Got some bad news ... my ISP (Qwest, the big local telephone company) has contracted with Microsoft's MSN service to provide its Internet access. Qwest.net will be discontinued, and everyone has to switch over to MSN. I have to sign up and they'll let me know when the Mac version of MSN is available. Grrrrr... maybe I'll sign up just to see how it goes. But just in case I'd better look for a new ISP ...<br><br>

heh... earthlink has always been a great ISP for me. <br><br>***<br>"Buzzards gotta eat, same as worms"<br> --Clint Eastwood in The Outlaw Josey Wales<br>

I dunno ... I heard about a lot of complaints after they merged with Mindspring. There's a local ISP here in the Twin Cities called Visi.com that I've heard good things about, so I might check that out.<br><br>

I've been using Earthlink and find it excellent. The dialup is consitently good and there is also a webmail access component allowing you to access your mail from anywhere.<br>I was absorbed from sprintmail a few years back and the conversion was seemless. But if you have the option to go highspeed there's no decision.<br><br>

I've been a Mindspring customer for about three years now and they've been great, even after the merger with EarthLink. I've had minimal problems with my DSL connection (mainly related to the morons as HellSouth) and their tech support people have been very friendly and knowledgeable. <br><br>Don't know what issues you've heard about, but I haven't encountered any as a customer.<br><br>

I originally started with Internet Solutions which was one of the few ISP's that would come to the little town I live in. Internet Solutions was bought up by Onemain.com which was trying to be the WalMart of ISP's at the time. Before I could adjust to the change and figure out what it would mean in terms of service and such along came Earthlink and bought them up. By this time my heads spinning but amazingly my internet connection is still stable and at a speed that is faster than what my Mom gets in St. Louis with the same provider. So I say give Earthlink a try but if you try someone else be ready for anything. <br><br>P.S. I'm hoping eventually to get cable internet once Charter Communications brings it to where I live. Charter recently bought out our local cable tv provider. (surprise, surprise, surprise!) <br><br>P.P.S. I could go into bank mergers but then that would be another story. I'm beginning to think that one day there will just be three big mega companies at the rate these mergers are taking place.<br><br>"It is better to light one candle than to curse the darkness."

Sorry to dredge up this ancient thread, but as I was trying to help sort out the confusion on this topic over at MacFixIt it occurred to me that I never closed the loop on this ... so ...<br><br>I ended up ditching Qwest and going with the local ISP. All seems well so far. <br><br>However, last week I noticed that a month after I canceled my Qwest service my Qwest e-mail account still appeared to be active. I called to see what was up, and they said that it was off my account, so I wasn't being charged, but my Internet account status was "Termination request being processed," and it was just taking a long time. So, basically, I could have been getting Internet service for free all this time.<br><br>Gotta love those big telcos! <br><br>