Hi Tom

I'm not real adept at understanding much of the lingo, but you might
be able to answer a question for me.

I use standard 56k dialup. I assume that when I'm online I'm tying up
one of the ISP's modems. Therefore I never stay online longer than
necessary to get my work done. Although I know plenty of folks that
leave their computers on and connected all the time.

My late wife, after she had her major heart attack and could not leave
the house worked out an agreement with her employer to do her work at
home. This required staying on-line at least 8 hours a day connected
to her employer.
At first the ISP said 'no problem' you have an unlimited account.
But then they later came back and told us we needed a different
service, it was still dial-up, but in effect we owned our own modems
located in the ISP's racks.
After a couple of more heart attacks, she had to quit work completely.
I began using the sevice she was using for my regular dialup to
retrieve e-mail, read the newsgroups, surf the web, etc. About 3
hours a day.
I received a nasty note from the ISP saying I could not use that
service in place of normal dialup, it was set up strictly for my wifes
connection to her employer.
I switched back to my original dial-up unlimited account, but still
had to pay for the contract on the other dial-up account until it
expired.
Once it expired, I left that ISP and have been with my current one
ever since.

But lets get into a deeper question here.
I moved to a different state but am still using the ISP I have used
for years.
I assume that my home ISP has a joint account with many ISPs around
the country. I'm a ham radio operator and I can travel the country
and use repeaters as a guest, because I AM a member of a repeater
club.
But how does this work as far as ISP's go?
Should I change to a local ISP or is it OK to continue using one of
the POP presences. How does the ISP I'm calling make any money from
me?

TTUL
Gary