Which Internet Community?

There are differences in Internet communities. These differences are in services provided and not just the physical access to the Internet. Verizon, AOL, Earthlink, Comcast and others provide both physical connections to the Internet and a place to go or community to belong to on the Internet. These communities give you e-mail, news, shopping, and other services. All communities provide similar services, but there are differences.

AOL is a popular service that I used for years. AOL dial-up service costs about $25 per month. AOL dial-up service provides a local phone connection for many cities worldwide. (I used AOL in Ghana to send and receive e-mail.) AOL provides its own access software free of charge. The latest version 9.0 requires a PC with more than 128 MB of RAM to run. It works very well with most dial-up modems. The new AOL 9.0 service and software provides e-mail scanning for viruses, mechanisms to block popup ads coming in from the IE web browser and from instant messaging, and spam filtering. It was about time AOL provided these service features. When AOL provides high speed physical access to the Internet, then it costs $40 per month for AOL service. This high speed access is delivered over Verizon DSL links. Since I cannot get DSL from Verizon, I have a Comcast Cable modem for the physical access to the Internet. Even so I still use AOL as my community. However, I can reduce my payment to AOL to $10 to $14 per month because I no longer use their dialup network facilities.

When AOL delivers high speed Internet connectivity, via Verizon facilities, they install their DSL modem and software. This is can be a problem when you have a house full of PCs, because the AOL service is somewhat difficult to configure with routers. Routers permit all household PCs to simultaneously access the Internet. Verizon DSL is easier to configure and install with routers. The Verizon DSL community is similar to AOL. They partner up with the Microsoft Network (MSN). MSN is the community providing spam filtered email, news, instant messaging and more. The combination of MSN and Verizon DSL are like high speed (broadband means high speed) AOL.

Comcast provides physical access and a community. However, their community does not yet offer spam filtering, and virus filtering features. To get these added features, I use the AOL community with Comcast broadband (high speed) access.

Both Verizon and Comcast add special diagnostic software to your PC that can interfere with its operation and slow it down. This diagnostic software is hidden form the PC user. It lurks in the background. When a router is used, the diagnostic software is less useful and less helpful to most PC users.

Earthlink provides high speed access over Verizon facilities. Similar to AOL they have other software and services to filter out viruses and spam passing across their network.

Virus filtering by your community email provider is important today because it provides an extra layer of protection for your PC. Many people believe that the Norton or McAfee antivirus software that came with their new PC is all that is needed to protect them from viruses. Several years ago the free virus scanning software on a new PC was good for a whole year. Today it is good for only three months. Consequently, extra email virus scanning provided by AOL, MSN and Earthlink can really help you avoid disaster.

Choosing the Internet community AOL, MSN, Comcast or Earthlink is as important as choosing Comcast or DSL. Newer virus scanning and spam filtering features provide added important protection for your PC. If you choose to stay with a community like AOL, it may cost extra per month to use AOL with Comcast or any of the DSL providers.