How do you access the net???

[CurlyLocks]

:hugon:bowl:hugoff

Here's a silly post from moi sparked off by certain personal frustrations...:ohboy

I'm wondering what services you all use to access the net & whether you have braodband or dial-up...cos I'm a bit of a web addict myself & I like to know these rather sad details...:sarcasm:winky

Here's my net history!
:bullet First of all I used the computers in the public clusters provided by my university. These are obviously nice, fast connections.:cheesy
:bullet Then I got AOL...which was good for a while, but then I grew a bit tired of it.:ugh
:bullet Now I'm back in halls of residence & I have a majorly fast ethernet connection!:supergrin It's faster than broadband so I'm making the most of it while I have it, because I won't have the benefit of that kind of connection again unless I plan on living in halls of residence for the rest of my life!
:bullet I am currently at home for Christmas, & am using a really crap, very old, slow computer. Still, it's better than no computer! I've set it up with WHSmith.net, & I have to say I like the service & the deals that they offer. It's not too intrusive & the prices are good...though I've signed up for pay-as-you-go to avoid awkward contracts, thus it's not really that cheap.:ohboy
:bullet Next year, I shall get myself a broadband connection.:grin My boyf has found a firm called plus.net, which do deals of about twenty £ per month, which isn't at all bad, & should be well worth it, although the initial outlay (modem & connection fee) is a bit scary.

Right, have got all that off me chest now! Anyone else care to share?:winky

:merry:xmas

[sunray]

:bug I started using it at uni ... never used the internet before that ... hell, we never even had a computer before then! Even when I bought one, I never got the internet until about a year later! Anyway ... I used the uni net, which was ok ... I had nothing to compare it to really ... I knew nothing about it, so anything was good to me!! But only had the opportunity for six months, cus I left!!!

:bug Eventually, I got linked up myself at home ... started off on AOL :ugh ... then quit cus their "offer" wasn't entirely accurate ... when I joined them (this was before the whole unlimited access type thing), the offer was a "completely free fifty hour internet trial" ... you had to use the fifty hours within one calendar month, then after that charges would be made unless you cancelled ... I read all the small print and everythin :cheesy ... so I embarked on my fifty hours, trying to ensure I got full use of all of them within a month :sly ... wasn't too hard, considering it was my first experience of my own personal internet!!! :supergrin I got a hell of a shock when I got the phone bill :surprise ... what it didn't tell you was the 'completely free' bit referred to the monthly subscription to AOL, and that's all, you still had to pay for the phone charges ... so I nearly died when the phone bill turned up and there were fifty hours of internet calls! I rang and complained, cus it never said that on the packet :ugh when you see "completely free" you expect it to be completely free! They apologised for the misleading, but I still had to pay the phone bill :ugh Surprisingly enough though, I stayed with AOL for about a year!

:bug Then I moved over to Freeserve onto their set monthly fee for unlimited access .... what a bargain!!!!!!!!! :yay Broadband hadn't been invented then :ohboy so it was dial-up ... the problem was, the connection was shite for ages ... I had the dial-up set to redial ... if I came on at an off-peak time, it would take at least ten redial's before I got a connection. But peak time was horrendous ... the worst I ever had was a redial of four hundred and sixty eight times before I got connected! :surprise:ugh It was bloody terrible ... then they got better and improved their network size ...

These days I get connected straight away and it's cool ... I got a new computer too which is faster, and has a better modem, so I don't have any problems with connecting, or loading up.

I think a lot of it can depend on your area ... they have different dial-up numbers for different areas ... where I live now, I get a quicker connection compared to the area I used to live in ... my theory is that here is not such a built up area, so less people are gonna be accessing the net at any one time. I think!

:bug Am considering broadband, but right now, we don't really see the point ... I pay the monthly fee for my internet, but I wouldn't pay double the fee, PLUS the subscription fee for the broadband ... I don't see the point in having the internet connection permanently for a start, cus I don't use it twentyfour/seven ... even if it does feel like it sometimes!! The only advantage would be being able to use the phone at the same time, but to be honest, we don't phone many people, and it doesn't bother me signing off so someone can ring out ... and we don't receive many phone calls anyway, and those we do we'd rather not :ohboy from annoying fools doing market research or pointless courtesy calls ... and with the whole "one/five/seven/one" doo dah service, we don't miss calls anyway! Goodness, that was a long winded was of saying broadband seems pointless to/for us!! :muhaha

That's all ... I'm done!!

[Isabel_Knight]

When I first got online in ninety-five I used Compuserve UK which was quite ridiculously expensive :ohboy. Not only did you have to pay per minute for Compuserve, but you also had to pay the cost to connect through BT. :ohboy:ugh

Thankfully things have changed a lot since then in the UK :uk. I now use AOL UK which costs just fourteen-ninety-nine (£s, that is) per month for unlimited access through a free 'phone number. On the whole my experiences haven't been too bad, although that irritating :notesmusic:hugoff they play on their helpline switch-board is becoming rather familiar I'm afraid. :ugh

I have used AOL UK, sparingly, whilst abroad too. They have access numbers all over the world :world, although unfortunately there is a surcharge of something like two dollars an hour when you connect from a remote location.

Isabel :pinkfishy

[Sunflower*]

Well, I sometimes use the fast ethernet connections at Uni and when working at Uni. But it's either dificult to even find a free PC, and at work (Iwork as an asistant to a Prof at the Insitute of Physiology and to one Prof at the Institute for Clinical Psychology) I don't have much time...

Normaly, I log on from my apartment, using a fifty-six KB modem. It's pretty slow :ugh and I'm using the Uni server as provider. The Pro of it is that I can access certain online journals this way. The CON is that I pay BY THE MINUTE! :ugh

Right now I'm seriously thinking about getting broadbent access with a steady monthly fee - but to just GET it is expensive (and will get even more expensive next year). :ugh

and well, I#m afraind if I have this fast, ulimited access, I'l spend too much time online... :ummm

Sonja

[Seabiscuit]

This is an interesting topic!
I started using the internet close to ten years ago - it started off in my high school and then I used the library's computers at college, and my moms/stepdads acct of AOL whenever I was home.
So I definitely have been a library lurker and an internet cafe addict!
About a year ago, my dad gave me a DELL pc which I love, and AOL was already set up in it. I was still using my moms acct because thats where most people knew to email me. Finally I set up my own account and used AOL - with a dial up service, which is Verizon - my local telephone company. The installation fee of the phone jack and the hookup/connecting cost were quite a bit - i just finished paying them a few months back because they spaced out the amount of money I owed them on my statements.
I still use AOL and I like it - there are a lot of positives to it, but I've considered other internet providers like earthlink. For now though, I'm staying with aol. Just some advice for anyone who uses AOL - pay your bills on time! I didn't pay mine on time and it was a nightmare - I sent them in a money order for the charges I owed them, but they were giving me such a hard time. :ugh
take care all!

[AngelBarbie]

I use AOL (UK) and have the basic unlimited access, which costs sixteen £ per month. Would :love broadband, but it costs eighty £ for the adapter to plug into the phone socket, then costs twenty-eight £ per month. So I think it's too expensive.

I get frustrated with how slow it is, especially when visiting websites with a lot of graphics. But I can't justify the cost of broadband.

I find that logging on and logging on with AIM prevents me from getting disconnected. I can walk off and do other things, without getting booted off for being idle.

I have had a lot of problems with AOL, and made use of the freephone number. I am familiar with it now, and can sort out most problems myself.

I haven't tried broadband, dare not really, coz then I will simply HAVE to have it!
:bandwagon

[rowgirl]

I used to connect through AOL but then my dad's company had a take home CD for internet, so I used that. We still have AOL now and I connect through my college network and on AOL sometimes.