Hi John, I have a 2 year old Dell system, 2.4 Ghz and wondered if moving on to high speed (I have dial up) which provider is worth the money and if I lose my AOL mail address in the process.

- Jill, January 4, 2007 (name change for privacy)

Hi Jan, high speed DSL or Cable internet should always be faster than dial up. Dial up has a maximum through put of 56 Kbps. DSL plans start at 768 Kbps for the same price as dial up, however, I always recommend upgrading to 1.5 Mbps (1,500 kbps) or more if you intend to use the internet frequently. As long as your system meets the minimum requirements for use, you are ok. A 2 year old Dell system should be fine.

Remember that your Email and Internet Access are two separate things. I have an MSN Premium Email account from which I can access from any computer in the world with internet access. I simply visit www.hotmail.com or www.live.com and sign in with my user name and password. The same goes for free AOL Email, Netscape Email, Netzero Email, Verizon Email, Comcast Email, Charter Email, Time Warner Email and so on.

Every high speed internet service provider will provide you with new email accounts using some-name@your-provider.com, for example. That does not mean you have to use them. If you like AOL Email, then you can auto forward your new email account to your AOL Email address. That way you will not miss any important emails sent to you by your Internet Access provider, billing or support information for example.

Visit aol.com to review the latest offerings for AOL Mail. Free AOL Email accounts are available. If you are paying a monthly fee for dial up internet access, call AOL to negotiate a reduced rate, drop Internet Access but keep your AOL Email account active if that is what you decide to do. It is not that big of a deal, because if you go to any email provider such as www.hotmail.com and click Sign Up, you will see the current pricing for Hotmail Plus is $19.95 yearly. So do some comparison shopping if you wish to keep any premium email services active.

I wrote a few articles that you might also like to read, about v92 dial up internet access, ATT Yahoo high speed internet access, and also look for the one titled Wireless Home Network Setup.

- John

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This entry was posted on Saturday, January 5th, 2008 at 3:31 am and is filed under Cable Internet, DSL Internet, Dial Up Internet, Email Address Accounts, High Speed Internet, Internet Service Providers, Questions, Wireless Internet. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.