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besides why are you paying for dial-up access anyways?

Bluelight
NetZero
FreeInet
FreeWWWeb

Linux - 3 / 10 (promoted / actual)

Windows 98 - 10 / 8

For general networking, Linux is amazing.

Having said that, there is one area for ISP support that Linux isn't as good as Windows; free ISPs. Most free services either require Windows or are hostile to non-Windows systems, including Macintosh and BSD.

On top of that, some free ISPs are thwarting attempts to login using anything except for the Windows-only tools they provide. The reason is simple; a Linux system connecting to these services doesn't use the ad-laden login tools, so the free services can't justify allowing these freeloaders on thier systems!

I think getting a free ISP for the cost of some advertising is a fine exchange...but the ISPs are not doing anything to get thier ads on the 'un-supported' systems. Catch-22? You decide.

So, while many free ISPs can be made to work with Linux, fewer support it and a few are actively making it harder to use thier services.

Because of the minimal support by free ISPs for anything that isn't IE under MS Windows 98, I'd can't give Linux a 10 out of 10 in this category.

In a blatent attempt to get people to tell me something I don't know, here's what I do know so far.

First off, this month Juno -- a free ISP that hasn't supported Linux in the past -- has bought both FreeWWW and Worldspy -- two ISPs that have had support for Linux. Some people have complained that Juno's free service can't use Netscape or other browsers and requires IE...though I'd like to know if that's the case or not. Supposedly there's a way around this.

Free ISPs that can be used with Linux;

www.freewwweb.com

Freeweb Linux link; read the notes on Juno's buy out of Freewww

Worldspy - Bought out by Juno

www.freei.net

www.netzero.com- first have to set up in Windows to get encrypted password/ID, then put in login under Linux

www.freedsl.com - I know nothing; some Linux users. See this link to a Usenet post

Notes on how to use different free ISPs; I'd give attribution for the information below but I didn't keep it when I first grabbed it!

[Most of this is from Deja and Google from 2 months ago; I didn't write it, I'm just passing it along.]

1. freei.net - download the software, get your local access number and use something like kppp (or pppd for you people that like to make things hard...). your login name is @.freei.net. your password is the one you entered when you signed up.

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   A very good success story. If you and your friend are looking for a backup to freewwweb, Worldspy does work (with a little effort) but you need to setup and run the process from Windows in order to obtain the DNS info along with the cryptic user name. That means that if your username you signed up with is Ron123 then your Linux name to key into kppp will be something like: nvnet.asdfasdf@microportal.com . Trust me it does work and several others on this NG have made it happen as well. Good luck. blariz

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   Better go to http://autoreg.freewwweb.com/ for a fast registration without downloading those huge browsers.

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   Well, that sort of depends on the definition of 'is'! :-)

   I had noticed two mentioned, FREEWWWEB and DIAL4LIFE. I went to the web site for freewwweb to get an access number, but they all end with XXXX, which doesn't work. So I then went to dial4life and looked up their access numbers. It turned out to be the same list of towns and numbers except this one had the last 4 digits posted correctly. I followed the link to their instructions, and lo and behold, I was back at freewwweb!

   So, I ended up installing freewwweb using the dial number I found at dial4life. And it WORKED! That little bit of good luck was my payback for putting in two solid weeks of hell trying to get linux installed at all!

   BTW, I wasn't asked for a credit card at all.

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   I just called worldspy's tech support and asked about Linux and he said "you could try it, but they don't support it". I then asked if they used pap authentication and the support guy had no idea what I was talking about. I had tried it briefly this morning before going to work and got the connect, but immediately pppd died (I'm assuming because of the username/password authentication). I don't know whether that's because they don't use PAP or whether my account that I had just signed up for 30 minutes earlier hadn't been activated yet.

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   Actually I had to do a little hacking but didn't have any problem. I use Win95's dialer when in Win95. After installing worldspy.net and getting frustrated with all the windows that are used just to log on, I decided to find a way around them. Checking the DUN file it created for dialing I found that my user name was relaced with a code that looks like a wierd email address. Then I created a new dialer and copied the code to it and used my normal password. It worked! I logged on without going through all the BS they give you. Next I switched to Linux and set up ppp the same way and it works too. Now I have a FREE ISP with none of the BS, not even their home page. Try it, you'll like it.

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   The ticket is to get a bogus account set up under Win98, then run RASSpy or a logging program to get the user/password strings (which are usually encrypted or modified by their software) required for a straight logon, then just configure a standard call-up profile with this info in whatever program you're using, then throw away all the FISP's software. Works for any platform or O/S.

   Instant raw ISP!

   Naturally, you get rid of all their ads, timeouts, spyware and other crap in the bargain.

   Some FISPs have gotten wise to this hack and have blocked logging in their DUN profiles or made it impossible to run RASSpy, but at least 2/3 are still hackable using this workaround.

   NetZero, which is otherwise pretty high-quality access, has made this impossible in v.3, but if you can get an earlier version of the software you can run the hack and use the info for a clean login.

   Juno, Freei, Bluelight and a whole bunch more are currently easy to do this with. I get faster connects with NetZero and NZ is less congested than the other FISPs I've tried, but this may vary from user to user.

Flakey banner ads? Forced to use Windows for access? Not always. Check out http://www.freewwweb.com/

They cover most major cities--unfortunately, not where I live, but I have heard Good Things about the service.

Have you checked out Freewwweb ? I remember using this once or twice with my Apple eMate. The service seemed OK. There are no proprietary dialers, banner ad apps, etc., so it should work fine with Linux (it worked on my Newton, after all). Check out these detailed setup instructions for more info. About the only drawback I see to this service is the damn name, which is next to impossible to say. (Free WUH-WUH-WUH Web?)

Have you checked out Freewwweb ? I remember using this once or twice with my Apple eMate. The service seemed OK. There are no proprietary dialers, banner ad apps, etc., so it should work fine with Linux (it worked on my Newton, after all). Check out these detailed setup instructions for more info. About the only drawback I see to this service is the damn name, which is next to impossible to say. (Free WUH-WUH-WUH Web?)

freewwweb.com works with any computer that supports the standard dial-up protocols. I use it in Linux everyday. I also use worldshare regularly as my backup when Freewwweb is busy. Neither of your statements is true.

Not that any of those free ISPs would be useful to a iOpener running BSD or Linux; they're all Windows or Mac only. Three of them are the same ISP, in fact (a rebranded 1stup.com - the ridiculous "health meter" is a dead giveaway). Something like freewwweb or worldshare might be better, since you can use them from any OS you like and they just basically suck less.

Do the new Netpliance terms make it impossible to cancel the service after one month? $99 US plus one month's service is still cheap.

You might try out www.freewwweb.com. They're one of the free ISP's and they've got nation-wide coverage (it looks like they connect into UUNet's dialup system). For whatever reason (and I can't figure out how they make money unless they track usage), they don't force any ads on you, and they require no special software. Their web site has a list of all their phone numbers. You can sign up online and your account is instantly created. Just read the FAQ before you get started (for example, you should know that you log in with "username@freewwweb.com" instead of just "username").

Netzero and ALtaVista have free internet access.

I wouldn't touch AltaVista, no way. Their ISP, 1stUp.com, specifically reserves the right to sell their partners your name, address, e-mail, and just about everything else that they know or find out about you.

NetZero has worked well for me.

However, my current recommendation is FreeWWWeb. At the moment, they don't run ads or anything, so there's no software to download, no fooling about. Just configure your dialer and your server addresses, and away you go. They're the only free ISP in the US with an NNTP server (AFAIK). Because there's no software to download, you don't have to be running Windows, either. And, if you should happen to head into Canada, they even have access numbers there.