The ISP (Internet Service Provider) you choose is very important. There are many different types of internet connection to choose from, and people are usually looking for the fastest connection at the best price. Here in the Kitchener-Waterloo area, that usually means Rogers.
Rogers like to present themselves as the only solution for your technological needs i.e. cable tv, cell phone, high-speed and wireless internet, and video rentals. Not eveyone is a fan of the media conglomerate Rogers has aimed for.
When it comes to their status as an ISP however, Rogers seem to have overreached their abilities. Their partnership with Yahoo! started in the summer of 2004, and since then Rogers Yahoo! has been "offering" Yahoo! Premium Features to Rogers broadband internet customers.
The Yahoo! features are offered unevenly at best. For example, all Rogers broadband internet customers are eligible for a free Flickr Pro account, which is a Premiun Yahoo! Service. This offer is either advertised infrequently or mis-named. "Yahoo! Photos" sounds a lot different to "Free Flickr Pro Account".
Since the partnership, there have also been significant changes in internet speeds and bandwidth limits, but the most tangible change has been the free software provided to all customers at their initial connection to the service.
The software collection includes:
- Rogers Self Healing System (SHS)
- Yahoo! Messenger
- Yahoo! Music Engine
- Ybrowser
- Yahoo! Online Protection (YOP)
- Ypager (an offshoot of Yahoo! Messenger)
- A modified version of Norton Internet Security
Why do I need to install these programs?
You don't. The literature given to Rogers customers certainly implies that you should install it all, but the language they use mostly plays on our fear that in order to keep our family safe from the not-so-hidden dangers lurking on the internet, you will accept and install anything offered to you on the installation CD.
Can't I install some of the programs and leave the rest?
Of course! But I recommend researching the alternatives. There are other applications available (mostly free) which will do the same or more than the Rogers Yahoo! applications.
But whats the problem with installing these programs in the first place?
I've had the opportunity to look at several computers of Rogers customers. Every owner complained about how much slower their computer was. And as soon as the Rogers Yahoo! programs were removed, the computer's performance increased significantly. In my opinion, there is no reason to install a program which will use up your resources so much that the slowdown is visibly noticeable.
Well maybe the computers you saw were really old.
Actually, some of the computers were relatively new. They were also all capable of running Windows XP (the slowest I saw was 512MB RAM and 1GHz processor for those of you tracking the specs!). The Rogers Yahoo! programs steal all the memory and processing speed away from other programs, and force your computer to way much harder than normal.
Well. Fine. But whats kinds of alternatives are there? I pretty new to computers and not sure where find safe places to look.
I'm glad you asked! I've actually posted before about downloading applications, so I'm going to refer you to that other post. In it, you'll see that the main site I recommend if you're new to the internet and safe, secure downloads is Downloads.com.
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