ISP to replace AOL needed. Thanks!

[phirili]

[m berst]

1. my advice

I strongly, strongly advise supporting an independent ISP in your area if at all possible. Very strongly.

[Brundle_Fly]

2. whole heartedly agree

but if you must go to the mainstream....

give earthlink a shot.

[GoBlue]

6. My experience with Earthlink dial-up was not good.

I found it annoying and tedious; frequently experienced hangs...and would have to reboot. And their accelerator just made it worse.

[Rjnerd]

3. Polled a bunch of my tech savvy friends

They recommended speakeasy.net - people with an actual clue doing support. Things like static IP's, and no blocking of private web sites, or mailers aren't an issue with them.

-dp-

[New Earth]

4. CABLE

GET HIGH SPEED CABLE INTERNET!!!!!! i can live with nothing else!

[Rjnerd]

5. ADSL isn't bad

and you don't have to deal with clueless cable company tech support. At least the latest generation will actually work with my local loop. (while I am less than a mile (driving) from the telco office, they managed to string almost 4 miles of wire between my house, and their office)

[Jack_DeLeon]

7. SBC...

they atleast protect thier customer's privacy from organizations like the RIAA or MPAA who want customer's info for the purposes of lawsuits.

[Krupskaya]

8. If you live in the Pacific Northwest,

www.unions-america.com has DSL. Elsewhere it offers only dialup. But it's a union ISP. I love it. We live out in the boonies and so are pretty much stuck with dialup, but even that is fast enough for what I do. Their customer service is great (a real person! IN THE STATES! GETTING PAID A LIVING WAGE!).