In the ISP market-share olympics, EarthLink, with nearly 5 million subscribers, always takes home the bronze behind industry giants AOL (34 million subscribers) and MSN (7.7 million). People just aren't switching, even though EarthLink has won CNET's nod as the top service provider three years running. In an attempt to win subscribers from its bigger rivals, the No. 3 ISP has released Total Access 2003, a new, slimmed-down upgrade to its EarthLink 5.0 dial-up software. Thanks to its fixes and new features, Total Access once again gets our formal nod by an infinitesimal margin. If you're looking for a new dial-up service, try Total Access. But unless you're already unhappy with your ISP, Total Access isn't revolutionary enough to induce you to switch.
Swift setup
Installing EarthLink's software from a CD takes about 10 minutes, faster than EarthLink 5.0 and the current versions of AOL and MSN. Log on to the service, and Total Access displays its new Task Panel--a slim toolbar that docks to the top of your screen, offering pull-down menus for accessing the Web, your e-mail, a toolbox, some games, and a Google-powered search window. The Task Panel sports some clever touches, such as a counter that displays how many new messages are waiting in your e-mail in-box. Unfortunately, it works with only EarthLink mail, so it's no good if you use Outlook Express or Eudora.
Click the Web menu to launch your customizable start page in an IE window. Rather than make you use EarthLink's old browser, Total Access defaults to Internet Explorer 5.x, which is great if you're already used to IE. EarthLink has simplified this main page to make it load faster, but it's still an unexciting portal that serves up the same news, weather, and entertainment links that we've all seen a million times.
E-mail made easier
As with previous versions of EarthLink, $22 per month buys you eight mailboxes with 10MB per mailbox, or a generous 80MB total. (AOL and MSN are similarly generous.) In addition, you can now use EarthLink's mail program, called EarthLink Total Access Mail, to check mail on any POP3 or IMAP account, or you can switch among multiple EarthLink mailboxes with a few mouse clicks; you no longer have to disconnect and log back on. EarthLink has finally caught up with AOL in this respect.
Total Access software integrates with Outlook Express so that you can launch it from the Outlook task panel if you choose that as your default client. EarthLink offers a few other useful features as well, including a downloadable version of the Guard-IE pop-up ad blocker.
If you decide to use EarthLink's own e-mail app, you can upload your address book to EarthLink's Web-based e-mail interface, then synchronize your online address book with the one on your desktop--handy when you need to check your mail from someone else's PC. Syncing is a cinch, but the online address book stores only 500 names, which makes it less useful for e-mail mavens. Fortunately, the service makes it easier than in previous versions to send mail from an EarthLink account using another ISP, without having to futz with your server settings.
Access on the go
If you need the Net on the road, Total Access 2003 has you covered. Its location manager lets you create unique access profiles, so you can use one profile, say, to dial up from your hotel room and another to access the Net via a wireless home network. Unfortunately, EarthLink hides this cool tool away under an obscure icon in the Task Panel; it took us 10 minutes to find it.
Customer service redeemed
Total Access also proved eminently reliable in our tests; we logged on 10 times without a single busy signal or dropped connection. And EarthLink's technical support proved equally dependable, with courteous, knowledgeable help and virtually no hold times. A call to customer service, on the other hand, found us stuck us on hold for 10 minutes. Once again, EarthLink's support service remains a tad inconsistent, but it's far better than it was in the past.
Going for the gold
Unlike most product upgrades, EarthLink Total Access 2003 is slimmer and trimmer than its predecessors. Can its new trappings push EarthLink to second or even first place? Anything's possible. (Remember figure-skating gold medallist Sarah Hughes?) EarthLink remains our top choice for dial-up ISP, and newbies may as well give it a try. Realistically, however, Total Access 2003 isn't revolutionary enough to pull satisfied customers away from AOL or MSN.
