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EarthLink Plus
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Editors' rating: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8.3 9 10 best
The good: Provides high surfing speeds via a dial-up connection; includes free, 24/7 phone support, a pop-up ad blocker, spam filtering, a personal Web page, tons of e-mailboxes, and storage. The bad: We couldn't always connect; Web graphics don't always display fully; inconsistent tech-support quality. |
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 Click here for screenshot. |
Review summary |  |
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If you need a full-service ISP and you can't get (or afford) a broadband connection, EarthLink Plus is the next best thing.
By Daniel Tynan, May 8, 2003
CNET's choice for the best dial-up ISP has just gotten a speed boost. EarthLink Plus uses Propel Accelerator, a cleverly designed Web acceleration program, to boost surfing speeds to two to three times faster than via a normal 56Kbps dial-up. The result is Web surfing that approaches the speed of a broadband account, but at a significant cost savings. At $29 a month ($14.50 for the first six months), EarthLink Plus costs twice as much as a similar service from NetZero (called HiSpeed) but is still $15 to $20 less than most cable or DSL accounts. If you're in the market for a fast, full-service ISP but aren't willing to fork over $40 to $60 a month for broadband, EarthLink Plus is our pick for you. NetZero is a tad faster but lacks EarthLink's plethora of extras.
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Quick facts
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| Software requirements and specs: | |
| Min Operating System | Microsoft Windows 98 |
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| Min hard drive space | 72MB |
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| Min processor type | Intel Pentium II |
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| Min RAM size | 64MB |
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| Manufacturer est. price | $29 a month |
Daniel Tynan is a North Carolina-based freelancer and a frequent contributor to CNET Internet Services. Have a question for him? We'll pass it on!
