The Site > Old Forums > Dialup > Columbia journalist with a question for dial-up users

Columbia journalist with a question for dial-up users

I still use it because I can't afford high speed access right now. Dial-up is cheaper and I since I've never had high speed access I don't miss it so it's not that bad.

I know that as long as anyone is connected to the internet they are not 100% safe from viruses, spyware and hackers, but I do think dial-up is safer than high speed access.

Ihave friends that have high speed access and they seem to have more problems with viruses & spyware. And yes, they are safe surfers, one of them is so she won't even open forwarded emails.

reply to stchen
Thanks for responding, Littlem! So how has AOL changed since you first started using it (and when was that, exactly?) Does dial-up speed limit what you can do online, like video streaming? What do you mainly use the internet for and how often?

reply to stchen
Not everyone can get broadband service.

reply to stchen
I've been using AOL for about 3 years now and no it hasn't changed much. I know most people don't like AOL, but I haven't had any problems and it's the fastest dial-up I have used and I have tried several.

It took me 40 minutes one time to stream and watch a 4 minute You Tube video...so yes, it affects video streaming big time. I don't do that anymore unless I just desperately need to see the video.

Occasionally I will download a song which takes about 15 - 20 minutes depending on the length of the song.

Being on dial-up does not limit my time online, I am online everyday. I mainly use the internet for research, surfing, email, forums, etc.

I know that sometime within the next year or so I will have to get high speed access if possible. Most programs are getting too big to download using dial-up. An example would be my security suite which is a 70MB download, which takes about 4 hours or more to download and each year the file size keeps increasing.

reply to stchen
I assume reasons are: availability, cost, universality.

For several years after I first got DSL I used dial-up as a backup. Router would automatically revert to dial-up if DSL failed. Came in handy after my first DSL provider went bankrupt in 2001. I dropped it several years ago because DSL has been very reliable and as more and more web sites optimize to high speed dial-up is painful.

/tom

reply to stchen
i use satelite and dialup at the same time, satelite for browsing the web and downloading and dialup for gaming

this is only because i have no other options at all for internet

reply to stchen
Like many others, there isn't any broadband internet available where I live. While there are a few satellite internet vendors that could sell me service, they're not really affordable. So I'm left with slow dialup doesn't even approach 56k.
Tony