Mac friendly ISPs?

[GbV76]

So with some advice from this forum I've picked up a G3 iMac for my Mom for xmas. We're Canadian, *but* my parents head to Florida to escape the brutal, brutal winters here. I want to get her a dial up account for while she's down there but a) it's been yeeeears since I've had dial-up and b) I don't know anything about US ISPs. Can someone give me some advice on a good, basic dial-up provider that's Mac friendly? Do i need to use software provided by an ISP to dial-up? Or can i just set up a connection manually? Thanks for your help.

[johnnowak]

You shouldn't need software, and pretty much every ISP will be fine with a mac. All the protocols are standardized and crossplaform.

[mwjd299]

I'm using Netzero. They have their own software. The service costs only $9.95 a month. I've been using them for 3 years and have not had any problems. You can download their software at www.netzero.net (http://www.netzero.net)

[rainman::|:|]

any ISP should work. there may be one or two that do not, but they should tell you this up front. it's assumed that it will work fine.

pnw

[Freakk123]

I don't use NetZero, but in my experience it has been very good. A few months ago, MacAddict had a shootout between internet services. They also had comparisons for which was the best for a beginner, and an expert. The winner for beginner was MSN, so that could also be a good choice, though I tend not to trust something made by microsoft (except for their perhipherals...). But try it out. It has a free trial, I believe, so if it sucks, you can just get rid of it.

[iJon]

everything should be fine besides satellite. i think a couple of comapnies have made satellite support for mac, for the ones who dont you have to have a pc and make it serve as some sort of router to get it to work with macs.

iJon

[grafikat]

I haven't tried 'em yet, but OWC service, http://www.fastermac.net/ is macsentric

[bousozoku]

I'm in Floriduh and I've used fastermac.net.

Actually, I've still got the service (my parents use it) and it's fine for someone who only needs 150 hours per month. They're very friendly and helpful, but how Mac-oriented they are, I'm not certain. They have various setup details on the website, but I ended up figuring out their values to plug into Eudora so that I could get e-mail.

Earthlink is available, but they have extremely poor connections around Orlando.

BellSouth has both dialup and DSL service. Their dialup rarely requires more than a 28.8 modem but the DSL service is quite amazing but pricey.

Sprint is available in their own areas and is comparable.

Verizon is available around Tampa Bay and is supposedly reasonable.

You never need special software for a dialup connection with Mac OS X but sometimes, it's helpful with Mac OS 9.

If you need specific information around Floriduh, you can contact me or try any of these local newspapers:

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/

http://www.tampatrib.com/

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/