Juno Vs. PeoplePC: Which Dial Up Internet is Better?

I have now used two different dial up internet providers: Juno and PeoplePC. I have found them to be comparable in a few areas, but PeoplePC is preferable in one important area - how reliable the connection is.

I used to use Juno as my dial up internet provider. It is significantly cheaper than high speed at $5-10 per month depending on the plan. I currently use PeoplePC as my ISP and find that the price per month is in the same range. If anyone is on a strict budget and high speed internet is too expensive, neither of these providers break the bank.

Let's face it - dial up internet is just plain slow compared to high speed. However, Juno and PeoplePC offer plans that have speeds comparable to each other. You can use either provider with speeds near 50 kbps. Both providers are slow with Internet Explorer, but loading pages seems to be faster with Firefox. If you're looking for a slightly faster connection, a different browser seems to have more impact than a different dial up provider.

Connecting to the internet seems to take the same amount of time with Juno and PeoplePC. In either case you have to wait for the computer to dial in, and the first or second number usually works. Both providers also let you mute the modem while connecting, which is a great feature.

When I used Juno internet, I could only have one email address per account. Things may have changed since I used this service, but I found that inconvenient. With PeoplePC, I can have up to four email addresses with my one account. This is very convenient if you want separate emails for personal use, online work and job hunting.

Both Juno and PeoplePC offer things like spam blockers and popup blockers. They are nice features, and all seem to work just fine.

When I used Juno internet, I became dissatisfied with the reliability of my connection. I could dial in without problem, but I would invariably experience a random disconnection each day I was online. This usually occurred when I was not inactive - I was usually in the middle of something like online banking. Sometimes I would have to restart my computer before being able to reconnect. After a month or so with PeoplePC, I have only lost my connection once or twice. This occurred when I had been online an exceptionally long period of time (several hours). Reconnecting with this service was also easier.

Overall, when considering speed, price and features Juno and PeoplePC tie. When considering the reliability of your internet connection, PeoplePC wins. This is what I consider a very important aspect, and it is why I would not consider switching back to Juno.