Best Reviewed
ISPs
- Best ISP Verizon FiOS *Est. $50
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- Best regional cable broadband ISP Wow! Cable *Est. $40
- Best DSL ISP EarthLink DSL *Est. $30
- Best dial-up ISP EarthLink Dial-up *Est. $15
- Free dial-up NetZero/Juno Dial-up *Est. $0
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Free dial-up
- 10 hours free access per month
- Decent speed for dial-up
- Above-average customer satisfaction
- Fees accrue after 10 hours
- Not ad-free
- Dial-up is always slowest option
If you use the Internet only occasionally, you can get up to 10 hours of free dial-up Internet access per month from NetZero or Juno, which are owned by the same parent company, United Online. You get multiple email accounts with mobile and web access (webmail). Exceed the 10 hours and you'll be charged $10 per month, the same as what you'd pay for unlimited access from these dial-up ISPs. Dial-up service from any ISP is extremely slow compared to high-speed connections, but a speed test by PCMag.com says NetZero isn't bad. One negative with the free service is that you're stuck with advertising on your screen as you browse. If you need dial-up access with an accelerator feature for faster-loading web pages, reviews favor EarthLink (*Est. $15 per month).
Surveys have largely stopped reporting on dial-up ISPs, but NetZero is included in 2007 and 2008 surveys conducted by J.D. Power and Associates. PCMag.com has speed ratings based on a sampling of 40,000 users. We found helpful consumer reviews at Epinions.com, where 600 people have commented on NetZero over the years. Cheap-ISP-Reviews.com offers reviews of both NetZero and Juno, but they provide limited insights.
Our Sources
This article summarizes the findings of a J.D. Power's 2008 customer satisfaction survey to which almost 19,000 people responded. ISPs are rated on several factors, including customer service, performance and reliability, and offerings and promotions. United Online, parent company of NetZero and Juno, comes in "a close second" to EarthLink among dial-up ISPs.
Review: 2008 Internet Service Provider (ISP) Residential Customer Satisfaction Study, Editors of J.D. Power and Associates, Oct. 2008
J.D. Power and Associates polls 16,000 people to rate customer satisfaction of dial-up Internet providers in this now-dated study. NetZero is rated third among six dial-up ISPs.
Review: 2007 Internet Service Provider Residential Customer Satisfaction Study: Press Release, Editors of J.D. Power and Associates, Sept. 19, 2007
More than 40,000 people agreed to let PCMag.com measure their connection speeds. While no dial-up provider beats cable or DSL, NetZero is the fastest of the three dial-ups listed in this older study.
Review: Real World Testing: The Best ISPs in America, Jeremy Kaplan, May 30, 2007
4. ConsumerReports.orgDetails/Subscribe
Editors offer good general advice on the free page of this report, but ratings are available only to subscribers. While Juno and NetZero are among the dial-up ISPs rated, they aren't evaluated in ConsumerReports.org's current survey ratings of ISPs.
Review: Internet Service: Fiber Joins the Fray, Editors of ConsumerReports.org, Feb. 2007
5. Epinions.com
There are more than 600 user reviews accumulated over the years here, the most recent of which is from 2008. Taken together, they yield a middling average score for NetZero. The harshest complaints address the company's customer service and tech support.
Review: NetZero, Contributors to Epinions.com, As of Oct. 2011
The comparative ratings here are based on superficial factors, including price; a chart shows features included in each plan, both dial-up and high-speed. NetZero is rated first among dial-up ISPs with its for-pay program; Juno comes in second even though its plan is identical. Their cheaper plans receive lower ratings.
Review: Cheap ISP Reviews, Editors of Cheap-ISP-Reviews.com, Not dated
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