Unlimited local and long distance phone internet service plans - pros and cons

Unlimited local and long distance phone Internet service plans - pros and cons.

In this article I'm going to go very slightly off-topic and cover something that's not directly about computers, but definitely relates.

I'm going to talk a little about the pros and cons of those unlimited local and long distance phone internet service plans that you see advertised more and more these days -- you know the ones, where you see them talking about phone service plans combined with internet services.

These plans come in two "flavors" -- the first is usually offered by the phone company where they provide regular phone service plus a DSL Internet connection with a discount for getting both together, and the second is usually offered by cable companies or another Internet Service Provider (ISP) where they are offering Internet telephone service plus the Internet connection itself.

Before I go on, let me quickly explain what the difference is between regular phone service and Internet phone service (also known as VoIP, which is short for Voice over Internet Protocol, or Voice over IP).

VoIP, by the way, is pronounced "voyp".

The difference between the two types of phone service is pretty simple.

Regular phone service is the traditional type of phone service that's been around for a hundred years, where your phone is connected to a phone jack in the wall, then out over the telephone lines to the rest of the world.

Internet phone service (or VoIP) is where you have a phone (either a traditional phone with a special adapter, or a special VoIP phone) that hooks into an Internet connection and your phone call goes through the Internet to call any kind of phone -- a standard phone, or an Internet phone.

So what are the pros and cons of getting phone service plans combined with Internet services?

Well, in both cases when you have phone service plans combined with internet services (Internet plus the phone service) you usually pay less than if you bought them separately -- so no real pro or con in this case, as long as you get it as a package deal.

Traditional phone service is generally going to be more reliable than Internet phone service -- it's an older technology, and older technologies *generally* are more reliable than newer ones because they've had time to iron the bugs out.

So in other words, in many cases you'll get a clearer sound on a traditional phone line, and you won't ever get the little "dropouts" that you can get with VoIP phones.

By dropouts, I'm talking about something like when you talk to someone on a cell phone and their words sort of break up with lots of very short patches of silence mixed in with what you can hear. If you're not sure what I mean, imagine a radio that someone is turning on-off, on-off, very rapidly, so you get a very rapid mix of sound, silence, sound.

This is fairly common on Internet phone service, and is caused when the Internet connection has so much activity that it interferes with the phone conversation.

Also, if you send or receive faxes, they often won't work using Internet phone service.

A so-called disadvantage of using Internet phone service (that I don't completely agree with) is that if the power goes out, so does the phone service, unlike a traditional phone line, which has its own power.

There's a kind of funny TV ad I see the local phone company running out here in Hawaii that's trying to discourage people from using Internet phone service -- it has a voice-over that says something like "this is a recording of an actual Internet phone service emergency call during a recent blackout" then you hear absolutely nothing for the next few seconds.

The idea being if your power is out, so is the Internet connection, and so is the VoIP phone service.

Well, that may be true, but think about it for a moment -- what percentage of people these days use old-fashioned corded phones still? Not that many people do anymore -- most use cordless phones. If the power is out, a cordless phone doesn't work either.

Of course the solution to that (and a lot of times, the solution to the Internet phone going out) is to use an Uninterruptible Power Supply, or UPS, which as I've mentioned in the past is a sort of battery backup that provides power when the electricity goes out.

Most people who use a UPS (everyone should, in my opinion, to protect their computer and other electronics) use it just for their computer. But it works just as well for cordless phones, cable or DSL modems, and even lights, to keep you going when the power goes out.

I have my cable modem that provides my Roadrunner Internet service hooked up to a UPS, and I've found that my cable service (including Internet) still works fine!

The last disadvantage -- and this is a clear disadvantage -- of using Internet telephone service is that in the case of emergencies, 911 emergency service is not always available, and even if it is available, emergency responders usually can't figure out where you are, unlike traditional phones or cell phones.

So while it's not a bad idea to take advantage of a good package deal on unlimited local and long distance phone internet service, for the time being, it might be a little better to stick to an offer that includes traditional phone service since it's a little more reliable, and the cost is pretty much the same.

That's pretty much it, so until later, take care and enjoy,

Worth Godwin
http://www.WorthGodwin.com/

P.S. If you haven't heard, I'm running a big post-Thanksgiving sale I call The Thanksgiving Cornucopia of Easy Video Lesson CDs -- I'm nearly giving away a whopping SIXTEEN easy computer lesson CDs with over $1,171.87 worth of quick, easy computer lessons for the price of just one visit from a consultant.

It's a pretty amazing deal, but it only lasts through Tuesday night, so if you want to grab this for yourself or give it as a gift, get to my site right away!

There's two different addresses --
1. if you have a Windows PC (Dell, Gateway, HP, etc.)

www.WorthGodwin.com/windows/

or 2. If you have an Apple Mac, go to:

www.WorthGodwin.com/mac/

P.P.S. And for those of you outside of the US, it is available overseas -- just make sure you chose International shipping!

Tips for Switching Internet Service Providers - Keeping bookmarks, address books, and saved emails

This article is a follow-up to my last article, where I talked about choosing the right ISP (Internet Service Provider). I had planned to get this out sooner, but my schedule has conspired against me with far too many nights working until 2am.

So, if you've read my last article and decided you want to switch to a different type of ISP, from dialup to DSL for example, or you're switching for other reasons, you might wonder how do you make the transition smoothly?

How do you let people know what your new address is, what happens to your bookmarks (also known as favorites), and your list of contacts in your email address book?

For most of these, there's not a lot to worry about.

Let's start with your bookmarks or favorites. To keep things simple, from now on I'll just use the term bookmarks; just understand that if you're more familiar with the term favorites, it means the same thing.

Bookmarks are, of course, pretty much what they sound like -- a way to mark a web page so you can get back to it in the future. You can add or get back to bookmarks by going to the bookmarks menu in Mozilla Firefox or Apple's Safari, or to the Favorites menu in Internet Explorer.

Most people, no matter what kind of Internet connection you have, have their bookmarks stored right on their computer, in the menu I just mentioned.

So it really doesn't matter if you switch to a different ISP -- they stay in the same place, so there's nothing you really need to do.

If you use AOL, on the other hand, things are a little different. AOL has always used non-standard ways of doing things, and unfortunately the bookmarks are no different.

This is partially because instead of just using a regular web browser (like Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, or Apple's Safari) AOL uses it's own self-contained system.

But it's also because they don't give you a way to "export" the bookmarks to use elsewhere. These are a couple of the reasons I really don't like AOL and always suggest people use something else.

While checking my facts before writing this article, I found that AOL does not appear to give you any way to easily move your bookmarks to another program.

The one way I can think of that doesn't involve messing around with folders and files that the average computer user probably shouldn't fool with is to copy and paste the web addresses into the new web browser, then bookmark it from there. Kind of tedious and time consuming, but better than nothing.

If you're not familiar with copying and pasting, I have a detailed article on it on my website. You can click here to read the article on easy editing tips.

I also *show* you how to copy and paste on one of the video lessons on my "Sampler CD" that comes with my Gold Club membership as part of the intro $47 package.

More info on that is on my website at:

http://www.WorthGodwin.com

So what about keeping email addresses and any saved emails when you change ISPs?

Well, the answer here is pretty much the same. Changing ISPs doesn't really have any effect on the information stored on your computer, including saved emails and address book information.

Once again, AOL lets you import (bring in) address book information from many sources, but gives you no way to export it (take it out).

The exception to all of this (except for the AOL part) is if you're using "webmail" -- where you are going to a web page to read your email instead of using Outlook, Thunderbird, or OS X Mail.

In this case, your email and address book are stored somewhere else. So if the webmail is something your ISP provides (like webmail.verizon.net if you use Verizon just for example) then they're the ones storing your info, not you.

One way to work around these issues where your email addresses are being "held hostage" is to copy and paste the email addresses into the new program you're using out of AOL or your webmail page as the case may be.

Another option is to send an email to everybody in your address book, including your new email address, announcing what your new address is. If you do that, you'll get a copy of the email, and in many email programs it is pretty simple to add addresses out of an email by simply right-clicking on the address (or control-click for Mac users) and then clicking add address from the menu that appears.

The problem with this is that a lot of people -- myself included -- consider this to be something of an invasion of privacy, since you're sharing the email addresses of everybody you know with everybody else you know.

People do this all the time, actually, when they forward emails. This is really bad "netiquette" (Internet etiquette), which is why you should use the "BCC" (Blind Carbon Copy) option whenever sending out mass emails. It hides all of the recipients, keeping their privacy (and helping prevent the spread of viruses, worms, and spam!).

And for those "hostage" emails -- the important ones can be forwarded to your new address. Not a perfect solution, but it does do the job.

Also, if you're just switching from one web browser to another (Internet Explorer to Firefox or Safari for example), or switching from one email program to another (Outlook to Thunderbird on the Windows side, out Entourage to OS X Mail on the Mac side) these programs will usually ask you if you want to move over your old information automatically, including bookmarks, emails, and address books.

well, that covers that pretty thoroughly. Until next time,

Worth Godwin

Choosing the right kind of Internet service provider (ISP)

In this article I'm going to explain some of the differences between different options for ways to connect to the Internet.

First off, let me explain the two *general* types of Internet connection before getting more specific about some of the more specific types within these two general categories.

When looked at as simply as possible (or as "big chunk" as possible, to use a term I explain on my special report "Secrets Of Skyrocketing Your Computer Skills" that's available on CD from my website) there are two common types of Internet connection: dialup and "broadband".

Dialup is, of course, the old fashioned way to connect to the Internet, using a dialup modem. Dialup modems have been around far longer than most people realize: I bought my first one around 1986.

It was a "1200 bps" (bps is a measurement of speed) modem that I paid about $200 for back in the day. Dialup modems capped out at 56K bps a good ten years or more ago, and now sell for under $10 if you know where to look.

So that's about 46 times faster, and 20 times cheaper.

Now you might be thinking "I think I read somewhere that my computer has a 56K modem in it. That must be pretty fast then!"

If you're thinking that, you're wrong.

Dialup is old technology, and hasn't really improved in about ten years, which if you remember my article from a couple of weeks ago where I mentioned Moore's Law, means it's about 150 years out of date in relative terms!

So the simple way to think of it is, dialup = slow.

Many people are using dialup still, either because they don't see any reason not to, or they have no choice where they live.

But what I want to tell you is that even if you are currently using dialup and think "it's good enough, so why bother upgrading?" -- you're making a mistake.

I'll tell you why in a minute.

First, let me explain the general alternative to dialup. It's called "broadband", which basically just means "fast ".

Broadband comes in a number of varieties, with a range of speeds, all of them a lot faster than dialup.

Aside from being much faster, broadband generally doesn't tie up your phone line, so people don't get busy signals if they try calling you, and you can make phone calls while you're online.

The two most common types of broadband are cable and DSL. Cable internet comes over the same cable as cable TV, and is offered by a variety of companies with different brand names -- Roadrunner is one example of cable internet.

DSL actually comes over your phone lines like dialup, but is much faster and, like cable Internet, you can make phone calls while you're connected.

You also have less-used options like satellite, which gives you fairly fast connections to the Internet over a satellite dish like satellite TV. It is pretty slow for broadband, but a lot faster than dialup. It's mostly used by people out in the boonies who don't have any better option.

What I suggest to most people is to get DSL, if they can get it where they live. In most cases it's only slightly more expensive than dialup is, and in some cases it's the same price or even cheaper!

It's not usually as fast as cable Internet, but it is plenty fast for most people, and lets you do a lot of things that just aren't possible (or are very very annoyingly slow) on dialup, such as watching videos on YouTube or other sites, or downloading large files.

Which brings me to one of the biggest reasons I think people should stop using dialup and switch to some kind of broadband -- downloading large files.

You might think that you never do that, but not so fast... Maybe you do (or should be) and don't realize it.

First off, people are sending around large pictures (or several smaller pictures) via , and even videos via email all the time now. If you're on dialup and you tried checking your email one day and it never seemed to be able to get the new messages, or it took forever to do it, you may have become a victim of this.

So there's that reason.

But there's an even more important one: computers have things called "security updates" or "patches" which are critically important to download. It's important for both Windows or Macs.

Without these patches, your computer can be vulnerable to attacks by viruses, worms, and more.

But these security updates (think Windows Update, or Macs' Software Update) sometimes can be very large files.

So large that it can take hours and hours, or even DAYS to download. And if you don't download them, your computer is vulnerable.

Which leaves you between a rock and a hard place if you're still using dialup.

So think about switching if you haven't already, and forward this to your friends who haven't.

In my next article, I'll talk a little about switching ISPs (Internet Service Providers) and how to do it without losing all of your bookmarks, email addresses, etc.

until then,

Worth Godwin