This page is intended to help you get on the internet for free and use some of the popular free ISP's, or Internet Service Providers that have become quite popular lately. Lately, however, they have been very very rapidly dying off, specifically, altavista, 1 nation online, and freeatlast no longer exist, since I made this web page at the time when they were in existance, I'll leave the information about them here anyway. The internet contains a vast universe of information, which should be readily accessable to everyone, not just those with certain esoteric operating systems and the latest and greatest software and hardware. For those of you out there with older computers, and those who just simply don't want to follow the herd, I made this page with you in mind.

Unfortunately these days, the trend of both pay-for and "free" ISP's, (how "free" is it when they want your personal information, have you fill out forms, and take up your time looking at ads) is that they are set up with the apparent assumption that everyone with access, or wanting access to the internet 1). has lots of money 2). Has an IBM or compatible PC with a new and very fast processor and gobs of hard drive space and memory, and 3) is running Windoze, excuse me, I mean Windows 95, 98, NT, 2000, Millennium, and God only knows what's next. Apparently, those of us without the above, and/or wanting to use our older yet very functional PC's are left out in the cold. That is, if we let them have it their way. Hold on just a minute! there is a better way! Keep reading!
The information below will allow you access to some of the popular "free" ISP's, using DOS browsers such as (my favorite) arachne browser for DOS and Linux , as well as other DOS browsers such as Lynx and Bobcat, which can be found at FDISK.COM. And yes, these methods work fine with Windoze 95/98/2000 and Win 3.1 systems which may use dialers such as trumpet winsock.

However, if you really like writing out checks month after month for internet access, or if you really enjoy the ads and banners with the "free" ISP's, and if you are afraid or not interested in trying alternative browsers and operating systems, this page is probably not for you....otherwise..... READ ON !

FreeAtLast.com is a free ISP (Internet Service Provider) in the U.S., and unlike many of the growing number of "free" ISP'S which have annoying ad banners permanently taking up valuable screen space, FreeAtLast.com has, ahem, "occaisonal, and tastefully placed" (their wording, not mine) advertisements in popup windows. Truthfully, I have to admit I rather like FreeAtLast, they have thus far been quite reliable, and the little windows that popup in different corners of your screen are surely not anywhere near as bad as the annoying as hell always on top and in the way banners and bars of most of the other "free" ISP's. Also, their web based email is easy to use and reliable.
That being said, below are the instructions on how to access FreeAtLast with alternative operating systems and browsers.

1) You must FIRST do it their way and use a machine with Win95/98, go to their website FreeAtLast.com and go through the sign up process, i.e. fill out the online form(s) and download / install the software. Once you've done this, the hard part is over, the rest is a piece of cake!!! (well, sort of). .

2) Log on normally, and note the local phone number that is being dialed to connect you, write it down.

3) You need the program PASSWORD KILLER which you can download here or get it from JTHZ.com . Despite this programs ominous sounding name, all it does is allow you to see your password which is hidden behind the asterisks, as I recall, it's about a 30K byte download, very small.

4) In Win98, go to MY COMPUTER, then DIAL-UP-NETWORKING. Look for the FreeAtLast icon. Double click on the icon, you will see that your user name is not the one you chose, but looks a little bit like (sample) hc50szhf@freeatlast.com. Write it down, pay close attention to the differences between 0 (zero) and O (the letter O)

5) Your password, directly below that, is hidden by asterisks (*********). Run the Password Killer program, the stars magically turn into your actual password!!! cool eh? This is not the password you chose, in my case it turned out to be a combination of 8 letters and numbers, write these down, and I can't stress enough to make sure that you pay close attention to the differences between 0 (zero) and O (the letter O) and also if the letters are UPPER CASE (capitals) or lower case..

6) You can get your DNS (domain name server) information by looking at properties, I'll save you the time and trouble, they are:

Primary: 216.67.14.5
Secondary 216.67.31.254
Note that your IP is server assigned.

Let's recap what you have written down so far:

your local dial up number that connected you to the server.

your modified username, which you enter in your dialer program as username@freeatlast.com

your modified password which you enter into your dialer program.

your Primary and Secondary DNS numbers

your IP address will be assigned by server

you will use PPP and TCP/IP settings in your dialer program

You now have enough information for whatever dialer program / browser and operating system you wish to use to get online! happy surfing!!!!!!!!!!

1 Nation Online is a free ISP with no ad banners, they do however start you out on their home page, which I think is fair enough. 1 Nation Online works very well with browser for DOS and Linux, as well as DOS browsers Lynx and Bobcat which can be found here Also included with your account is free POP3 email.

I cannot take credit for something I have not done, and the credit for getting 1 Nation Online to work with DOS browsers goes to the "Wizard" who has complete instructions on his DOS INTERNET PAGE.

Now that I have given credit where credit is due, I'll tell you in my own words how to get surfin' with 1 nation online.

The First thing you must do is create an account with them on a machine which has win 95/98, if you don't have such a setup, go and visit a friend who does and go to the 1 Nation Online homepage. Go through the signup process and create an account with them, write down your information such as your local dial up telephone number(s) and your username and password, and your pop mail account information.

Next, go back to your computer and run whatever software you will use to access the internet, in arachne, for example, you would go to the PPP wizard, if you are using a machine with windows 3.1, you could use the trumpet winsock 16 bit dialer, although of course that is not your only option.

For your username, you will enter that in the form of username@1nol in the appropriate place in your dialer software, do not put the dot com at the end of your username@1nol !!!!!!!

For your password, enter your password plus the letters xms at the end of your password. Example: If your password is rumcake you would enter your password as rumcakexms

enter your primary and secondary DNS numbers:

204.178.185.5
204.178.185.105

Your IP address is server assigned.

enter your local dialup number in the appropriate place.

Your pop and smtp are both:
mail.1nol.com

That's it!!!!!

Just run your dialer program and you will connect

AltaVista's free ISP can also be adapted but the longest I've stayed online using non-standard access has been about 20 minutes, work on this one contiunues.

For this one, again, I can't take the credit, but you will find the info here. Go to the " Abandonware / downloadz" section.

Juno seems to have created their own modified PPP which works fine with the windoze 95/98 dial up connection, however, I have not been able to figure out just yet how to set DOS dialer programs for Juno, However, it is quite easy to create another DUN connection which let's you connect quicker in windoze. The Juno.ini file on your hard drive contains a username and password. The file typically can be found at C:\ProgramFiles\Juno\juno.ini. Use notepad or a edit.com and view the file, write down the username and password used in the juno.ini file. Make a note of the local access number it dialed last time you logged on. With this info, Create a new DUN connection, be sure to use the JUNO PPP which will be in the DUN setup list. When I figure out how to make it work in DOS, I'll post the results here.

At this time, BlueLight is the only free ISP which I seem to be able to use with DOS browsers such as arachne!!!
Here are the settings:
username: 004sailorboyreg@mpspinway
pwd: zQP6qa800MEuDo
DNS PRI 209.244.0.3
DNS SEC 209.244.0.4
Get your local access numbers from their website. They are apparently undergoing some changes lately, but so far, the above seems to work.