Travel Technology - Toll Free dial-up service?

Does anyone know of a reasonable toll free dial-up service for connecting on the road in the US? I have Comcast Cable Internet at home and that doesn't provide any dial-up numbers that I am aware of.

Thanks!

Walmart has a plan for $9.97 a month with access numbers all over the U.S. I tried it a few years ago before I switched from a PacBell account (with access only in CA and NV) over to an SBC Yahoo account, which gave me access to their nationwide phone network. Seem to recall it used the AOL dialup network. Looks like you can try it out for free for a week to see if it meets your needs.

http://www.walmart.com/internet-access?path=0%3A110757

Edited to add: AOL offers "by the minute" prepaid plans.
http://www.aol.com/prepaid_aol/index.adp

Maglobe ia a prepaid service and has worked well for me with an extensive list of both local and toll free numbers across the US.

Also works well for limited use from international locations.

Check out: http://www.maglobe.com/

I've been using Todito (http://www.toditocardusa.com/cgi-bin/tcardusaB/web/tonline/usa/ing/prepago/seleccionProductos.html) and from $6 you can choose 500 min or 15 days of usage. Excellent coverage on the US and Mexico.

They're currently having a promo that for $12 they'll let you use their service for 90 days. Beware you need to cancel it within those 90 days or they'll start charging you monthly... ;)

Maglobe prepaid account is valid for a year from charging and they advise when you near to expiration.

Charges are deducted on a per minute basis and you can decide whether you want to use local access, toll free or international.

Customer service in the few instances when needed has been responsive.

They don't have any type of referral program, but I have found them to be a good travel ISP.

Thanks for the suggestions. Maglobe sounds very promising considering the credits dont expire for a year and the rates seem reasonable.

IPass offers toll free dialup as well as 1000's of local numbers. Their tollfree access isn't the cheapest though...

Do you have another dial up account, that would offer local access numbers.

What I did, was use my Onesuite.com calling card, which is .025$ cpm. Then, I just dial my home number, after having programmed the dialer to do the 800# for one suite, and then the calling card information, and then the pin, and then the access number. I know this sounds difficult, it takes about five minutes of tries to get it right, with commas used in the number for seperationg - pauses. Once done, it works fine from then on out,

and just under 1.80$ an hour, it pretty cheap for when on the road and such.

I know this sounds difficult, it takes about five minutes of tries to get it right, with commas used in the number for seperationg - pauses. Once done, it works fine from then on out.

I have my COSTCO/MCI prepaid card (3 cents/min) set up to dial my local access number for SBC with one of those lengthy dialing strings, and it works fine (though you're right about tweaking the dialing string when you first set it up). I tend to have to do that when I'm out traveling and forget to check what the local access number is. If I hit a hotel that charges $1 for local calls, and offers free 800 access, I'll often use the Costco card to dial in if I expect to be on line for less than 30 mins, offering a small savings.

yeah, sometimes I just use this dialing string, long enough to logon to the web, check the SBC site for a local access number and then log out, put in the new local number and no charge.

of course, assuming no local call charges, but that seems to have gone away a bit, at least in NA.

Depending on your cell carrier, you could always tether your phone to your laptop. That's what I do when any type of high-speed is at the hotel I'm staying at.

Why not just open an account with Netzero.com? It is free and has access numbers throughout the States.

tom911 wrote: Walmart has a plan for $9.97 a month with access numbers all over the U.S. I tried it a few years ago before I switched from a PacBell account (with access only in CA and NV) over to an SBC Yahoo account, which gave me access to their nationwide phone network.

Hey! Thank You! :)

I was doing just what you were...using WalMart Connect for dial-up. Just signed up for a SBC Yahoo DSL account last month and didn't realize until I read your post that unlimited nationwide dial-up was included! So I just canceled my WalMart Connect account and will now save the 10 bucks per month. Gracias! :)

I can recommend WalMart Connect to anyone that needs it though. It worked just fine as a U.S. dial-up service using the same godzillion access numbers as AOL uses (it really is just a "lite" version of AOL). No use of AOL's Local International Access Numbers however with WalMart Connect. But in the U.S. it had full local coverage just about anywhere, and if you really needed it...an 800 access number at a 10 cent per minute surcharge.

Just signed up for a SBC Yahoo DSL account last month and didn't realize until I read your post that unlimited nationwide dial-up was included!

Actually, it was cblaisd, who used to live a few miles down the road from me, who encouraged me to switch from my Pacbell account over to the SBC/Yahoo account just for the nationwide dialing feature about 2-3 years back. I'll need to give appropriate credit to him :) Was able to keep my e-mail address in the changeover, not that I really use the Pacbell account much any longer.

PremEx (or anyone else)-

Has anyone tried the SBC Yahoo branded dialing software? I've set up separate folders on the laptop over the last 2 years with different airports and cities as I'm out and about (using the network connection feature in XP), and that seems to meet my needs just fine, but curious if their branded dialer would be a good replacement (or not a good replacement) for the next laptop I buy. Anyone have a view one way or the other?

Has anyone tried the SBC Yahoo branded dialing software?

I haven't tried it and I doubt I will. I don't like to load these kinds of things on my laptop unless I have to. Never loaded the SBC Yahoo DSL CD as you're instructed to do. Just went direct into the DSL Modem Browser Interface and enabled the modem and got online.

Same with the dialing software. I'm just setting up different Dialing profiles under Network Connections for the cities I visit most often. I go to Network Connection and connect from there, then start up my Browser.

Too many times I've found some of these software programs hijack things you don't want them to, or interfere with other programs you might have. So I only load 'em if I absolutely have to.

Perhaps a bit off topic, but it will be helpful if you travel to Europe:

You can get free dial up connection in Italy from www.tiscali.it. You get a one telephone number for use anywhere in the country and it only costs the price of a local telephone call. You don't get any software -- you use dial-up network. (You do, incidentally, get a free e-mail account.)

Two warnings with this:

You have to be able to understand a little bit of Italian to set up your account, but it is very basic and if you can read French or Spanish you should probably have no problem.

You have to give them an Italian mailing address. This is no problem -- just look up the address of any hotel in the country and use that.

The same is true in Switzerland with www.tiscali.ch -- the only difference being that they give you local access telephone numbers instead of one national one.

Why not just open an account with Netzero.com? It is free and has access numbers throughout the States.
My brother has SBC DSL so I could easily use his account for local access numbers across the country.

Where I run into a problem is usually at an airport. I couldn't justify any of the T-Mobile WiFi plans since I wouldn't use them enough and cheapest is $6/hour with an hour minimum--too much time if all I want is a quick email/surf session. I also don't have a RCC membership so I can't use the phones in the RCC that allow free local calls.

Alas I am stuck using the RJ11 enabled pay phones out in the public areas on my domestic trips and they certainly don't allow free local calls for local access numbers. The only two options are to find a toll free access number or to fiddle around with a long dialing string and use my Coscto MCI calling card, which charges a surcharge for pay phones.

I haven't tried it and I doubt I will. I don't like to load these kinds of things on my laptop unless I have to. Never loaded the SBC Yahoo DSL CD as you're instructed to do. Just went direct into the DSL Modem Browser Interface and enabled the modem and got online.
Totally agree on extraneous software mucking up one's computer. I installed SBC Yahoo DSL on my brother's Dell desktop recently and it allowed installation without the branded software. It used to not allow this and you got a new version of IE and Yahoo IM that you had to uninstall. The regular dialer in Windows should do the job if you have the right information. Usually you can get the access numbers through the SBC Yahoo support pages.

I would stay far far away from any of the SBC Yahoo software.
Now, if they have created JUST a dialer, I didn't know that and that would be a welcome componant.

As for running the install disk, and installing their browser, and other software, all this has caused for many have been problems.

check out the SBC/yahoo forum on dslreports.com for much more information.

Many excellent suggestions above:

I still like access4less for dialup on the road. I have comcast too and there is no fall back dialup when I travel.

I used access4less before I had broadband and they can't be beat. Access-4-free.com is even better for the rare user: one time set up charge (a few bucks) and ten hours free dialup per month!

Long distance is so cheap now I sometimes just use a calling card to dial a local node at home. They do not have 800 dial up #'s but if the hotel hits you hard for a local call then an 800 calling card call would be cheaper for a five minute connect.

Look here http://www.freedomlist.com/find.php3?id=865&state=127

Or search access4less if you don't like clicking links.

Jim

The regular dialer in Windows should do the job if you have the right information. Usually you can get the access numbers through the SBC Yahoo support pages.

That's what I've been using all along. I don't have ANY of the SBC apps loaded (browser, dialer, whatever else they might have). Guess I'll just keep the dialing folders I have in place.

Well Thanks Again to cblaisd and tom911. Just locally dialed into the SBC network here at the United Red Carpet Club West at DEN...piece of cake! :)

Hooray!

We accept cash or upgrades. :D

I use AllVantage (http://www.allvantage.com/) for dialup Internet access when on the road---it's only $5.95 a month! AllVantage uses the Qwest network and has plenty of 56K access numbers available nationwide, even in smaller towns.

Since I don't usually need high-speed access I just stick with AllVantage to save money.

Another comment...the payphones in many airports DO accept coins for dataport calls. Look for a local-phone-company-owned unit for your best chance of finding one. The COCOTS (independently-owned phones), especially "Kellee" brand payphones, always price gouge for data calls and don't take coins for them, but at ORD for example, the Ameritech/SBC payphones gladly accept 50 cents for a data call. Even at DFW, where the Verizon payphones don't take coins for data calls, your credit card is only charged 50 cents for a local dataport call.