Two  ISP's ?  ......

Why not? There are two ways to go about this.  If you are NOT an AOL user, you might consider a minimal AOL account that costs 4.95 per month for 5 hours usuage.  This gives you a second dial-up account, plus if many of your friends and family use AOL, it gives you the benefit of sending AOL compatible mail to those users.  There is also an AOL billing plan that allows you full unlimited service for $9.95 if you NEVER use AOL for dial-up, but always access it through a network or a 2nd ISP as I describe below.

If you ARE an AOL user, consider installing one of the free ISP's.  I happen to like BlueLight which is a K-Mart service.  It puts a large banner at the bottom of your browser when you are online and from there it attempts to sell you K-Mart specials.  For a backup browser I find the price is right and the service pretty reliable.

How does that work? Ok, now you have two e-mail accounts and you want to check your mail.  Do you have to dial-up with AOL, get your mail and then sign off and dial up your other provider?  No.

AOL Users:  If this is your main dialup account (unlimited usage), go ahead and sign on and then minimize it.  If you have BlueLight, then your other e-mail is Yahoo.  If you use Outlook Express or Outlook for your 2nd e-mail program, then open it and click send and receive as usual.

Non-AOL Users: Get online your normal way.  You may access your AOL mail by using your Microsoft Internet browser to open the AOL web site. I use that address to collect my AOL mail from my WebTV.  I also use it from hotels or libraries when I travel. 

If you have the AOL software loaded you can do it this way.  Open AOL.  Your sign-on window should look like this (click).  This is how AOL explains setting this up:

1. On the AOL Sign On screen, click on the Setup button.
2. Select Create a location for use with new access phone numbers or an ISP, then click Next.
3. Select Add a custom connection (for example, TCP/IP), then click Next to complete your selection.
4. On the AOL Sign On window, select ISP/LAN Connection from the Select Location drop-down menu.
5. Your AOL software will connect you to AOL using your TCP/IP connection when you click Sign On.