Trustworthy Free Dial-up services

Hey all, wanted to ask if there are any trust-worthy free dialup services I can use with my Win98 pc because the lan isn't working? preferably ones that don't require ordering a software cd.

Comments

  • Despite their best efforts to put themselves out of business, Earthlink is still around.

    You should never have to use third party software for dial-up, although they might want to send you a CD full of crap anyway. It's been standard PPP for a very long time now.

    Of course, dial-up won't get you very far these days as most web sites shove megabytes of scripting and tracking junk down your throat. But POP/IMAP mail is usually fast enough.
  • I mean, dialup stopped being usable when pictures started being used on websites.
  • Instead of dial-up, with a null-modem cable you can configure Win98 to do PPP over the serial port without a modem. That would give you double the speed of a dial-up modem.

    On the Win98 side you'll need a custom inf file like mdmcisco.inf from here:

    https://web.archive.org/web/20160307042354/http://kevin-wells.com/net/scripts.html

    Full instructions for using the inf on Win98 are here:

    https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/docs/dial-access/asynchronous-connections/14946-103.html#win98

    If you don't have another way to transfer the INF to the Win98 PC, you could use HyperTerminal file transfer (xmodem).

    We'd need to know what OS you'll be using as the server side, to give you instructions for setting that up.

    Of course if you don't have a null modem cable, buying one likely costs as much as a replacement PCI network card (with drivers disk/disc).

    A quick search on ebay found a new-in-box LNE100Tx for $6 (if you're in the US) which is sure to come with drivers for Windows 9x on 3.5" floppy and CD:

    https://www.ebay.com/itm/124585893977

    Just search for "10/100" and "sealed" or "box" and it's pretty sure to be what you need. Reading the photo of the back of the box will usually say "98" and "drivers" in there.
  • SDF has dialup, but it costs some money.

    I *think* NetZero could still be around, but I'm not expecting them to have good service.
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