inexpensive Puyallup Wa ISP for old mac?

[Fumbling User]

Trying to deal with a problem of my own making . . . I gave my 90 year
old mother-in-law a Quadra 630, and now she wants on the 'Net. I don't
live nearby, and Net Zero, which seems to be the ISP she's heard of,
doesn't "support" an OS < 9. She has 8.1. I know the machine can get on
the 'Net, because my wife used to use it for that, but don't know of any
appropriate inexpensive ISPs. Does anyone know whether Net Zero would
work "unsupported", or of another $10 - $20 per month ISP? The nearby
relatives all use PCs, so I'll be doing phone support . . . as I said, a
problem of my own making.

Thanks

[tony@aplawrence.com]

In comp.sys.mac.comm Fumbling User <droptbits@uswest.net> wrote:

>Trying to deal with a problem of my own making . . . I gave my 90 year
>old mother-in-law a Quadra 630, and now she wants on the 'Net. I don't
>live nearby, and Net Zero, which seems to be the ISP she's heard of,
>doesn't "support" an OS < 9. She has 8.1. I know the machine can get on
>the 'Net, because my wife used to use it for that, but don't know of any
>appropriate inexpensive ISPs. Does anyone know whether Net Zero would
>work "unsupported", or of another $10 - $20 per month ISP? The nearby
>relatives all use PCs, so I'll be doing phone support . . . as I said, a
>problem of my own making.

Dunno if they have a local dial up there (they do in a lot of places)
but [url]http://world.std.com[/url] is reasonably priced, simple ppp dialup,
and fair tech support. Shell account too if you want it..

--
[email]tony@aplawrence.com[/email] Unix/Linux/Mac OS X resources: [url]http://aplawrence.com[/url]
Get paid for writing about tech: [url]http://aplawrence.com/publish.html[/url]

[Robert]

[email]tony@aplawrence.com[/email] wrote in message news:<bh6kpl$ges$1@pcls4.std.com>...

> In comp.sys.mac.comm Fumbling User <droptbits@uswest.net> wrote:

> >Trying to deal with a problem of my own making . . . I gave my 90 year
> >old mother-in-law a Quadra 630, and now she wants on the 'Net. I don't
> >live nearby, and Net Zero, which seems to be the ISP she's heard of,
> >doesn't "support" an OS < 9. She has 8.1. I know the machine can get on
> >the 'Net, because my wife used to use it for that, but don't know of any
> >appropriate inexpensive ISPs. Does anyone know whether Net Zero would
> >work "unsupported", or of another $10 - $20 per month ISP? The nearby
> >relatives all use PCs, so I'll be doing phone support . . . as I said, a
> >problem of my own making.

You should be able to use any standard ISP. All the software should
already be in MacOS 8.1. Don't bother using the ISP software. I had
to re-install 8.6 because my parents wanted to get the latest version
of the software from the ISP.

MacOS 8.1 isn't too hard to configure, but you'll probably want to be
there as opposed to doing it over the phone. Use eudora for email.

The 630 is going to be a little slow. You can get a much faster
system off of ebay for $50 + $50 shipping.

[A. R. MacKay]

I want to thank everyone who responded with suggestions on and off list.
It's true that if I'd really thought she would be using the computer for
more than solitaire, I probably would have given her one of several
newer macs I have stashed here . . . but she has it there now, and I'm
here. I recall from using an old quadra 650 myself that the modem
connection was the real bottleneck for speed on a so-so phone line, and
that if one stayed clear of embedded apps and huge graphics, netscape
4.08 was tolerable, as was icab. I avoided giving her an early powermac
because I always felt that the OS was more stable with 8.1 on 68040
until 8.6 on ppc machines. I suspect that if she continues catching on
as fast as she has been, that I'll be swapping the 630 for an imac
before she's turned 91. I had actually thought that she might wind up
just using the TV in it. I'm really quite amazed at how she's gotten
into it.

I agree with avoiding the ISPs installers like the plague, and using
Eudora for email. The modem's a Zoom V90, so I don't think that'll be a
problem.

I'm sure her other relatives, who live nearby, would have preferred she
use a PC, because that's what they all use, but I really didn't want to
have to deal with the inevitable registry and virus problems.

[Yet Another John]

In article <droptbits-C292A1.15503510082003@news.uswest.net>,
Fumbling User <droptbits@uswest.net> wrote:

> Trying to deal with a problem of my own making . . . I gave my 90 year
> old mother-in-law a Quadra 630, and now she wants on the 'Net. I don't
> live nearby, and Net Zero, which seems to be the ISP she's heard of,
> doesn't "support" an OS < 9. She has 8.1. I know the machine can get on
> the 'Net, because my wife used to use it for that, but don't know of any
> appropriate inexpensive ISPs. Does anyone know whether Net Zero would
> work "unsupported", or of another $10 - $20 per month ISP? The nearby
> relatives all use PCs, so I'll be doing phone support . . . as I said, a
> problem of my own making.
>
> Thanks

I'm in Seattle and Earthlink's pretty Mac friendly, though it might not
be the cheapest ISP in the land.

NN 4.0.8 and Eudora are certainly the best 040 apps for a Quadra.
Another good addition would be MacLink and GraphiConverter because she
might get frustrated by people sending her files she can't open.

John

[Tom Stiller]

In article <droptbits-C292A1.15503510082003@news.uswest.net>,
Fumbling User <droptbits@uswest.net> wrote:

> Trying to deal with a problem of my own making . . . I gave my 90 year
> old mother-in-law a Quadra 630, and now she wants on the 'Net. I don't
> live nearby, and Net Zero, which seems to be the ISP she's heard of,
> doesn't "support" an OS < 9. She has 8.1. I know the machine can get on
> the 'Net, because my wife used to use it for that, but don't know of any
> appropriate inexpensive ISPs. Does anyone know whether Net Zero would
> work "unsupported", or of another $10 - $20 per month ISP? The nearby
> relatives all use PCs, so I'll be doing phone support . . . as I said, a
> problem of my own making.
>

Copper.net (http://copper.net> has point-of-presence numbers in Tacoma
and Tocama-Waverly which are in Puyallup's local calling area. The
dial-up service is $9.95/month or $100.00/year.

--
Tom Stiller

PGP fingerprint = 5108 DDB2 9761 EDE5 E7E3
7BDA 71ED 6496 99C0 C7CF

[Debbie the Underdogged]

> In article <droptbits-C292A1.15503510082003@news.uswest.net>,

> Fumbling User <droptbits@uswest.net> wrote:
>

> > Trying to deal with a problem of my own making . . . I gave my 90 year
> > old mother-in-law a Quadra 630, and now she wants on the 'Net. I don't
> > live nearby, and Net Zero, which seems to be the ISP she's heard of,
> > doesn't "support" an OS < 9. She has 8.1. I know the machine can get on
> > the 'Net, because my wife used to use it for that, but don't know of any
> > appropriate inexpensive ISPs. Does anyone know whether Net Zero would
> > work "unsupported", or of another $10 - $20 per month ISP? The nearby
> > relatives all use PCs, so I'll be doing phone support . . . as I said, a
> > problem of my own making.

I highly recommend Drizzle, which I've been using for 4 years now -
small local ISP, local access in Puyallup, great tech support, nice
people, etc. Diaup is $22 a month, which includes an email account and
10 MB of server space. If you pay in advance (3 months, 6 months, 1
year) the price goes down per month. They support Macs, although I
couldn't find info about specific OS versions, but you could give them a
call. [url]http://www.drizzle.com[/url]. Their info about dialup accounts is at
[url]http://www.drizzle.com/ppp/pppmactcpip.html[/url]

--
Debbie the Underdogged das at spamcop dot net
"I'm not crazy, I've just been in a very bad mood for 40 years."
_Steel Magnolias_