Dial-up on steroids

It's getting so the only difference between accelerated dial-up and slower broadband Internet service is the fact that, with the former, you still have to dial up! Speed and price differences are becoming negligible, the Boston Globe points out in a very thorough look at home Net users' current options. But there's an upside to not having the Internet "on" all the time, in the case of dial-up users: a little less risk of having the family PC become a zombie. Computers that aren't available all the time to outsiders seeking to take control of them are a lot harder to manipulate in denial-of-service attacks and for spam distribution. Herb Lin of the National Research Council last year pointed out another advantage of slower connections for families with online kids, linking inconvenience and kids' safety (see my 4/23/04 issue).