I usually connect to the Internet using dial up prepaid scratch cards. For a long time now I have been using supernet cards despite their cost. Supernet Rs. 100 cards cost around Rs. 13 per hour for most of the day. But things get really bad at night. After ten their charges drop considerably and everyone dials in creating massive congestion. An already slow dial up connection slows to a crawl.
There is some good news though, recently I discovered cybernet student cards. These cost around Rs. 4/hour for most of the day which is great. Unfortunately their charges for the congested 10pm – 1am block are around Rs. 5, significantly higher than supernet’s.
One thing that I find really strange is that supernet blocks SMTP port 25. This means that I am unable to send mail using my hotpop.com account. I have to use my gmail accounts with a hotpop reply to address. I have no idea why supernet does this. Maybe it’s to stop people from using other POP email providers or some sort of anti-spam initiative. Now that I have switched to cybernet things may just get a little simpler.
