Free Internet Service Providers are plentiful and cover a lot of areas. In exchange for access, most of these providers will place a banner ad on your screen in which they sell advertisement, just as radio or TV does. These services make money by having users click on the advertisements listed. Banner-driven systems can be really nice (for those who like advertisements), but can also slow your connections some as it loads new advertisements and can also decrease your screen size. Some of these providers may require that you visit their sponsors or click on their ad every so often. For example, Net Zero, a leading provider of free Internet, will disconnect your connection after 20 minutes of "non-advertisement clicking". Also, this particular service has a huge advertisement bar on the top of your screen along with Zero Port, a supposed "AOL-like" interface, which pretty much just takes the available space away from your screen. Other Free Internet Providers, such as K-Mart's, Bluelight, limit the hours of online usage in addition to requiring the advertising bar. In order for your service to remain free, Bluelight allows a maximum of 12 hours of monthly online usage. Even a so-called Premium service that costs a user $9.95 per month limits the usage to 100 hours per month.

Although, Free Internet Service sounds like an excellent deal, there are several downfalls. First, and most importantly, in order for a user to connect to the Internet, he/she is going to need a Local Access Number. Free Internet Providers have a limited number of Local Access Numbers available, and unless you live in a relatively big city, or if you are willing to be charged per minute long distance rates, chances are you would not be able to utilize the free service.

Another major downfall of Free Internet Providers is an enormous lack of Technical Support. Most of the time, the only technical support available to users of Free Internet is on-line, "read the Frequently Asked Questions and do it yourself" type of thing. If there is telephone support available, most of the time it is limited. After all, Free Internet Providers' hope that eventually you will switch to their Premium Services. For example, Bluelight, does offer a telephone number to call for help. However, support is limited to 30 days of phone-based technical support, no more. If you need any additional help, it is available only on the Web. Net Zero offers telephone support. However they do have a charge for each problem that you call with. They also have online do-it-yourself support option.

So why pay for $14.95 a month for PNG Internet instead of signing up with a Free Internet Provider? Most importantly: unlimited usage. Unlike the Free Internet Service providers, PNG will never charge you any additional fee, no matter how long you decide to stay online. We do not limit where you go, what you do while you're online. There are no advertisements for you deal with, so you can utilize your full monitor screen size. PNG covers 80% of the Continental United States, so chances are we will have a local access number for your area. We offer FREE Technical Support 7 days a week as well as do-it-yourself online troubleshooting. Our knowlegeable and polite technical staff is here to help you.

If you are new to computers, our comprehensive Technical Support Website (http://support.pngusa.net) can help familiarize you with basic operations and hopefully help make you an expert in some other fields!