Anyone know anything about People PC Online?

[Steve]

A client of mine, an elderly gentleman in a retirement community (his nephew posts here) has dialup in his apartment (his residence doesn't have hi-speed access). He has two lines, one for telephone and one for dialup internet. He's heard of People PC Online which supposedly allows you to have one line. Does anyone know how this works and if it's worthwhile? Right now all he does is check stock charts and tickers but he would like to expand his skills a little bit.

 

[MrBond]

Back in the age of dialup, shortly before highspeed became widespread, there were programs that would temporarily hang up your modem when they sensed an incoming call and let it ring through. I think AOL had something in their software, but there were third-party programs that did it too (I can't remember the names of any offhand).

There are hardware devices that do the same thing, I remember them being advertised heavily via spam campaigns (I remember this because one of my co-workers at the time bought one after being spammed about it).

PeoplePC probably uses the software version of it in their connection software. I don't know what they use in particular.

 

[necine]

v.92 let u put modems on hold to take a quick call. It was like 1 min. tops or something. maybe try an external modem that has a hold button he could push. i'm not really sure tho.

 

[sixone]

Originally posted by: sm8000
A client of mine, an elderly gentleman in a retirement community (his nephew posts here) has dialup in his apartment (his residence doesn't have hi-speed access). He has two lines, one for telephone and one for dialup internet. He's heard of People PC Online which supposedly allows you to have one line. Does anyone know how this works and if it's worthwhile? Right now all he does is check stock charts and tickers but he would like to expand his skills a little bit.

My aunt has it, and as her only tech support, I despise People PC with every fiber of my being. They install adware under the guise of a browser. It's invasive, persistent, and obnoxious, because it tries to be helpful, while failing miserably.

If you're going to be the person he calls when it doesn't work, tell him to keep what he's got.

 

[pontifex]

my friend got a PC from them awhile back. i guess you got a discounted or free pc for signing up for their internet service or something?

i dunno. i don't think he ever complained about them or the service. i don't know anything about their software though.

 

[Dacalo]

People PC is sister company of Earthlink.

 

[dullard]

My sister did People PC for a long time. It worked quite well for her. Compared to other dial-ups you pay ~$2 more per month. But you also got a free computer every 2 years, so it was a pretty good deal. The computer isn't spectacular, but it does the job for most people. I can't say what their deal is now, it may have changed a bit.

Yes, you have to use their stupid programs, but that really isn't too bad of a problem for someone who doesn't need full control of their computer.

I can't comment on the call-through aspect though. But I'm wondering does it really matter? If all he does is check stocks on occasion, the chance of him missing a call is slim to none. He can probably go to one phone line and be just as happy.