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HOME TOPICS ABOUT ME All other things being equal, the best ISP is a local ISP. |
technofile Al Fasoldt's reviews and commentaries, continuously available online since 1983 Why a local ISP is better than AOL or MSNOct. 16, 2002 By Al Fasoldt Copyright © 2002, Al Fasoldt Copyright © 2002, The Post-Standard Microsoft and America Online have each announced the "8.0" versions of their online software. If you use MSN or AOL, you might wonder if upgrading to 8.0 is a good idea. I have an even better idea. Upgrade yourself out of MSN or AOL entirely. Both of them are near the bottom of the pile in customer support and standardization. And you'll never get local help from either of them. Getting access to the Internet and being able to do e-mail are two functions that many of us can't live without. But the notion that somehow, in some way, you need MSN or AOL to do those two functions is nonsense. You can do it a lot better using a good local Internet service provider. A lot of people miss this point. They buy a computer and find an AOL icon on the desktop and that's all they need to know. Or their kids tell them they "have to have AOL" because "all their friends have AOL." Or they buy a new computer and get a rebate on MSN as part of the deal. If new computer buyers were offered $200 off the cost of the PC if they subscribed to Willie's Weekly Pizza deliveries for the next 12 months, they'd surely stop and think it over. Would they REALLY eat one of Willie's pizzas each week for a year -- especially if they'd never even tried one before and didn't even LIKE pizza? So if you've been using AOL or MSN without making a clear choice -- if you got it more or less with the computer and you didn't actually make a choice on your own -- now might be the time to make a real choice. Instead of AOL 8.0 or MSN 8.0, give a standard Internet provider a chance. Standard Internet providers provide a connection and maybe a few extras, such as a specialized home page and maybe a place where you can get information on local events. That's all you need. But AOL and MSN have instant messaging. Wouldn't you miss out on that if you abandoned them? Not at all. Both AOL and MSN have instant messaging software that works the same whether you subscribe to their services or have your own ISP. But your kids would be devastated if they couldn't chat with their friends. Don't you need to have AOL so they can chat with their buddies on AOL? Or don't you need MSN so they can chat with their buddies on MSN? No. "Chat" is the same as instant messaging. Kids (and grownups, too) can chat with their friends using the AOL or MSN instant messaging programs. They don't need to be on AOL or MSN. All other things being equal, the best ISP is a local ISP. It would be unfair for me to recommend some and inadvertently leave out others that might be just as good, so I recommend instead that you ask your friends and neighbors what they use, or ask the local user group. (Your friends and neighbors might be AOL or MSN users, too, so maybe your own quest will help them.) The three main local user groups all have Web sites. They are the Windows user group at www.cnypcug.org, the Mac user group at www.dreamscape.com/smug and the Linux group at http://syrlug.org. Go to their sites for info on local meetings. |