MSN Dial-Up Internet Access
Internet service provider operated by Microsoft
MSN Dial-Up Internet Access is an Internet service provider operated by Microsoft in the United States and formerly also in several other countries. Originally named The Microsoft Network, it debuted as a proprietary online service on August 24, 1995, to coincide with the release of Windows 95. In 1996 and 1997, a revised web-based version of the ISP was an early experiment at interactive multimedia content on the Internet.
Microsoft renamed the service MSN Internet Access in 1998, focusing its main "MSN" brand on its web portal of the same name, MSN.com. As of 2025, the company still provides dial-up Internet access under the name "MSN Dial-Up Internet Access" for those who cannot access high-speed broadband. For several years, MSN was the second largest dial-up ISP in the United States behind longtime leader AOL, but very few people in the U.S. still rely on dial-up.
Along with dial-up service, MSN provides its subscribers with its MSN Explorer software and an @msn.com email account to use with Outlook.com. Microsoft also still offers that software as part of a standalone subscription service for users with broadband Internet access worldwide named MSN Premium, but as of 2025, it is outdated by modern standards and no longer offers any other features exclusive to members.
Early history
The Microsoft Network
The concept for MSN was created by the Advanced Technology Group at Microsoft, headed by Nathan Myhrvold. MSN was originally conceived as a subscription-based dial-up online service and proprietary content provider like America Online or CompuServe.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 16, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6717838. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1995, 1996, 1997 and 1998.
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This entry incorporates text from “MSN Dial-Up Internet Access” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.