The following terms from our free ISP comparison are defined on this page:
Free ISP
This column contains the names of internet service providers that offer
free internet access. These are hyperlinks so you can click on the
company name to get more info and details on their services or to sign up
for free internet access.
Banner Ads
Most free internet providers are able to provide you with internet access
for free through revenue earned from advertising. In order to earn
enough advertising revenue, they usually have a special window that they
display banner ads through. These ads are forced in the sense that
generally this window cannot be minimized or hidden. Although you
can just ignore the advertisements, they are still wasting space on your
screen and they will take up some of your bandwidth while new ads are
downloaded. In forcing the window to always be on top without being
bypassed, these ad windows can sometimes be buggy and can occasionally
cause your computer to crash or lock up.
Some free internet providers with no banner ads have other forms of advertising. This might be small, occasional popup ads or advertising on the page when you
first start up your browser. Generally this advertising is far less intrusive than banner ad windows, and would be preferred.
56K
This field indicates whether 56K modems are supported. Just about
every free ISP supports modems up through 56K, though previously some only
supported 33.6K or slower. They generally support the V.90 standard;
if you specifically need X2 or K56 Flex support, check with the provider.
Usenet
This field indicates whether the free internet service provides a Usenet news server. If the free access provider does not provide a news server, you can always access
Usenet discussion groups over the Web through free services like Deja
or NewsOne.
Web Space
Some of the free internet providers also offer free web space for you to
set up your own web page. This field indicates how much hard disk
space they provide (if any) on their web server for your web page. There is no real advantage to getting your free web hosting from your
access provider, so even if you want a free web page you may want to go
with a access provider that doesn't offer web hosting and pick a web host
from our page of free web
page providers.
eMail
All free internet providers give you a free email address as well. Sometimes they provide a web based email account, where you have to log on
to a web page through your browser to access email. Others provide a
POP3 email account with a mail server. With these you access your
email through a program running on your computer such as Outlook or Eudora
rather than your web browser. With POP3 accounts you download your
mail to your computer, so you don't have to worry about running out of
space on the mail server when you keep your old messages. They also
allow you to compose and read email while you are not logged into the
internet. You could also get additional free email accounts
elsewhere, as described on our free
email page.
Platform
This field indicates which platforms are supported by the free ISPs. Just about all
free internet access providers support Microsoft Windows, but some also
support Macs. Linux is supported by just a few free internet
services.
Available
This field describes the availability of local dialup numbers for each
free ISP. Most of these free internet access services have local access numbers throughout the USA, but
some are only available in limited areas. Some also have local
dialup numbers in Canada. If you are in the UK, take a look at our
page of free UK internet
access providers.
Comments
In this field all the special features and limitations of each free
internet service provider is
explained.
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