Netzero Internet is an Internet Service Provider (ISP) that has increased drastically in popularity over the past couple years. Netzero Internet specializes in dial up and in high speed dial up Internet. This is where they have made their mark, and continue to advertise strongly. Part of the reason for the popularity of Netzero Internet is that although there are some common recommended requirements, there are also some pretty low minimum requirements in order for this service to function, allowing them to still have a market with people who have otherwise very antiquated computers.



For the normal PCs Netzero Internet is actually compatible with every type of windows from the newer Windows XP and Windows NT4, to the really old versions of Windows 98... and, yes, it is even compatible with the infamously fickle Windows Millennium. For an Apple McIntosh, it must have either an OS 9 or OS X system. While the recommended requirements for Netzero Internet ask for a Pentium III or higher and 128 MB of Random Access Memory (RAM), even an incredibly old computer with a 95MHz Pentium processor, 64 MB of MAM, and a 28.8 K modem can still function and go online with Netzero Internet. Netzero Internet is also popular because their average prices are literally about half the normal price of many of their much larger competitors, and with the increased success, they have grown rapidly and now have services in over 6,000 cities across the United States and Canada, proving they have moved well beyond the status of regional “niche filler.”

There has been some controversy over Netzero Internet's claims of being able to surf the Internet up to five times faster than with competitors. When the company talks about “accelerated,” they claim that web pages, graphics, and e-mail are accelerated, and that is what it means by surfing the web faster. What is not included is what many people think of when wanting to upgrade their service, including: streaming media, audio files, video files, secure pages, and digital photos. Basically, what Netzero Internet does to “accelerate” the surfing, is that before the text and graphics that make up Web pages get sent to your phone line, they compresses them and have a “web site template.” Basically you see the lay out of the web site before it has really loaded. While their advertisement sounds great, what this ends up meaning is that Netzero Internet does not have any data transmission rates that are actually better than anyone else. If you are looking at their accelerated claims because you want to download video, digital photographs, MP3 or other music files, executable files and other downloads, then forget about it because the company will even admit that as far as those pieces of transmittable data go, it will not be any faster using Netzero Internet than with any other standard dial-up service.

Because of this fact, many people get “duped” into paying extra for high speed dial up, but with any type of dial up internet, the phone line only has so much it can ever push through. Generally speaking, a phone line's complete ability is about 50 kb a second, but since some of that always has to go to running the computer and to actually hooking up online, it is a safe bet that no dial up Internet will ever go above 39 kb/sec. Basically to get faster downloads and a faster Internet, you need to switch to a broadband company, and Netzero Internet is strictly dial up at this point.