[200q20v] @Home w/o ATT Broadband Internet

[MSN acct]

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Lessons to be learned by qlisters in the light (darkness) of the ATT @Home
broadband cable mess:
1) Don't get tied in to your ISP's email or website hosting, use 3rd party.
    a) Email can be your own domain name ($20 or so per year), or a 3rd
party's service (Dot easy, or others offer them free w/o banners).
    b) Set up your email accounts as aliases with your ISP, then they can be
easily redirected in the event of a server failure.
    c) After the outage we went on our dial-up and changed the mail settings
to the MSN (or AOL or whoever) account, minimal data loss.
2) Maintain (pay for) a back-up dial-up service (MSN $4.95 per month), in
case your cable/satellite/DSL server goes on the fritz.
3) We're dropping AT&T ASAP and will have a DSL line by month's end.  Same
cost as Broadband in the Chicagoland area.
4) Unintended benefit: SBC/Ameritech now owns Dish Network/DirectTV; when we
changed from Dish to Direct, they offered a lower rate and 6 mo of Showtime.
No financial interest.
Dale

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