NetZero Deals Blog

Having a computer for college has officially gone from being a luxury to a necessity. College students everywhere dread the thought of being confined to over packed on campus computer labs.

Unfortunately school can no longer be tackled without a high speed internet connection!

Nothing is more frustrating for a student than having to battle for a computer to finish homework or other projects. It can take hours on some campuses. A highly recommended solution to these problems is to avoid them altogether!

NetZero is a highly reliable solution. They offer several internet services. If all you have to do to keep a float in your classes is check e-mail from your professors, Platinum is a great NetZero service. If more is required, 3G HiSpeed might be a better option. But in a world of such rapidly advancing technology it is impossible to get by without internet from your house or dorm room.

It is quite incredible how dependent school has become on computers. I have even heard of people that use their PC’s for business classes, but still have to go to labs to complete with other class requirements on Macs. I have seen people suffer for not having personal access to the web, so any college student should take this into careful consideration.

There are plenty of reasons to choose NetZero over other internet service providers. One of the best reasons is NetZero offers the same Internet access as other competitors, but at less than half the cost! Who doesn’t like to save money? That in itself is really enough to know that NetZero is the best option. NetZero also comes with benefits such as free email and free instant messaging.

The connections are fast and reliable and the customer service is great. Another great thing about NetZero is that they offer different unique services to the consumer to meet different needs.

They offer a free service, Platinum ( a reliable dial-up connection), 3G HiSpeed ( A very fast dial-up connection ) and NetZero DSL. The customer can choose which one is designed for his or her specific needs. NetZero offers 24 hour customer technical support.

These are just a handful of the many reasons why NetZero is the way to go. Switching over is very easy and right now NetZero is offering several promotions on their dial-up services. Right now everyone is taking advantage of these great NetZero offers!

Many people have asked themselves about how internet service will be in 10 years. The big question that seems to be appearing in forums is, “Will dial-up still be around 10 years down the road?” This question comes to mind as result of DSL prices dropping continually. Some people feel that dial-up will always be around because it is the most affordable internet connection. Other people feel that as technology changes and advances, the price of dial-up will rise until it reaches equilibrium with DSL services. Another important point is that in 10 years, DSL connections will still not be available to everyone in every square inch of the country, thus making dial-up connections necessary. Although many companies are loosing many dial-subscribers every year, there are still more than enough to make dial-up internet profitable. Will, dial-up eventually become outdated? Probably. Will it happen in the next 10 years? Definitely not. If that day ever does arrive, NetZero will still make it possible for everyone to have affordable access to a good internet connection, just like they always have.

Many reviews are saying that NetZero Voice(NetZero’s VoIP service) is a step above others for various reasons. First off, it allows you to make calls from your PC regardless of if you have high speed or dial-up. This required a bit of extra NetZero engineering since with many providers voice over phone only works well with high speed. Calls between NetZero customers (PC to PC) are free. Some people have said that the sound quality is better than other providers. NetZero voice has been described as very easy to use, and in one interview was said to be “better than Skype, a lot better.” Services are cheap, but there’s one pit fall; United Online is no longer offering NetZero Voice, so right now it is impossible to sign up for the service. Rumors are that Best Buy is trying to take over the distribution. Hopefully it will work out soon, because all the people that have used this service are raving about it!

NetZero was launched in late 1998. It was the first free internet service provider and in only 6 months had an astonishing 1,000,000 users. The idea of free internet was to attract an audience for advertising. The original NetZero service monitored web surfing patterns and showed ads conforming to the interests of the individual person. The NetZero ad serving technology has several patents. After the .com bust in late 2000 early 2001 NetZero bought out all its competitors as each one went bankrupt. NetZero went public on the NASDAQ in September of 1999. In 2001 when internet advertising took a dive, NetZero again had a great idea in mind when they directed many of their customers to their Platinum service. In 2005, NetZero introduced a service called “third generation of Internet” more commonly known as 3G HiSpeed. NetZero claims the service is so fast that you wouldn’t believe it’s not broadband. This new service uses unique technology described in a previous article (3G Works Like This). In under 6 months NetZero’s ingenuity launched them into the spotlight of the internet world, and their increasing ingenuity has kept them there for almost 10 years.

NetZero was the first free internet provider; founded by Ronald T Burr, Stacy Haitsuka, Marwan Zebian and Harold MacKenzie in 1998. Since then, NetZero has constantly improved internet access by being extremely innovative. They have several patents and have virtually destroyed most of the competition that has risen in the past 9 years. Now they have again made internet access more convenient using another great idea. This is 3G or third generation internet. This NetZero service is boasted to be the “fastest available dial-up connection”. It is said to be 5 times faster than the average dial-up connection and some have even said, “you wouldn’t believe it wasn’t broadband”. So the question….how did they make a dial-up connection that is so fast? The answer is that is pre-fetches HTML markup, JavaScript and other small files and compresses them. Or in other words, the service uses any idle time and silently begins to “fetch” or download documents that the user might browse to in the near future. This pre-fetched information is stored in the cache making it possible to load very very quickly. More proof that it is often better to be smarter than stronger. This service is still available for a great price of only $9.95 a month for the first 12 months. SIGN UP HERE.

It is very useful to understand how it is that your DSL (Digital Subscriber Line) service works. A common question is how is DSL speed so fast with just a regular phone line? Another is, how is it possible that the internet be used while making a phone call on the same line? DSL features these benefits and many more, however, like anything, has a few disadvantages. The largest is, it’s not available everywhere. How DSL works is really quite simple. Your average telephone jack in your house consists of a few copper wires. These wires have the capacity of sending and receiving much more information than just your average phone call. In simple terms, your DSL connection will use frequencies not used by your phone conversation to send and receive information for your computer. In this way, your simple old telephone line can perform multiple functions quickly. Why not take advantage of that? Netzero offers this service at a considerably low price if it is available in your area.

Many people write in asking if NetZero has local access numbers in their area. Well, now you can go and input your number and see for yourself. Here’s the link to check and see if there are local NetZero access numbers in your area. Most customers want this information to know if they’ll have to pay extra dial charges when connecting to NetZero. These extra charges come from your phone company - not NetZero.

Generally speaking, NetZero has access numbers in every major metorpolitan area. So you shouldn’t have trouble.

Many people ask themselves, which is a better value? High speed or dial-up? The answer might seem highly obvious: high speed. However, before making a pre-analyzed decision, there are a few things we must consider. The first being, for what do you need the connection. In my parents house they are completely content with dial-up mainly because it fulfills their needs and is cheaper. On my machine, of course I do more than check my e-mail and need a high speed connection. So for my parents, dial up is a better value, while I on the other hand feel it is more effective to pay a little extra for high speed. As a matter of fact, anytime I try to use a dial-up connection to do what I need to do, my hairline recedes an inch. There are also other factors, such as security, in which case, dial-up can often be better since you are always using a different IP address. High speed is always logged onto the same one. So if you’re using dial-up and feel it is sufficient for your needs, don’t fix what’s not broken. Don’t feel obligated to upgrade. If you feel that you internet is just too slow, it’s probably time for high speed. So just consider your needs and get whatever best suits you.

As you may know NetZero launched it’s DSL service back in November, 2006. Early in March of this year the service was extended into areas serviced by Covad. This makes NetZero’s footprint cover 49 major metropolitan areas. Sounds great, and yet NetZero DSL still isn’t available in my area (a large metro area). The point being, I know several NetZero users who are ready to defect over to AT&T or Verizon for DSL because the price point to step up to DSL has dropped significantly AND because they can’t get NetZero DSL yet.

So the big question is: jump now or wait an indeterminate time until NetZero gets their act together? If you jump now, you’ll lose your NetZero email address and you’ll have to let everyone know your new address. You’ll also miss out on some of the benefits that NetZero dial service provides (like spam filtering and virus protection). But, AT&T, Verizon, and virtually everyone else offer similar types of service.

So does it boil down to customer loyalty and belief in your service provider’s vision and values? Maybe…but I doubt it.

I have a hard time believing that many customers would stick around just as a matter of principle - not now-a-days anyway. There is so much competition out there among the telcom companies that you can really step up in speed and features without an appreciable increase in price (if you’re currently a dial-up internet service user).

Bottom line, I believe NetZero better hurry up and extend their DSL service globally or they’re going to lose their core customer base to the new bigger and better plans out there.