Travel Technology - Free Toll-Free Dial Up Access

Many airports are now offering free wifi but it is not available everywhere. My ISP provides numerous local dial-up access numbers throughout the US and these typically serve my needs quite well when I am in the airport for a fairly short time and no free wifi is available. Dial-up is often good enough for my needs if my primary objective is to browse FT or check email. Most UA clubs permit free local calls and I can usually find a local access number that works.

However, the phones at some clubs (such as the PHL RCC) seem to be configured so that they do not allow outgoing local calls via a data connection. Data access via a toll free number is allowed but many ISPs typically charge a premium for toll free access. At PHL, there's free wifi elsewhere in the terminal but it is inaccessible from this club.

Just in case this is helpful to anyone else, I came across an interesting service today that offers free dial up access (http://greatdialup.com/) via a toll free number so I figured I would try it out. I just signed up for an account and selected a user ID and password and I was all set. The site has references to a Dialer program but you do NOT need to install it. All one has to do is create a new connection manually, enter the toll free access number (1-877-776-1314), the user name and password.

I am testing it right now from home and everything seems fine. I do not know whether there are an special security consequences but nothing seems to have come up and I am currently using it with my VPN.

What in the world are they up to? What's the economics here???

I sure wouldn't do anything important (CC #'s, bank or brokerage logins etc.) on it!

The FAQ says that the service is "add supported"...that must be what the "dialer" does...pop up random ads. I'm a little concerned with a company that can't even spell though.

sounds like a similar business model to the free intl call that was posted a while ago. you call a toll number in kansas and can make free intl calls to a number of countries.

just do as the OP says, add a connection directly from your OS without downloading the dialer. then look for the little lock in the corner when you do sensitive stuff. no need to be paranoid.

cheers.

What in the world are they up to? What's the economics here???

I sure wouldn't do anything important (CC #'s, bank or brokerage logins etc.) on it!

They know exactly what they are doing. Same as calling 1 712 945 1111
and call FREE to any number in the world except cell phones.

Happy New Year from kona1k

Just a quick follow up. I was at the US lounge at PHL yesterday and had an opportunity to try out this service given that PHL decided to discontinue its free wireless service in the food court area. :mad:

I had some difficulty connecting at first, receiving numerous "circuit is busy" messages. However, I set up my system to redial every 10 seconds and was finally able to connect after about five minutes. The connection speed was quite poor, approx 28K, but I think this was more do to PHL that anything else. As I indicated in my original post, I tested the service at home and was able to connect at 48K form there. Though the connection was very slow, it was stable. I remained on line for approx 45 minutes and the connection was never dropped.

So, the bottom line is that I think this is fine for retrieving email or browsing FT during relatively short connections. Once an account is set up, no special software is required -- just create a new DUN connection with the account number, phone number and your passwrd.

Thanks, LarryU! I just signed up.

Now, if there were only a similar service that I could use internationally.