Free Internet Access for Mac Users

Evan Kleiman - 2000.11.08

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Free Mac ISP articles have a tendency to become outdated quickly. In fact, it seems that no sooner do we publish such an article, than one of the ISPs mentioned quits the business or stops supporting Macs.

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Talk about bad timing. About the same time we posted last week's article about Freeinternet.com, they went into bankruptcy and had their assets acquired by NetZero.

Back to the drawing board.

Q. I've tried out free Internet providers like Freei.net, and they don't work with my Mac. Can you offer any other suggestions about free Internet for the Mac?

A. More and more every day, free Internet for the Mac becomes available. At first, there were only a handful of free ISP's out there for the Mac, and none of them were too reliable. But now there are dozens of free Internet providers that, with the exception of a few minor discomforts, bring you all of the features you'd get from a $20 a month plan.

One of the most reliable and respectable ones is AltaVista's FreeAccess. It's only real downside is it's requirements. It requires at least Mac OS 8.1 and a Power PC processor. Unfortunately, you can expect these steep requirements on any free Internet provider out there.

Another search engine that has thrown its hat into the virtual free Internet ring is Excite. In cooperation with 1stup.com, their free Internet access, called Free Lane, is one of the more reliable ones, too. Another plus to this service is that the software to get on the net takes only about three minutes to download on a 56k modem.

One more provider is www.nocharge.com. While not being as reliable, it is much more compatible with other systems. In fact, all you need is a PPP program and a modem to connect, so you don't really need an up-to-date system like Mac OS 8.5. However, the big downside is that they only have local numbers in Washington, Oregon, New York City, and Puerto Rico. Of course, you always get what you pay for.

Now are there other free ISP's? Of course, but not too many of these services are really reliable. AltaVista's and Excite's free Internet services are the most road tested and usable free ISP's, and if you can afford the performance loss, then you can even get away with using one of these as your primary provider. But, until these services are 100% reliable and as good as AOL (okay, well most of these services already are - surprising how many of us pay $21.95 a month to be booted off every 25 minutes. Of course I am one of them, so I shouldn't be talking.), I'll be using these services only as a back up to my current pay-ISP.

As time goes on, more free Internet will become available. Services such as NetZero are planning to release Mac versions of the their software in the near future. You can email NetZero at macdemand@netzero.net to ask them when they will be releasing their free Internet for the Mac. We can only hope it will be soon.

In the end, if you're looking for 100% reliable access all the time, a paying service is definitely for you. But if you're okay with banner ads on the bottom of your screen, then free Internet is for you! But remember, you always get what you pay for.

Evan Kleiman has been writing for Low End Mac since January 1999. He also runs his own site, Evansite. Evan uses an iMac, along with some vintage hardware. You can read more about his computing experience in The Many Macs of Evan Kleiman.