>> Don't you want news-server access? That's the most common
>> deal-breaker for me.
> Nope. No web hosting, no email, no usenet, no technical support,
> hell, they don't even need a tollfree customer service number.
> DNS is about the only thing I'd use (other then IP transit) but it's
> not mandatory, I run my own DNS servers anyway (and most of the stuff
> I'll be accessing will be through my VPN and in-house proxies anyway)
> Once the VPN is up I can access literally everything I need right
> through there. Just PPTP at the moment, although if I have the time
> to get IPSec working, I might switch over.
>> Budget ISPs often contract with dialup providers. The quality of
>> service can depend on this, and the ISP's representative may not be in
>> a position to know what's wrong.
> True enough.
>> At $9.95 I've been with localnet a couple of years, I guess. At times
>> I've looked for alternatives, but in the long run things have worked >> out.
> I'll check 'em out, thanks! Any idea what they're like for short-term > access?
They charge $12 setup, so the first month would be $21.95, if that's what you mean.
There were no problems for my first several months. Sometimes episodes of repeated annoyances have made me think of switching, but they got fixed. That's what I mean by "the long run."
As someone pointed out, freedomlist.com has lots of cheap ISPs, and some are probably very good. They say localnet is too expensive. I tried access4less based on recommendations there. As it turned out, their service had recently gone bad. It was terrible in many ways: the signup, download speeds, and customer service. A few days after I signed up, they dropped dialup. I was glad I hadn't dropped localnet.