Walmart's ISP Service
no real@address.com V-07
no real@address.com V-07
"georges" <georg...@altavista.com> wrote in message
news:a1v5rt$tdbu0$2...@ID-41741.news.dfncis.de...
> x-no-archive: yes
> "V-07" <sorry no re...@address.com> wrote:
> >Has anyone tried Wal-Mart's $9.95/month ISP service?
>
>
> Nope, but i've been using Kmart's bluelight service at
> home(smae price, unlimited connect ) it works just fine
>
> --georges
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> remove one to respond
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no real@address.com V-07
"georges" <georg...@altavista.com> wrote in message
news:a1v5rt$tdbu0$2...@ID-41741.news.dfncis.de...
> x-no-archive: yes
> "V-07" <sorry no re...@address.com> wrote:
> >Has anyone tried Wal-Mart's $9.95/month ISP service?
>
>
Bob Ward
wrote:
>"georges" <georg...@altavista.com> wrote in message
>news:a1v5rt$tdbu0$2...@ID-41741.news.dfncis.de...
>> x-no-archive: yes
>> "V-07" <sorry no re...@address.com> wrote:
>> >Has anyone tried Wal-Mart's $9.95/month ISP service?
>>
>>
>> Nope, but i've been using Kmart's bluelight service at
>> home(smae price, unlimited connect ) it works just fine
>>
>> --georges
>>
>This shows me how much profit these ISP's are making at $20US/month.
>
>
Actually, it doesn't - unless you know what their costs and other
overhead are.
--
I have the body of a god -- if you're Buddhist
Gary Heston
>This shows me how much profit these ISP's are making at $20US/month.
Or how much extra capacity their corporate network infrastructure
has. This is an easy way to defray the cost of all those T-1 lines,
routers, and UPSs. Just plug in a server or two, a couple of dial-in
servers, and you're up and running. They have enough locations that
they'll always have a local POP.
Pretty good business plan. Gets a chunk of their network cost off of
their overhead budgets for a very small investment.
Gary
--
Gary Heston ghe...@hiwaay.net
If martyrdom is such a good thing in Islam, why aren't the mullahs
on the front lines?
rick m
According to a contact at my ISP, it costs them roughly $3.00 and change to
maintain a dialup user; for DSL it's a bit over $7.00 per month.
pat mitchel
and was disappointed to find that they don't have an nntp server-
aparently needed for a news group reader. Outside of being kicked
offline occasionaly (and at strange times- 4am PST), I have no
complaint -so far- about the service. Regards Pat
Dave Hitt
>Has anyone tried Wal-Mart's $9.95/month ISP service?
I didn't like the users license. You had to weigh more than 300
pounds, and before using any web cam you had to dress in spandex and
have a screaming, snot nosed kid in the room with you.
----
An easy, free way to zap telemarketers - and tips to help torture them
http://www.davehitt.com/jan02/tmmmda.html
mintytasty
> Does Kmart service have a news server included at that price?
>
I hope Kathy Ireland isn't playing "Interface Developer."
I guess if I were forced to use a discount chain store as my isp, I'd
choose Target!!
Steven
my system to crash. I could not access the internet even after
uninstalling the software so I had to reinstall Windows.
I went to the local Walmart store to get a copy of the disk and
installed it today. Signup went without a hitch. The connection speed
seems good. I can get downloads up to 4.8 kbps which is pretty good
for me, same performance as my Earthlink account.
If you have used Aol or Compuserve before, you will be familiar with
the constant pop-up windows, (buddy lists, advertisements, etc.), as
well as window interface and use of "Keywords".
I was surprised when I found out my username(s) (stevenq and
stevenquan) was already in use. The Walmart Connect service has only
been out since what...January 6??? Today is the 22nd of January. I
find it hard to believe my favorite screen names have already been
taken!
I do not like the Walmart Connect Browser. The window seems to always
revert back to a smaller window size instead of filling up the whole
screen. I click on the "Maximize" button, but it seems I'm always
having to do that.
Since the network (as well as software) is based on Aol's Compuserve I
was expecting to have access to the exclusive stuff you usually get on
Aol like Chat, communities, and so forth, but there doesn't seem to be
anything like that. All I pretty much get is access to the Internet
(which is all I really need).
My preferred browser is Opera 6.0 so I won't use the Walmart software
too much anyhow. If Walmart truly allows me to have "Unlimited Access"
to the internet as they are advertising then I will give this service
a 5 stars out of 5 star rating. At $9.95/mo they cannot be beat.
I am wary however. I used Juno at $9.95/mo and when I used the
Internet heavily for two days they sent me an email telling me that I
was one of their heaviest users. They said that they would start
charging me $29.95/mo under their heavy user plan. I thought that was
ridiculous. If you advertise $9.95/mo for "Unlimited" internet access,
you should get Unlimited Internet Access!!!
StevenQ
Neil
> Has anyone tried Wal-Mart's $9.95/month ISP service?
Switched to it a few weeks ago and have been quite happy. Offers
several local access numbers in my city. Seems pretty reliable
too--rarely drops connections. Speed is about 45k, I think, which is
pretty good. First month is free.
The Walmart interface screen is a lot like AOL's. I don't care for it,
but it would probably be good for newbies. I minimize the Walmart
screen and just use Internet Explorer to surf the Web, which works
fine.
Neil
> This shows me how much profit these ISP's are making at $20US/month.
Hard to say. Walmart may be subsidizing their ISP in return for
keeping ISP subscribers aware of Walmart; every time you use their
ISP, you see the Walmart name on your screen. See my other post in
this thread for my thoughts as a Walmart ISP user.
Here's a new idea: how about Walmart cable TV service? The TV screen
could show Walmart ads the first moment I turned on my TV and/or have
a Walmart border on the screen. If Walmart was willing to subsidize my
cable TV service, I'd be willing to try it.
Neil
> > This shows me how much profit these ISP's are making at $20US/month.
>
> According to a contact at my ISP, it costs them roughly $3.00 and change to
> maintain a dialup user; for DSL it's a bit over $7.00 per month.
Could be like cable TV, where as I understand it, the big cost for the
company is installation, repairs, changes to service etc.
Neil
> According to V-07 <sorry no re...@address.com>:
> >This shows me how much profit these ISP's are making at $20US/month.
> [ ... ]
>
> Or how much extra capacity their corporate network infrastructure
> has. This is an easy way to defray the cost of all those T-1 lines,
> routers, and UPSs. Just plug in a server or two, a couple of dial-in
> servers, and you're up and running. They have enough locations that
> they'll always have a local POP.
>
> Pretty good business plan. Gets a chunk of their network cost off of
> their overhead budgets for a very small investment.
Actually, I think Walmart doesn't really run their ISP, they just
subcontract it all and have the Walmart name put on the screens. When
surfing around via the Walmart ISP interface screen and looking at
different Walmart sites, I think I've seen the name "Compuserve" or
some other big, well-known ISP flash by in the URL line as the URLs
change. Can't remember if it was Compuserve, but my bet is that
Walmart just subcontracted the ISP--probably much cheaper, faster, and
simpler than creating a new, independent ISP service and having to
support it.
Dave Hitt
You probably wouldn't like the programming.
Instead of watching "Friends" you'd get "Bubba's", which takes place,
not in NYC, but in a trailer park just outside of Buffalo. Monica
would weigh 300 pounds, dress in spandex, and always be carrying a
snot nosed brat who was screaming at the top of his lungs.
Tony D.
> but it would probably be good for newbies. I minimize the Walmart
> screen and just use Internet Explorer to surf the Web, which works
> fine.
Thats what I do But with MSN as my broswer. Any body can download msn
broswer and use another ISP I had MSN (Trial, 3 months free), worked
great but it costs $21.95 month, they don;t even give you a few mb web
space or anything. (I think wat-Mart is working on that.) $22.00 a
month is too much I think.
I already was used to MSN, had all my favorites in there, did'nt
want to get used to a new broswer, just use wall-mart for the ISP.
One Phone # for MSN, was always 45 to 48 k, the other 2 were like
33,600K,
I only get like 33,600 with walmart but it seems to work fine.
I think it is sub contracted off compuserve, the tech asked me if I
had Wall-Mart or compuserve?
I downloaded the software from the web, did/nt have any trouble.
One thing, I was getting returned mail from The hotmail post master
"sub delivery system" with a 289kb attachment, like 10 of them in a
row, but I had not sent any mail out at all. They were comeing out of
the blue. Tech service at Wall mart did'nt want to hear it.
I have been useing MSN for a few days till I cancle it, dont know if
it was related to wallmart or not, but I have'nt got those "phanton
letters" while Im on MSN. I'll dial wall mart an see what happens
while I'm here, :........,It's been an hour, no returned mail that I
did'nt send. Probley some one got a hold of the postmaster's e mail
and atached a vires to it. (I did'nt try to open the attachments of
course)
Ps Can I delete the set up program (I have a disk now,) or wont I be
able to uninstall it(wall-mart) if i delete the set up program.
Thanks, Tony D.
neilk...@hotmail.com (Neil) wrote in message news:<daa8d05c.0201...@posting.google.com>...
Dennis
wrote:
>neilk...@hotmail.com (Neil) wrote:
>
>>Here's a new idea: how about Walmart cable TV service? The TV screen
>>could show Walmart ads the first moment I turned on my TV and/or have
>>a Walmart border on the screen. If Walmart was willing to subsidize my
>>cable TV service, I'd be willing to try it.
>
>You probably wouldn't like the programming.
>
>Instead of watching "Friends" you'd get "Bubba's", which takes place,
>not in NYC, but in a trailer park just outside of Buffalo. Monica
>would weigh 300 pounds, dress in spandex, and always be carrying a
>snot nosed brat who was screaming at the top of his lungs.
>
LOL. Good one.
Dennis (evil)
--
"There is a fine line between participation and mockery" - Wally
Albert Crosby
> > The Walmart interface screen is a lot like AOL's. I don't care for it,
> > but it would probably be good for newbies. I minimize the Walmart
> > screen and just use Internet Explorer to surf the Web, which works
> > fine.
Right. Based on using the service now for about 4 months, I can
describe it fairly well.
The networking is definitely AOL. Check your control panel -- it uses
the AOL dial-up adapter.
The interface and dialer are based directly on the AOL codebase. The
mailer is the AOL mailer. The newsreader is the AOL newsreader. IM
is the AOL Instant Messenger.
Forums are the Compuserve forums. The portal is the Compuserve
portal.
Screennames compete for AOL screen names. For example, if
sasquatch1234 is taken at AOL, it's not available at wmconnect. And
vice versa.
The Parental Controls aren't as complete as the ones available to AOL
subscribers. There's only 2 levels: adult and child. Mail controls
match those of AOL, though, which makes it quite a bargain if you have
a child whose email you want to limit.
[I work at a school district and strongly reccomend parental controls.
I love AOL/WMCONNECT's ability to limit email to child accounts to a
list of people that the parent's have approved. You don't have to spy
on every message, but you keep them from getting mail from strangers.
After all, if your child gets a letter in the mail from someone you
don't know, you're probably going to at least ask them about it!]
Some oddities: while the namespace overlaps AOL, you can't use the
AOL website to check mail. You get told that you have a valid screen
name and password, but are not an AOL subscriber. While the service
uses the Compuserve forums, and the web interface to the Compuserve
forums recognizes your wmconnect username and password, the Compuserve
nntp and smtp servers do not. You do get as full access to
newsgroups as any other AOL subscriber -- through the crippled AOL
newsreader. You don't get any way to check your mail other than being
online and using the AOL newsreader. (Actually, I haven't tried using
Netscape 6's ability to read AOL mail. It might hook, but I'll be
surprised.)
I've not been able to get the Proxomitron proxy filter to work
consistently with WMCONNECT. Could be caused by the fact that I have
Internet Connection Sharing installed, though.
Anyways, I'd give Wal-Mart Connect 4.5 stars out of 5. Easy to set
up, good connectivity. Loses half a star for not having any way to
check mail from the web, and for not using the crippled AOL
newsreader. Beats AOL hands down for price. Could use the complete
parental control set.
Albert Crosby
zeber
norm and sometimes 53333kbps. Yes, wmconnect has AOL written all over
it...AOL6.0 file size 43MB......wmconnect6.0 file size 43MB. AOL
adapters etc. It shifts you into compuserve territory for chat and
forums. I read up on wmconnect before I committed to their service and
found out a few things. WalMart struck up a deal with compuserve in
1997 for starting an ISP, which remained in limbo for about 3 years.
AOL owns compuserve. The stange thing is WalMart can't really
advertise this 9.94 unlimited too much because it will pull buisness
from it's $20+ per month partners....hmmmm!? I hope the service lasts
because it seems to be the best bargain for internet access.
V-07
http://www.walmart.com/walmartconnect/isp/
Ken Knecht
@feed.centurytel.net:
> Here's the link:
>
> http://www.walmart.com/walmartconnect/isp/
>
>
No news server.