Free
Internet Access Services
Get Online At No Charge But There's Still a Price
Garrett Wasny, CMC | June, 2000
If you’re paying anything to access the Internet from your home office
or small business, you may be paying too much. You could save $200 or more a year – the typical cost of a dial-up connection to the web – by
using a growing number of free Internet access services.
Internet Service Providers or ISPs such as: Address (http://www.address.com),
AltaVista Free Access (http://www.zdnet.com/downloads/altavista/),
Bluelight (http://www.bluelight.com/),
Freei (http://www.freei.com/),
Freelane (http://freelane.excite.com/freelane/),
Funcow
(http://www.funcow.com/FreeMooClub.asp),
iFreedom (http://www.ifreedom.com/),
NetZero (http://www.netzero.com/) and others
provide no-cost dial-up links to the Internet. To use these services, you need some basic equipment and software: a Pentium or higher
personal computer, monitor, mouse, a 28.8K or 56K modem, at least 32 megabytes of RAM, and at least 20 megabytes free on your hard drive, and
a Microsoft Windows 95® or 98® or NT operating system. You also need a
web browser, preferably Internet Explorer 4.0 or greater (available
free at http://www.microsoft.com/downloads) or
Netscape Communicator (http://www.netscape.com/products/). If you have a special Digital
Subscriber Line or DSL modem, you can even get free high-speed Internet access from
FreeDSL at http://www.freedsl.com. The FreeDSL service
offers web connection speeds of up to 50 times faster than conventional dial-up lines.
Subscribing to any of these access services is free and easy, although registration is required. On
iFreedom, for example, you complete a
brief online form, and provide background information including your
name, address, age, and gender. You also select a username and password to create your own private account. Next, you download the setup file
– about one megabyte (1,000K) in size -- to a local drive on your computer. Once the download is complete, you click on the file, and the
access software self-installs in a few moments. To fire up the service, select Start, Programs, and slide your cursor to the iFreedom icon. A
“Connect to iFreedom” pop-up window appears which prompts you for your
username and password. Fill in the required information, select “sign on” and – presto – a browser fills the screen and you’re connected to
the web at no charge.
What’s the catch? Few things are truly free in the business world, and free ISPs are no different. When you connect to the service, two, not
one, windows appear. The first is the usual web browser which you can enlarge to fill the entire screen or minimize to a tiny icon on the
screen bottom. On this window, you may surf the web, send and receive e-mail, and do all the things you normally do on the Internet. The
second window is smaller and fundamentally different. This is an ads-only window which, depending on the ISP, appears either as a bar
across the top or side of the screen or a floating one-by-three-inch banner or similar size which broadcasts a steady stream of flashing and
ever-changing banner ads. Unlike the regular browser window, this cannot be minimized. Worse, you must click through at least one ad on
this window every half-hour (and even more frequently on some ISPs) or your web connection will be disconnected. Obtrusive? You bet.
Annoying? Absolutely. Unfortunately, that’s the tradeoff.
Despite the screen clutter and omnipresent ads, free Internet access services are a real money-saver for small businesspeople who use the web
less frequently. If you log on say, only two or three times a week, and
for an hour or less each session, the services are a must-have tool that will spare you the expense of a full-time connection. Even if you are a
regular or heavy web user, the free access portals are great as back-up
ISPs, in case your primary ISP goes down. The zero-cost services are also terrific on the road: the top services such as AltaVista Free
Access and NetZero have thousands of modem banks across North America which allow you to access the web and your e-mail at no charge with a
local call.
Based in Vancouver, Canada Garrett Wasny, CMC, is an
e-commerce trainer and author. His latest book is World
Business Resources.com. Mr. Wasny may be reached at gwasny@direct.ca or Tel:
604/878-4555.
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