While living in the residence halls many students take their fast and easy access to the Internet for granted. However, unless they are willing to pay a fee, few students have the luxury of a speedy connection once they move into off-campus housing.
For a monthly fee, high-speed Internet companies, such as Road Runner and DSL supply students with a fast connection to the Internet.
Road Runner, a service provided by Time Warner, is delivered to your computer over your Time Warner Communications line. This option doesn’t tie up your phone line or require you to purchase a second line. With Road Runner, it is possible to be logged on to the Internet, watch TV and talk on the phone at the same time.
Road Runner also provides subscribers with instant access to the Internet. According to Terri Sullivan, a customer service representative with Time Warner Communications, “Users are immediately connected to the web as soon as they click the road Runner icon on their desktop.” In addition, “There is no time limit a user is required to remain online,” she said.
“Another great thing about Road Runner is that there isn’t an annual contract. Our charges are from month to month,” said Sullivan. “This is good for students because there’s no telling how long they will remain at one place,” she said.
Currently, Road Runner is offering free installation and 3 months of service at half-off the regular price of $44.95.
An alternative high-speed Internet provider, DSL, brings Internet service to your home over an ordinary copper telephone line. Through this service, subscribers gain access to the Internet without having to dial-up, and they never receive busy signals or get disconnected from the Internet.
Similar to Road Runner, DSL can download images into your computer up to 50 times faster than a regular modem connection. However, Bill Seymore, a customer service representative for DSL, said “the exact speed of the download depends on the distance from your home to your phone company’s central office.”
“The closer your home is to the central office, the faster your connection will be,” he said.
Presently, DSL is offering new subscribers free installation and 2 months of free service, though the regular price of $49.99 is reinstated after that.
Unlike Road Runner, however, DSL only provides an Internet connection. After installation, it is the responsibility of the subscriber to find, and pay for, an Internet Service Provider . Also, DSL only offers annual contracts unless the subscriber is willing to pay an extra initial charge of $49.99 for monthly fees.
For those students unwilling to pay the charges required by a high-speed online service, Ohio State provides a free service called HomeNet, which allows a user to connect to the Internet and to other online resources directly from their home computer.
Although it’s free, some students would rather subscribe to Road Runner or DSL than use HomeNet because of the easier connection.
“Whenever I tried to log on to the Internet (using HomeNet) it would usually take five to 10 minutes to get connected because of all the other people trying to get on at the same time,” said Chris Johnson, a junior in psychology. “It really became more of a hassle than anything else. I would rather just pay the charges and be able to log on whenever I wanted,” he said.
Useful Linkswww.rr.com – information about Road Runnerwww.dsl.com – information about DSLwww.oit.ohio-state.edu/isp.html – information about HomeNet
