai]

freewwweb asks for a credit number???
netzero was good for several months till too many people jumped into it.
Their 3-5 hour connection limit still cause some unhappiness for me while chatting online or telnet to a unix account doing something.

[chipbgt]

so which is better as a better second option? netzero or alta vista? i have used netero before, and it too slow for me...and the banner..ohh the banner.

[RobRich]

Ok, I finally broke down and tried NetZero. I actually can't complain, yet. The deal is that no one in my area even knows it exists yet, so I'm basically sharing a server with probably less than 50 people. Can we say throughput? As for banner, it is annoying, but with my 19 inch monitor I can stand it.

I think I'll leave the dial-up in place, just as a backup. My ISP is kinda of new, so their going through several hardware changes, which means some downtime. I also have an account at my college, but their access is limited to 28.8 connections.

Good news, though. BellSouth just opened up ADSL in my area. I might have to jump on this one. There's already cable modem access in my town, but it only one-way. I'm split between the two. The cable comp. claims they plan to switch to two-way in a few months, but do I really want to wait? Has anyone had experience with BellSouth's ADSL? I need some serious bandwidth, not this v.90 I'm stuck with right now.

[daveleau]

A note about freewwweb

They sell their software at my second job (staples) for $70. I don't know why they are offering it for free but I will try it. i also don't know why they ask for a credit card. Why else but to charge stuff to it. The sfotware has been there fo months and noone has bought it. I don't even know anyone that has tried it. ,Maybe they are really just a group waiting for some dumb rich guy to give a credit card # and then they will fold up shop. /forum/smile.gif In that case, I have no worries. i ahev nothing to steal. /forum/smile.gif /forum/smile.gif /forum/smile.gif

[Ed_S]

I bought Freewwweb package in Feb '97. It's great. Paid $80 for software + $20 sign up fee and haven't spent another dime since. Took faith to pay that up front, but they've been true to their word & I don't regret it!

No banners, good connection speed, few busy signals.

Over 2 1/2 years, the only problems were during network upgrades, and there was always a warning posted on the homepage.

Last week they changed to free format. They DO sell ad space on their homepage to pay for it & increased user base sells space! Just ask Scot, after all that's how he built Sysopt! /forum/smile.gif


Have posted about them at another BBS & some have voiced problems getting started, so:

Once you've signed up, it usually takes them a few days to get things processed & make account active.

No, I don't know why they ask for CC number unless the sign-up page has not yet been modified, or they need it for ID purposes. Just my guess.

Yes, I would (and did) trust them with the #. As I said, I paid them this way and had no problems(BTW, vendor got big kick out of it since I used AOL Visa card! /forum/smile.gif) Several friends have also purchased & are happy, no problems.

Would recommend this to almost anyone, but if you're in St Louis, please don't get this - I hate busy signals!!! /forum/smile.gif /forum/smile.gif

[Ed_S]

Just sent e-mail to freewwweb rep requesting info for new subscibers, also gave the url to this topic so they can stop by "personally"

[cment]

Well sending this one from alta vista, better connect speeds and the banner is just a tad bit smaller, I can tolerate this on a 17", 15 no way, 19 or 21 would make me happy, but to spend that kind of money would just stay with bell south. connected at 26.4 with netzero, connected at 37.3 with altavisa. with these two running worring about paying anymore. Save that money for a new chip or something /forum/smile.gif Something really overclockable /forum/smile.gif

Cment

[daveleau]

Got throught the freewwweb download process w/o even being asked for a CC#. Last night they did- strange tha it changed literally overnight. I can't connect to their server thoguh to get the software.

[ANTONIO E GUERRA]

I have used Altavista and Netzero. Both are impressive in terms of connection speed, at least in my area. I get connected at 48k and that is impressive considering that I paid $19.95 for the same service. I do recommend Altavista because the banner is less intrusive than Netzero.

[codybear]

I just finished signing up for freeweb and I have been with msn for 3 yrs....mostly because of NO problems connecting at 48 to 53 with no busy signals...well........ when I get to the part to pick the local numbers for freeweb....they are the same numbers I use to connect to the microsoft network.....do they 'share' the same number or are they one and the same with a different name???

[bkehoe]

When I was on holiday in the U.S. I used NetZero to check mail when I got a chance on my laptop.

In Kissimmee (407 area)/Orlando area of Florida where we were staying I got up to 54,000 and back home here I get about 43,333 with the same modem on a local irish ISP.

Download speeds were about 6kb/sec, but the annoying banner would disconnect me if I closed it or moved it.

Brendan

[This message has been edited by bkehoe (edited 10-06-99).]

[kirk6677]

the baner is a pain but if your only on the web 1 or 2 days a week you cant beat it .im on it right now . at first I could never get on and when I did i got kicked off right about the time that I got to were I wanted to be. that lasted about two weeks but for the last two or three weeks Ihave been getting on at about 11.30pm cst.and have had no problems , mabey its about the seniority it seems like the more I use it the less I get kicked off.just move the banner to the bottom and forget about it .I know its tuff for you gamers .but I like it for as much as I get online its just right .

[JennyPsyco]

I've tried altavista and wasnt impressed. Kept lagging or disconnecting me. So I switched to Earthlink. 18 Bucks for 56k been very happy.
All I can say is that for these free email deals... the more people who know about them the worse they are. If you can find one just starting up then its great for bout 6 months but after that its worthless. They make money on adds and all, but they dont upgrade as often as normal internet providers, only when it gets to breaking point. Better off with a reliable Provider like earthlink, microsoft of even god help me AOL.

[Lohrn]

Has anyone gotten any charges from NetZero on their phone bill because they killed the banner? I have been blocking the banner, but after reading the warning from the administrator, I think I will reinstate the banner!

[rh71]

Well let me interject a Freewwweb question/problem here since you guys have experience with it. I finished the 22MB download and ran the account setup. I got through entering all my personal info, including my credit card number, then connected. It sounded like it dialed an 800 number because it was more than a 7-digit dialup. After that, it connected, then didn't seem to do anythere thereafter (except for it saying something to the effect of connecting to account setup... I waited a couple of minutes). I disconnected, then tried again (entering my info again)... and it gets to the "verifying username and password" (which I don't remember entering)... then it can't get any further. It's been like the latter attempt for the past few tries.

Can someone give me any help? Let me know if you need anymore details. Thanks!

[daveleau]

I had that happen once during my failed attempt to sign up. I got past it. I think it was a server thing. They said a bunch of people were signing up and they weren't used to it. I got stuck further down the line. They won't register you on the phone anymore, so waht are we supposed to do? Don't bother emailing tech support. It took them 4 days (!) to send me back a two line message saying 'call tech support'. The hours they gave in the email were ever wrong! They had shortened them from 11 to 8PM! Wow!

[hai]

It seems only 1-2 people got called by netzero for hiding banner. Some technique detail about how netzero can or can't figure out you are hiding banners are discussed in a BBS. I can't register freewwweb too. It says "autoregs.freewwweb.com can not be found in DNS".

[Ed_S]

Freewwweb just made changes to their DNS settings a few days ago. This may be due to increased usage.
You'd think a fresh download would have new settings, but just in case,

Primary : 216 70 64 1
Secondary: 216 70 64 2

Sorry you all are having trouble after I praised them so highly. I've had great service from them.

[beller6]

I am using NetZero now, never have a problem with it, except that stupid banner that you can't get rid of. If one number is busy there are plenty of other numbers to access. They are faster than my old ISP, and I am connecting at the moment at 50, Web America I could only access at 44.4.
I think I will try Alta Vista next and let you all know

[Swarozyc]

about the netzero banner...

SORRY!

(See Moderator post below -socalgal)

[This message has been edited by socalgal (edited 10-10-99).]

[This message has been edited by Swarozyc (edited 10-10-99).]

[Plaster]

I downloaded the 22mb POS file from Freewwweb. The worst part about it is that it insists on using Netscape. I went ahead and allowed it to install, then when I got back to Windows, nothing worked. I had to hit reset and when I got back to Windows, I deleted the Netscape folder and all it's registry entries. I woul dhave used Uninstall, but it wouldn't Run. Either way, I have AOL and they tell you why they want your CC #. I'm not giving it out to someone who doesn't tell me why they need it, when they really don't.

[socalgal]

PLEASE NOTE:

This BBS does not advocate nor allow the posting of *cracks* for the purpose of defrauding, or violating EULAs or User Agreements. The EULA for NetZero specifically focuses on the banner issue - it is not to be tampered with. I also invite you to reread SysOpt's Discussion Forum Rules & Policies.

Your support on this issue is appreciated.

[This message has been edited by socalgal (edited 10-10-99).]

[CMonster]

I have it on rumor that some of these free ISPs track your internet use at the server level to create a consumer preference database of some kind. Of course the user information is excluded from these files - that is why they need a credit card number.

[rh71]

Can someone tell me where to enter those new DNS numbers for Freewwweb? The ones that Ed_S put up. I cannot get into account setup without changing these numbers. Thanks guys!