Here's some advice: http://www.saviourpc.com/high_speed_internet_service_providers
Hopefully, you can find a better deal, my friend...
Thanks for the link, Steve, but the best deal on there is almost the same price; just with a different company. Heh.
Hmm...30 bucks for 7-8Mb cable is pretty decent price.
I agree. Many people around here still pay $25 a month for 48.8 Kbps dial-up.
Yeah, there's a fairly decent chance that I'll give Earthlink a try. After all, it's only $30/mo for the first 6 months, and as far as I can tell, it doesn't appear to require a contract.
I suggest you call 1-800-EARTHLINK (1-800-327-8454) to verify that offer does not require a contract. Well, actually, it clearly requires a contract for 6 months. And, the six month notation implies, IMO, that the $30 may be a special price for the first 6 months and the regular monthly price will be higher after the first 6 months.
Whichever one of these services you choose, you'll probably find they lead you to believe you need to install software provided by them to help you get connected and to install some kind of security package (anti-virus/spyware/spam/etc.) from them. Keep in mind their software is really not required and I suggest avoiding it. I'm a former Earthlink DSL customer (had to switch to another service due to change in local telecom provider) and I never installed their software. Likewise, I got my mother to switch from her dialup service to AT&T DSL. We initially installed their software package but I found it slowed her computer so I uninstalled it.
Thanks for the advice. I figured they would try to push their software on me, but I have no intention of using any of it. As far as I'm concerned, my current protection is better than anything they'd give me. And I could've sworn that I read something on their site saying that no contract was required...I'm going to have to make a call later to find out for sure. It's not a huge concern, though. As long as the service is reliable, I don't mind a contract.
I do have something that I'm a bit confused about, however. On their site, they say that a TV subscription isn't required, but the internet service will show up on my cable bill. How exactly does that work? Am I going to have to pay any extra fees? The only way we can afford broadband is by
not having cable. I'm going to call both Earthlink and the local cable company for info about this, but I thought I'd ask here first because customer service agents never seem to know what they're talking about. Or when they do, all they care about is getting more money out of you.
