GameBanshee Forums

Here's the scenario: My Dad has just gone to America from jolly old Blighty, and now he wishes to get online, without paying a penny of course So not knowing anything about software in America, I have no idea whether he can get anything comparable to the dialup I have here (no call charges, small or none per/month fee). He's tried AOL but it won't let him do most of the stuff he wants (i.e. Yahoo) and connects really slowly.

Oh, and did I mention, he has a Mac. Bad luck him

It sounds like he needs an ISP with international access, i.e.- a service that carries local numbers worldwide.

How much is a "small or none per/month fee"?

I doubt if you're going to find anything for less than about $15 per, and that's if you go with a local ISP. The downside of the locals is that their service tends to be at best erratic and at worst unreliable. Plus, they're connections tend not to be fast.

There are a couple of "free" ISPs out there; NetZero and Bluelight.com being the first ones that come to mind (unless Bluelight.com went under when KMart filed for bankruptcy). The catch is that you have to put up with all sorts of banner ads and monitors that check all of your internet surfing activities.

I don't understand what you mean when you say that he can't do Yahoo! with AOL; I've never had any problems using either Yahoo!Mail or using the Yahoo! search engine through IE or Netscape while logged on to AOL.

If your dad doesn't like AOL, my next suggestion would be Earthlink, which I think costs about $22 per month.

If speed is an issue, I'd advise him to sign up for cable modem service if it's available where he lives; it costs about $40-50 per month and can be bundled in with the cable TV bill. There are some areas that have DSL, but I haven't heard good things about their reliability.

I think your dad just needs to suck it up and pay the $20-27 that national ISPs charge or get a broadband connection for $40. There just aren't many alternatives.

When Kameleon says little or no charge he means free as in nothing - not a penny.