dslreports logo
 story category
Cox Finally Pulls Free Dial-Up Backup
No longer needed in the age of 3G and Wi-Fi

Cox Communications is one of only a few broadband ISPs left that offered users a free (assuming you have "Premier" service) backup dial-up connection should their main line go down or while traveling. The company traditionally offered users up to 20 hours of free dial-up a month, with additional time allotted in multi-hour blocks if it was needed. However, an e-mail to Cox subscribers informs them that the perk is being discontinued as of September 1. Users on lower tiers that had to pay a $10 "activation fee" will have the fee refunded. The full e-mail for posterity's sake:

quote:
Click for full size
Dear Valued Customer:

Effective September 1st, 2010 Cox Communications will discontinue Remote Dial Access services.

Declining usage for Remote Dial Access has highlighted the need to focus our resources on other priorities, such as increasing our Internet speeds and providing additional new services.

* Cox High Speed Internet Customers who activated Remote Dial Access prior to July 8, 2010 can continue to use the service until September 1, 2010.

* Customers who activated Remote Dial Access in 2010 will automatically receive a credit for the one-time $9.95 activation fee.

* Any Remote Dial Access Service usage fees through September 1 will be billed per the existing fee schedule, which can be viewed here.

Sincerely,

Cox Communications
Obviously dial-up backup is becoming less useful in an age of 3G connectivity and free Wi-Fi. With monthly bills remaining the same, free backup dial-up access for outages has now joined newsgroup services in the dust bin of ISP perk history.
view:
topics flat nest 

FFH5
Premium Member
join:2002-03-03
Tavistock NJ

1 recommendation

FFH5

Premium Member

Very few devices even support dial now

Hardly surprising given that almost zero laptops or desktops for sale now even offers a dial modem as an option.

Do they even have standalone dial modems for sale anymore?

BillRoland
Premium Member
join:2001-01-21
Ocala, FL

BillRoland

Premium Member

Re: Very few devices even support dial now

said by FFH5:

Hardly surprising given that almost zero laptops or desktops for sale now even offers a dial modem as an option.

Do they even have standalone dial modems for sale anymore?
I agree, the one time I needed to use it I couldn't because I didn't have a modem!

NickD
Premium Member
join:2000-11-17
Princeton Junction, NJ

NickD

Premium Member

Re: Very few devices even support dial now

My backup for my cable modem is the oh-so-popular "linksys" network, my neighbors have DSL and an unsecured router

aaronwt
Premium Member
join:2004-11-07
Woodbridge, VA

aaronwt

Premium Member

Re: Very few devices even support dial now

I use a cellular modem as a backup. Although with FiOS, downtime is an extremely rare occurance. And to be fair, when I had Comcast, any downtime was also extremely rare. They were always up during any power outages we had.

MovieLover76
join:2009-09-11
Cherry Hill, NJ

MovieLover76 to NickD

Member

to NickD
lol, yes linksys is my backup network too, I can see 2 linksys networks from my living room
iansltx
join:2007-02-19
Austin, TX

iansltx to FFH5

Member

to FFH5
Standalone dialup modems are definitely still available, and my little brother's year old IdeaPad has a modem built in, albeit a rather low quality one compared to my mom's older Toshiba. That said, it's been a LONG time since I've used such a connection out of necessity. Thank you WMWiFiRouter!
zolcos
join:2010-05-19
Houghton, MI

zolcos to FFH5

Member

to FFH5
said by FFH5:

Do they even have standalone dial modems for sale anymore?
I know this comment is probably not completely serious, but the answer is of course yes.
Even Dell has plenty of 'legacy' options for pre-builts such as PS/2 cards (since the mobos now forgo that connector in favor of more USB).
Dial-up is still occasionally the only option, and thus the hardware is still widely available.

jchambers28
Premium Member
join:2007-05-12
Peculiar, MO
·Comcast XFINITY

jchambers28

Premium Member

Re: Very few devices even support dial now

said by zolcos:

said by FFH5:

Do they even have standalone dial modems for sale anymore?
I know this comment is probably not completely serious, but the answer is of course yes.
Even Dell has plenty of 'legacy' options for pre-builts such as PS/2 cards (since the mobos now forgo that connector in favor of more USB).
Dial-up is still occasionally the only option, and thus the hardware is still widely available.
yes they still have them.

»www.newegg.com/Product/P ··· -Product

Crazy Dave
Formerly known as Seph83
Premium Member
join:2004-04-29
Homer, GA
Askey TM-RTL0102
Ubiquiti UDM-US

Crazy Dave to FFH5

Premium Member

to FFH5
I've still got a USR External V.92 Serial Modem: »www.amazon.com/Robotics- ··· -1-spell

I bought it almost a decade ago, back when dial-up was the only option here. Funny thing was, back then, I only paid $5 more for it at Wal-Mart. My workplace still uses one ran through a large Cisco router for EFT Transaction back up.

My ISP still offers free dial-up backup, but I can't use the modem. No built in Serial port on my Gigabyte mobo, so it just collects dust.
ISurfTooMuch
join:2007-04-23
Tuscaloosa, AL

ISurfTooMuch

Member

Re: Very few devices even support dial now

Your EFT comment reminded me of something. At my former employer, our Business Manager had been using dialup into a private network for Medicaid billing on her old machine, which was still running Win98. When I finally got approved to replace everyone's computers, I got her a new Vista setup and downloaded the newest version of the billing software, which could transfer data over our broadband connection instead. This meant that I didn't need to order a modem to be included with her new machine--or so I thought. Turns out that the software didn't use a modem, but it wouldn't work if one wasn't present. Once the old modem from her old computer was installed into the new one, the software was happy, and it worked just fine over broadband. And the modem is still in there, not connected to a phone line but keeping the billing software happy nonetheless.

Go figure.

MovieLover76
join:2009-09-11
Cherry Hill, NJ

MovieLover76 to Crazy Dave

Member

to Crazy Dave
I still have an internal USR V.92 modem, but it's in a box, I used to keep it in my desktop, but why waste the electricity to power it these days.
Happydude32
Premium Member
join:2005-07-16

Happydude32 to Crazy Dave

Premium Member

to Crazy Dave
Wow. Looking at that old dinosaur makes me think of that old AOL commercial. 'Now with 56K Connections Are Faster Than Ever'. I'm sure while it probably doesn't cost much to have, any broadband company that spends more than a penny on dial up back up is flushing money down the toilet. Congratulations to Cox for joining the club, it was the right thing to do.

»www.youtube.com/watch?v= ··· =related
exRolmman
join:2010-02-11
Wilmington, NC

exRolmman to FFH5

Member

to FFH5
Yes ...most remote locations for enterprise routers and switches have external modems for backup when telnet access is not available. A lot of communications equipment has dial up access for basic maintenance and programming. DUP networking is a backup to corporate networks when wired or wireless is unavailable. U S Robotics modems are still available. I have multiple directories in my Procomm Plus software for dial up support depending on what areas I serve.

ArrayList
DevOps
Premium Member
join:2005-03-19
Mullica Hill, NJ

ArrayList

Premium Member

still have it with AT&T

AT&T U-Verse and AT&T DSL still have it.

VR Laura
Queen Of Cyberspace
Premium Member
join:2002-02-10
NYC

VR Laura

Premium Member

Re: still have it with AT&T

said by ArrayList:

AT&T U-Verse and AT&T DSL still have it.
So does Earthlink.

With Cox now doing it, the others will probably follow.
banner
Premium Member
join:2003-11-07
Long Beach, CA

banner

Premium Member

with Cox Digital Voice?

Kinda silly to use dialup over VOIP.

Fubar16
join:2001-02-20
Phoenix, AZ

Fubar16

Member

Re: with Cox Digital Voice?

said by banner:

Kinda silly to use dialup over VOIP.
Reread the news posting. This is for when they were not at home.
patcat88
join:2002-04-05
Jamaica, NY

patcat88 to banner

Member

to banner
said by banner:

Kinda silly to use dialup over VOIP.
You might have to if your cable node is oversubscribed enough. Cable VOIP always has higher priority than internet traffic.

BryanInPHX
Premium Member
join:2001-03-06
Phoenix, AZ

BryanInPHX

Premium Member

Sorry to see it go.....

Although I have only used it a handful of times on vacation and when my home HSI goes out, I have used it to access DSLR several times to find out if the outage has already been reported and post my outage for a CoxTech.

NetZero will have to be my new back-up.
fiberguy2
My views are my own.
Premium Member
join:2005-05-20

fiberguy2

Premium Member

Re: Sorry to see it go.....

said by BryanInPHX:

...and when my home HSI goes out, I have used it to access DSLR several times to find out if the outage has already been reported and post my outage for a CoxTech.
.. just curious... if your HSI goes out, why would you come to BBR to see if it's been reported and not directly to the company to find out that status of your service?

FutureMon
Dude Whats mine say?

join:2000-10-05
Marina, CA

2 edits

FutureMon

Re: Sorry to see it go.....

Maybe because this site is easier to get an answer quickly in regards to outages as opposed to sitting on hold with your ISP and/or going through their scripted "do this...do that..." stuff

- FM

BryanInPHX
Premium Member
join:2001-03-06
Phoenix, AZ

BryanInPHX

Premium Member

Re: Sorry to see it go.....

said by FutureMon:

Maybe because this site is easier to get an answer quickly in regards to outages as opposed to sitting on hold with your ISP and/or going through their scripted "do this...do that..." stuff

- FM
+1
BryanInPHX

1 edit

BryanInPHX to fiberguy2

Premium Member

to fiberguy2
said by fiberguy2:

said by BryanInPHX:

...and when my home HSI goes out, I have used it to access DSLR several times to find out if the outage has already been reported and post my outage for a CoxTech.
.. just curious... if your HSI goes out, why would you come to BBR to see if it's been reported and not directly to the company to find out that status of your service?
Have you ever tried Cox HSI telephone support? especially at 1am or 2am? They rarely are aware of any outage, unless it is wide spread, and will not generally attempt to connect to your modem, and want you to reboot everything 12 times and stand on your head while unplugging everything.

The last time it happened I logged on to DSLR and found out right away it was only a D3 outage and did not affect D2 modems, so I was able to swap out my modem and get back online. CS did not know that information.

dvd536
as Mr. Pink as they come
Premium Member
join:2001-04-27
Phoenix, AZ

dvd536

Premium Member

Let me guess. . .

no reduction on the bill with the loss of this and usenet.
its like lets see how little we can offer before major churn starts
no options here as all we got is qwest as competition[if you want to call qwest actual competition lol]

lnkddbz
@..airtelbroadband.in

lnkddbz

Anon

Data Recovery Software

Sometimes company offers free services but included some hidden cost which she applies after some time when you are with them. Is anything like this with cox communication?