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Free Dial Up? How can this be?

dpaanlka

dpaanlka

macrumors 601
Original poster
Nov 16, 2004
4,869
34
Illinois
Well my mom cancelled her long-running dial up ISP account which she hasn't used since she got cable in 2001, but I always used on my PowerBook while I was at my dad's house (I couldn't convince her to keep it anymore). Thus I was faced with the problem of not having internet when I was at my dad's (frequent occurrence) because he doesn't have any service where he lives. Before searching for a cheap dial-up ISP to pay for myself, I googled "free dial up" for giggles, and after clicking through various pages of junk I came upon a site called Great Dial Up that claimed free dial up internet service, and a toll-free dial up access number to go with it.

Skepticism aside, I signed up for an account which didn't even require me to enter an email address or verify who I was in any way. So I entered dial-up settings onto my PowerBook and it actually works - not only that, there are no pop-ups, advertisement frames... nothing! I browsed around for a while, went on AIM, everything works as expected. I'm very excited to have found this, not only to use at my dad's but to have as a back-up for when good old Comcast drops out.

So my question is, how could this possibly be? From looking at their support forum, they've been around for at least a year now. I don't get how this could exist or make any money.

Any ideas?

EDIT: Works fine on both my Mac OS 7 powerbook and Mac OS X iMac.
 
After G

After G

macrumors 68000
Aug 27, 2003
1,583
1
California
Cool beans, thanks for the heads-up :)
There is a premium service ... maybe they make money from that?

Oh yea, there's a dialer. They probably show ads from that.
 
valdore

valdore

macrumors 65816
Jan 9, 2007
1,262
0
Kansas City, Missouri. USA
Is there a link on that site to the mac dialer? I couldn't find one -- it looked like windows only. :confused:

I too could use this service for when I go visit my grandma four hours away and my only option there is dialup.
 
After G

After G

macrumors 68000
Aug 27, 2003
1,583
1
California
You can just put the number in your modem setup. No need to use the windows dialer, as it probably serves ads.
 
dpaanlka

dpaanlka

macrumors 601
Original poster
Nov 16, 2004
4,869
34
Illinois
valdore said:
Is there a link on that site to the mac dialer? I couldn't find one -- it looked like windows only. :confused:
Click to expand...

I just put the phone number, my username, and password into System Preferences (as well as PPP under Mac OS 7) and they both worked fine for me.

I didn't have to download any dialer software.

valdore said:
I too could use this service for when I go visit my grandma four hours away and my only option there is dialup.
Click to expand...

Best part is, toll-free access number... so no pesky phone bills on grandma's phone line (according to the site, anyway).

After G said:
Oh yea, there's a dialer. They probably show ads from that.
Click to expand...

I imagine a lot of non-savvy computer users just download the dialer instead of configuring their computers manually.

I hope this service survives and doesn't go out of business or anything. I'm really impressed with how much you're getting for nothing. It working with Mac OS classic and Mac OS X really seals the deal for me!
 
Nermal

Nermal

Moderator
Staff member
Dec 7, 2002
21,020
4,601
New Zealand
A few years ago we had two phone companies in NZ: Telecom, the big monopoly, and Clear, the little guy. If a Telecom customer called a Clear customer, Telecom would pay Clear for the use of their lines.

A few little free ISPs popped up. They'd connect their modem banks to Clear's network, and since the majority of their customers were on Telecom, there was a lot of interconnection revenue. Thanks to deals with Clear, part of that revenue went to the ISPs to fund the free system.

What I've just said may be totally irrelevant in the US, but I thought I'd throw it out there anyway.
 
dpaanlka

dpaanlka

macrumors 601
Original poster
Nov 16, 2004
4,869
34
Illinois
I've noticed that sometimes the phone number will not connect and a voice can be heard through my modem saying "all circuits are busy now, please try again later"

Guess you get what you pay for.
 
W

wozzlewoozle

macrumors regular
Jan 3, 2005
138
0
sarkoland
I would probably do some additional investigating to make sure they're reputable (i.e., that their seervers are secure etc.). Otherwise sounds good.
 
mac-convert

mac-convert

macrumors 6502a
Nov 2, 2006
608
0
Are we there yet?
I did some checking on this purely out of curiousity. The first place I went was to the web site and I could not find anything there that identified them - who they are, where they are, company name, etc. The only link to them is a mail form. I then checked networksolutions whois on the domain name, and lo and behold, it's a private registration, meaning that the owner's name is hidden, the location is hidden, and on and on. The only means of contacting them is through USPS Express Mail or USPS Certified Mail.

I then ran across this link as I was browsing the forums that show up when you click the Support tab. Of particular was the 7th post.

For me - there just isn't enough public information about this site or company to risk using them for anything. Anyway, my 2 cents worth.
 
dpaanlka

dpaanlka

macrumors 601
Original poster
Nov 16, 2004
4,869
34
Illinois
mac-convert said:
For me - there just isn't enough public information about this site or company to risk using them for anything. Anyway, my 2 cents worth.
Click to expand...

Clicking their PayPal donation button led me to a PayPal donation page with this block of text:

PayPal is the authorized payment processor for Great Lakes Communication Corp.. To continue, please enter the required information below. Learn more about PayPal.
Click to expand...

Perhaps that can help us to discover their identity?

valdore said:
It seems odd that they require your telephone number but no email address. Now I'm hoping I don't have some numbnuts calling me on the phone now.
Click to expand...

I gave a fake phone number with my area code.
 
mac-convert

mac-convert

macrumors 6502a
Nov 2, 2006
608
0
Are we there yet?
PayPal is the authorized payment processor for Great Lakes Communication Corp.

======
Okat, that explains the name of the DNS servers.

Here's the info on them:
Registrant:
Great Lakes Communication Corp
ATTN: GLCCOM.COM
c/o Network Solutions
P.O. Box 447
Herndon, VA 20172-0447
======
I'm still digging for more, but there are a ton of Great Lakes Communication labeled companies with a google search. I haven't been able to match any of them to the info that I have uncovered so far. Back later.
 
dpaanlka

dpaanlka

macrumors 601
Original poster
Nov 16, 2004
4,869
34
Illinois
mac-convert said:
Here's the info on them:
Registrant:
Great Lakes Communication Corp
ATTN: GLCCOM.COM
c/o Network Solutions
P.O. Box 447
Herndon, VA 20172-0447
======
I'm still digging for more, but there are a ton of Great Lakes Communication labeled companies with a google search. I haven't been able to match any of them to the info that I have uncovered so far. Back later.
Click to expand...

Why not just go to GLCCOM.COM ?

EDIT: Their web site lists "National Toll-Free Dial Up" as "coming soon" here: http://www.glccom.com/services.php

Perhaps Great Dial Up is just a beta or test of this service?
 
Flowbee

Flowbee

macrumors 68030
Dec 27, 2002
2,943
0
Alameda, CA
Two things I don't like:

1) I can't find a privacy policy on their site. How much of your surfing/usage info do they keep track of?

2) Their support forum has a section for all the operating systems:
  • Microsoft Windows XP
  • Microsoft Windows 2000
  • Microsoft Windows 98
  • Microsoft Windows 95
  • Microsoft (Older Dos Windows 3.1)
  • Linux
  • Solaris
  • BSD
  • Other

I guess we're "other."
 
F

Fredou51

macrumors regular
May 23, 2006
104
0
Kingston, Ontario, Canada
Flowbee said:
Two things I don't like:

1) I can't find a privacy policy on their site. How much of your surfing/usage info do they keep track of?

2) Their support forum has a section for all the operating systems:
  • Microsoft Windows XP
  • Microsoft Windows 2000
  • Microsoft Windows 98
  • Microsoft Windows 95
  • Microsoft (Older Dos Windows 3.1)
  • Linux
  • Solaris
  • BSD
  • Other

I guess we're "other."
Click to expand...

It's because Mac don't need support! They just work.

Frederic
 
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