Free high speed Internet via AOL trial disks?

I just ditched my old dial-up and got high speed internet. While enjoying this glorious experience, I've had dial-up for a LONG time, my friends and I got into an argument. My friends said that instead of paying $100 dollars every month, I just got out of college you see, I could save up money to pay for the high speed internet while using one of those free AOL disks. I truly pondered on that thought for a while. Why would I go back to dial-up when I already have high speed internet? They then told me that I could still have high speed internet with one of those free AOL disk. I don't know if that's true or not, so here's my question. Can you use high speed internet with an AOL free trial disk?

Dave's Answer:

Repeat after me: there's no such thing as a free lunch.

The AOL trial disks will indeed let you connect to the Internet, but it's via a dialup account and you'll end up with a different email address each time you use a new trial disk (unless you have a Hotmail, Yahoo or Gmail account). More importantly, it's not fast. Really. It's AOL. :-)

Further, you'll then have to go through the hassles of canceling your AOL account, as I document (and make sure to read through all the comments from others too) here: How to cancel your AOL account.

But I want to back up. What kind of high speed connection do you have that's costing you $100/month? I have a cable modem service from Comcast in my home for about $50/month, and a Qwest business DSL service for about the same price in my office. Either you're getting ripped off or you might not be comparing "apples" and "apples" in this situation.

Finally, I also don't understand your point about saving money on high speed Internet so you can save up to pay for ... high speed Internet access. Huh? I'll assume that what you're trying to say is that the cost of high speed is just more than you can afford, having just graduated college. I can appreciate that, and in that case you might well find that sticking with dialup for a year can mean your 'net connectivity bill is down in the $10/month range (or less if you wanted to exploit AOL's free offers every 60 days).

With the Internet moving to higher bandwidth as the norm, however, you might be left in the dust when your friends start pointing you to video, audio content, high-bandwidth animated Java games, and so on. If you're just an email user who occasionally surfs the Web however, dialup may just work for the next six-twelve months.

In any case, good luck to you!

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Categorized: Computer and Internet Basics (Article 6579, Written by Dave Taylor)
Tagged: aol, broadband, high speed internet
Previous: How do I make my myspace page public?
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Reader Comments To Date: 22

Carla Clevenger said, on June 13, 2006 12:58 AM:

Received a phone solicitaton tonight from someone claiming to be from AOL who said: AOL and Qwest have teamed up to offer high speed internet in my area - that I can have my AOL account and the Qwest high speed for $25.99 for a year and $35.99 thereafter. All I have to do is rent a modem for $5 a month or buy it for a special price of $29.95. He said Qwest would bill me for both services. Is this correct? I like my AOL service and would really like to have a high speed connection. Is there a hidden catch to the offer? Thanks much.

LISA said, on July 6, 2006 9:34 PM:

DAVE,

I JUST SAW ON THE NEWS THAT AOL IS OFFERING FREE HIGH SPEED TONIGHT ONLY.

IS THIS REAL? IF SO, HOW DO I GET ON?

LISA

Margot said, on March 25, 2007 8:21 PM:

I am also interested in high speed AOL,how do i go about it.I also want to keep the same e-mail I had for years,thank you, M.

santasha said, on April 2, 2007 12:56 PM:

how do i recieve free online cd's

Connie said, on June 6, 2007 7:50 PM:

I've had my aol account for years. I've been using a slow dial up for years. Isn't there any way I can keep my aol account and still get a high speed connection? Would getting ISDN help?
I was hoping for something faster then ISDN but ....

Ray said, on July 4, 2007 6:11 AM:

I've had my aol account for years. I've been using a slow dial up for years. Isn't there any way I can keep my aol account and still get a high speed connection?
Ramonrx@AOL.com

shawn said, on July 30, 2007 1:59 AM:

OH WOW..I KNOW WHAT THIS IS ABOUT...WHAT IT IS AOL SAYS U CAN USE THERE SERVICES VIA A HIGH SPEED CONNECTION BUT YOU HAVE TO ALREADY HAVE A HIGH SPEED PROVIDER PRIOR TO CONNECTING YOUR SELF TO AOL AND ALL OF ITS SERVICES MEANING YOU CAN STILL USE AOL VIA BROADBAND AND ITS A FASTER AOL EXPIERIENCE

SHAWN said, on July 30, 2007 2:08 AM:

OH WOW I DIDN'T SEE ANOTHER QUESTION THAT WAS POSTED...IM HAPPY TO SAY....!!!!YES!!! YOU CAN HAVE A YES YOU ARE HEARING ME CORRECTLY YES A FREE AOL ACCOUNT IF YOU ALREADY HAVE A HIGHSPEED CONNECTION THROUGH ANOTHER PROVIDER AOL HAS RECENTLY CHANGED AND IS NOW GIVING THERE SERVICES AWAY FOR FREE FOR PEOPLE WHO ALREADY HAVE A HIGHSPEED CONNECTION LETTING YOU SIGN ONTO THE SERVICE THE NORMAL WAY YOU USUALLY WOULD BUT JUST CHANGEING YOUR SETTINGS TO CONNECT TO AOL VIA BROADBAND AND YES YOU CAN STILL DO EVERYTHING YOU DONE ON THE AOL SERVICE THAT YOU DONE PRIOR BUT NOW EVERYTHING IS FASTER YOU HAVENT SEEN AOL LIKE THIS IF YOU HAVE HAD DIAL-UP SINCE YOU HAVE BEEN CONNECTING TO THE INTERNET.

Sandi said, on September 2, 2007 11:54 AM:

I bought a laptop computor from dell and had a free trial from AOL. Signed up. Then got a bill for $100.00 from them. When I called them they said it was 10 hrs free for dial up and 2.95 per hr. after that. Never saw this when signed up. I have a hard time believing I was online that much anyway. I do not trust AOL and never will.

Maryann Christensen said, on September 29, 2007 3:59 PM:

I would like to pay more than my 9.95, if you could give me a faster internet service. Also, do you have a phone number, I don't have one for you

Mari said, on March 5, 2008 8:12 PM:

I'm intrested in free speed internet how do i get it ?????????????? and also free cd

spring jackson said, on May 4, 2008 9:45 AM:

I have windows 98 and no one will give me high speed. I tried to update to windows xp but the disk keeps reading you cant go from 98 to xp. I finally got it downloading and it stopped and said i only had 49 memory and i need 64. I erased every thing possible and it is still saying i only have 49 memory . help. I am with peoplepc. and i hate it. It is slow and not always working.

Gina Martinez said, on August 17, 2008 7:47 PM:

You are great, love your answers in such detail. Thank you Guru Dave :-)

Gisela Alvarado said, on November 1, 2008 10:54 AM:

Hi
Let me know how much is your high speed internet service, and how I get it. Thanks. Now I'm using dial up.

Hope to hear from you soon!

Thanks

Gisela

Rebecca Barry said, on February 10, 2009 10:34 PM:

Hi Dave I'm a 60 year old senior citizen having a terrible time gettinf a free AOL 9.1 disk. I don't understand why it's so difficlt to find this information. I'm not able to go to computer stores and would like to have one sent to my home. HELP!!

tisha said, on March 15, 2009 2:24 PM:

Yes i just got internet a few weeks ago and I have windstream phone line and windstream internet dial up. I am having alot of problems with it either not dialing up or when im on the internet it will kick me off and I want to keep my phone service with windstream and get the internet service off and get aol internet(dial up) I have a friend who has windstream telephone service and aol internet service and I am wanting to get the same thing I was wondering how to go about getting it all hooked up like that. I am so tired of the internet service I have cause it is so frustrating paying for something that dont work half the time so if you could help me i would really appreciate it thanks tisha

andrea said, on June 11, 2009 5:38 PM:

i love u.

Russell T Hoskin said, on September 6, 2009 7:24 PM:

I would like to know who has the best high speed internet service at the lowest prices. There should at least some companies that can help the poor people in these hard times today! If you know of any company please send me an email. I would really like to hear about these companies. There should always be someone there to help the poor people! Thank you Russell

Chuck Hurley said, on October 30, 2009 10:04 PM:

I have an HP Pavillan, which I bought new two years ago at Wal-Mart. I never used any of the installed programs. I recently went to use a program to make some business cards for a friend. The program said it was a trial student program and to input the product key. I found the 25 didiget code on the side of the computer. Of course it didn't work. Says wrong key ! What do I do ? Where can I get this key? $2,000.00 for a computer and I get student programs, have I been ripped off? Thanks, Chuck....

B said, on January 11, 2010 8:51 PM:

"OH WOW..I KNOW WHAT THIS IS ABOUT...WHAT IT IS AOL SAYS U CAN USE THERE SERVICES VIA A HIGH SPEED CONNECTION BUT YOU HAVE TO ALREADY HAVE A HIGH SPEED PROVIDER PRIOR TO CONNECTING YOUR SELF TO AOL AND ALL OF ITS SERVICES MEANING YOU CAN STILL USE AOL VIA BROADBAND AND ITS A FASTER AOL EXPIERIENCE" -shawn

yeah you already need to be paying some other company like comcast but you can use the AOL BROWSER to surf the web and use all the email and account features.

"I've had my aol account for years. I've been using a slow dial up for years. Isn't there any way I can keep my aol account and still get a high speed connection? Would getting ISDN help?
I was hoping for something faster then ISDN but ...." -Connie
==============================================
ISDN is REALLY HARD TO FIND. if you have Dsl in your area get that or else your stuck with getting cable internet or a near worse then dial-up "wire-less" connection which can also be very awful if you dont live near any of the towers it uses(such as Cricket).
===============================================
"The AOL trial disks will indeed let you connect to the Internet, but it's via a dialup account and you'll end up with a different email address each time you use a new trial disk (unless you have a Hotmail, Yahoo or Gmail account). More importantly, it's not fast. Really. It's AOL. :-)"
-dave
============================================
actually that doesnt work at all even if u went threw the hassle, when you register they get your Phone-number of course, so if you cancel your account then rejoin for a free trail they have your phone number as part of your records for it...whenever you connect threw dial-up your calling Aol... and Aol has caller ID...lol.

ashley said, on April 8, 2010 9:26 AM:

I would like to get a free aol cd. I know you can get them at the post office in tampa fl. Can't find them here. I had aol for before and I would like to get it.

trina carnell said, on August 14, 2012 6:14 PM:

How do i get the free Aol internet disk

I do have a lot to say, and questions of my own for that matter, but first I'd like to say thank you, Dave, for all your helpful information by buying you a cup of coffee!

I do have a comment, now that you mention it!

Free high speed Internet via AOL trial disks?

Reader Comments To Date: 22

I do have a comment, now that you mention it!

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