Dave Taylor answers free tech support questions about a wide variety of business and technical topics, including blogging, iphone help, ipod help, AdSense, MySpace, Sony PSP help, Mp3 players, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Linux, SEO, Mac OS X, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

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)
Tagged: aol, broadband, high speed internet
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Comments

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.

Posted by: Carla Clevenger at June 13, 2006 12:58 AM

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

Posted by: LISA at July 6, 2006 9:34 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.

Posted by: Margot at March 25, 2007 8:21 PM

how do i recieve free online cd's

Posted by: santasha at April 2, 2007 12:56 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 ....

Posted by: Connie at 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?
Ramonrx@AOL.com

Posted by: Ray at July 4, 2007 6:11 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

Posted by: shawn at July 30, 2007 1:59 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.

Posted by: SHAWN at July 30, 2007 2:08 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.

Posted by: Sandi at September 2, 2007 11:54 AM

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

Posted by: Maryann Christensen at September 29, 2007 3:59 PM

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

Posted by: Mari at March 5, 2008 8:12 PM

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.

Posted by: spring jackson at May 4, 2008 9:45 AM

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

Posted by: Gina Martinez at August 17, 2008 7:47 PM

I have a lot to say, but ...

I have a lot to say, and questions of my own for that matter, but most of all I'd like to say thank you for all your efforts on this Web site by buying you a chai!

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