There were some "free" providers who ran at 44.1 with required ads that could be disabled easily using clever tricks.
LOL, that must have been netzero. After launching it ran a banner of ads along the top of your screen. Though, you couldn't leave your PC unattended for very long as no mouse movement meant you weren't browsing so it disconnected. A friend rigged a small motor to a spare USB mouse and a circuit that reversed the direction so the mouse cursor moved back and forth which was enough to fool the activity monitor. After that I think he wrote a VB program that did something similar or clicked the ads after they got wise to those shenanigans.
(Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Thursday July 13 2017, @03:00PM
LOL, that must have been netzero. After launching it ran a banner of ads along the top of your screen. Though, you couldn't leave your PC unattended for very long as no mouse movement meant you weren't browsing so it disconnected. A friend rigged a small motor to a spare USB mouse and a circuit that reversed the direction so the mouse cursor moved back and forth which was enough to fool the activity monitor. After that I think he wrote a VB program that did something similar or clicked the ads after they got wise to those shenanigans.