>I have a friend who is thinking of switching from a dial-up ISP to cable modem. This would be perfect for her home office, but she still needs occasional dial-up access from another office. This really is very occasional, and will be primarily for checking e-mail on the cable modem ISP's account(s).
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>I was thinking of setting up one of the "free" ISPs (AltaVista, Yahoo! etc.) at the secondary office, and giving it a test. If anyone has had any experience with these ISPs could you please comment:
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Yes, with www.freewwweb.com

>1. Do you need special access software, and does that interfere with any other preconfigured dial-up access with other ISPs?
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You get connected through dial-up networking. You can have other connections and use your own software. No ads banner is forced on users. The only requirement is that your internet start page is always home.freewwweb.com.

>2. Can you access e-mail accounts other than those of the free ISP?
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I'm not sure what you mean. They have pop3 based email, which I regularly use with Outlook.

>3. Realistically, can you get a connection at the local access number(s)?
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Never a busy signal. I am in San Antonio, TX.

>4. Any other limitations/restrictions/gotchas/comments?
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The ocassional drop of the line.

>TIA.