Aol Dial up vs Broadband question

[Linda in NY]

Hi,

A friend of mine just bought a new computer yesterday. They haven't had a computer in a long time. Their old computer has, AOL 4.0 or 5.0 on it, and she says the new one has the optimized 9.0 on it.

She said they can get the AOL with some kind of deal through her husbands work for 5 dollars a month or AOL Broadband for 20 dollars a month. They can't really afford more than that.

She asked me if the broadband is that much faster than the dialup 9.0 and if it would be worth it speed wise to pay the extra 15 dollars a month, because for them money is an issue.

We had AOL back in 1999 and switched to Cable, and when I've been somewhere and used AOL dialup the lack of speed drove me nuts, so I can't tell her anything about AOL dialup and broadband.

If anyone can help I'd appreciate it,
Linda

[Perkdaddy]

What do they use the internet for?

If its just to check e-mail, do basic browsing and not so much downloading the dial up is ok.

If they download a lot, play online multimedia content, or games then broadband is the way to go.

There will always be an increase in the "speed" between anything implying dial up compared to broadband, and the price sounds reasonable.

[Linda in NY]

I'm not sure how much they are into downloading and game playing. I will let her know what you had to say and let her decide what's best.

My problem was since I've never used AOL Broadband, I didn't know how it was especially compared to dial up and to what we use.

Thanks.

[Perkdaddy]

Plainly put, Broadband is considerably faster for surfing the net. Any where from 4 to 15 times faster...

[G10]

I would say that if they are online for an average of 30 mins or so a day, I would go with broadband but as mentioned earlier, if they just check email, then dial up would suffice.

The other advantage to broadband is that your phone line isn't tied up whilst online which is def a good thing.

[Linda in NY]

Originally Posted by G10

I would say that if they are online for an average of 30 mins or so a day, I would go with broadband but as mentioned earlier, if they just check email, then dial up would suffice.

The other advantage to broadband is that your phone line isn't tied up whilst online which is def a good thing.

I agree back then the reason we switched was my mom was terminal in the hospital and we needed the phone line free 24/7 so we switched to cable.

Then when we experienced the difference in speed there was no going back !

I emailed her at work and she said her husband then her little daughter tried playing games online and it took forever.

What a surprise huh

I'm going to try and talk her into the broadband for 15 more bucks a month, it's well worth the non-frustration factor.

Thanks everyone !

[snuzulooz]

Any extra cost for broadband can easily be recouped by switching to VoiP telephone service IMHO. Get broadband and ditch landline phone service...hands down the best move we made.

[Julie]

Dial-up should be outlawed. It's horrible!

[louiseq]

go with the broadband..
you can download music, stream movies etc.. youll appreciate the interrnet much more
Just check that you dont have a download limit, and that your broadband is the fastest you can get in your area for the price. Theres some good broadband comparison websites about. have a look on google.