Robin
As Jonathan points out,
there ain't no such thing as a Free Lunch
! The cost of supplying the server connection, adequate bandwidth, Free webspace, Free email account(s) & Free Webmail, costs the ISP money to provide. Then people start moaning about having to pay for Tech Support on an 087x/090x line. ISP's ALWAYS show lists of FAQ's covering practically every problem you're likely to have, but people don't think to read them before calling the premium rate number. Emails cost practically nothing but there's still the Techies' time to analyse the problem & reply.
I've already stated my charges and you'd be surprised at the number of silly questions I STILL get asked, or how many people that still make basic mistakes, (like not backing up their data or their system) even though they've been warned.
Quote:0845 access is perfect for light internet users who go online in the evening or at weekends. If you use it a lot in the daytime, switch to one of the cheap daytime ISP packages e.g.
Tesco Daytime £5.99
Any more time than that and there are plenty of ANYTIME packages to choose from at reasonable prices.
I hope that answers your last question adequately.
I have some 10 ISP's, most of which I can access email, etc. from my ADSL account, but a couple still require logging on with a modem (& 0845 numbers) at regular intervals. Also it's always handy having other accounts, just for that one occasion your main server is down & you have an urgent email to send/receive or website to check.