AOL, Rated the worst possible interent providor available.

[FinsnFur]

 Good news?...yeah right 
AOL is about to set a record for being the worst possible internet provider known to man since the beginning of the internet.

Did You Know?

    * AOL's service is actually one of the POOREST compared to almost any other of any major ISP (real internet provider). When one compares both speed and access compared to other providers, you will see the differences!


    * AOL's recent commercials tout their security and how "Your information is protected at AOL". Actually, AOL is the ONLY major provider who's security has been breached...not once but many times! But don't believe me? Look at AOL admits to privacy lapse and even high school kids can break into AOL! see Hackers learn how to take over AOL IM accounts or AOL security breach exposes personal info. Look for yourself and see if you also conclude that AOL's security is an industry joke. Once you take the time to get the facts, you will come to a unfortunate conclusion that AOL's ads are carefully worded marketing which hedge the truth. A quick search using keywords like AOL, "security breach" will get you countless other new reports of how AOL DOESN'T protect your privacy!


    * AOL constantly talks about how they are continually upgrading their network to provide you with the best service. A recent commercial spoke to the fact they had almost 2.5 million modems. Sounds good but with now approaching 21 million that means one modem for every 8.5 users assuming no network or modem outages. Any decent, self respecting ISP used a ratio of AT LEAST 1 to 5 or better. This is the reason you will get busy signals and also why AOL boots you off the network if you are idle for any significant period of time. If you are not ACTIVELY using the service at this moment...they want you off to make room for other callers. Why do they do this...simple...minimizing costs and maximizing profits.


    * AOL provides poor proprietary systems for user functions. AOL's email client is rated as one of the worst in the industry. Their FTP client (used for up and downloading files) is also rated one of the worst. The list goes on and on.


    * Because AOL is so slow, many of the advanced high tech systems available to general users simply won't work or if they do work it is with such poor performance that is significantly reduces the utility of these programs. Examples are voice and video systems.


    * AOL has historically used outdated and/or modified versions of Microsoft's Internet Explorer (MSIE) to power their browser. Newer versions are now using a more up to date version of MSIE as opposed to using Netscape (which AOL gobbled up). The result in either case is that some feature rich websites cannot be displayed as the designers intended because support for these features is not provided by AOL. If you have ever seen special "notes to AOL users" on various websites (www.MSN.com etc), this is why. When you see sites that say things like "Special notes for AOL users", the reason is AOL can't handle routine programmed tasks that are otherwise W3C standard..


    * Unfortunately, the general worldwide internet community as a whole has a very poor opinion of AOL users. They are regarded as neophyte who are clueless about the internet and have bad manners to boot. This reputation is not totally unearned as AOL'ers (that is what they are called by the way and in a somewhat derogatory tone by "real internet" users) tend to be new and unknowledgeable of the internet. Of course this isn't true of all AOL'ers but that is the general perception.


    * Unfortunately since AOL bought Netscape, Netscape has fallen behind Microsoft in the browser war leaving essentially no competition for Microsoft.



Tips

AOL keeps disconnecting me
AOL offers unlimited access and yet unless you click on the "you've been idle" and "you've been online 45 minutes" messages, they will disconnect you. There are programs that are small, sit in your system tray and respond to these messages for you. Download and install AOL Message Tosser.

AOL Message Tosser has become less effective due to automatic "updates" when you sign off AOL. I'm sure you all know what I mean!

I have test this program Stayon Pro and it is very effective with AOL 4.0 thru AOL 6.0. You can download it for a free evaluation. Also, Stay Connected is supposed to be very good also, but I have not tested it personally.

I can't see the contents of the email attachment my non-AOL friend sent me.
Non AOL email software often sends attachments with the file extension .mim or .mime. AOL email software may or may not decode this, depending on your version. Download and install Fastcode32. This is a small, free decoding software that is easy to use. After downloading your friends attachment, open up Fastcode 32, drag and drop your attachment and you are done!

Connect Speed
AOL doesn't accurately report your connection speed. In other words, say you had a 14.4 modem and AOL said you were connecting at 38.8. Just not true. Here is a resource to accurately determine your connection rate. Some other good info at this site also.

AOL Preferences
Click on "My AOL" then "Preferences". I am using AOL 4.0 as a reference point, so if you use another version, the language may differ slightly but you should be able to find something similar.

Click on "Personal Filing Cabinet". Mail that you have already read is being stored on your harddrive, taking up valuable space unless you change your s ettings. You can delete what is already there, and be sure to compact (compress) before you go. That will save you some space if that is an issue for you.

Also, while you are there, click on various places and see what your options are!

Click on "Download" Preferences. Uncheck "automatically decompress files at signoff". You should be in charge of unzipping (or decompressing) your files. Allowing AOL to do it for you will cause all sorts of problems in the long run.

AOL 6.0
The following are problems that users of the new AOL 6.0 have experienced along with some recommended solutions:

Problem: When AOL 6.0 is installed, everything works fine but it changed my Internet Explorer. Now the top icon is the AOL icon and the top says Internet Explorer provided by American Online.

Solution: Go to Program Files/Internet Explorer/Custom. There you will see the branding BMP files, 22static, 38static, aol22, aol28. Simply rename them. IE will default to its' own branding then.

As for the Provided by...simply run regedit, search for Provided by America Online, when found change to Microsoft Internet Explorer. Press F3 to continue the search and you'll find another for OE.

AOL Email Trouble
You've Got Mail?NOT!

If you are a subscriber to any free Newsletters and use AOL, you may notice that they no longer arrive. You tried to resubscribe, but it says you are already on the list.

A good possibility is that they are being sent, but your AOL Mail Controls are blocking them. Here's how to check:

The first thing to check is your Mailbox. Make sure that you have "Show me mail from" set to "Everyone". This will allow you to see all your mail.

If you have it set to "People I Know", then you must add the specific newsletter email address to your address book if you want the newsletters to show up.

Next, you should check your Mail Controls. Just click the "Mail Options" box and select "Block Unwanted mail", or type in Keyword "Mail Controls" to bring up the interface. You should have "Allow all email to be delivered to this Screen Name" selected.

If you insist on using the "Customize Mail Controls for this Screen Name", then click Next. Here you will again find several choices. You can let all email in, or only let in mail from the listed senders (this is called "whitelisting").

If you have "Allow e-mail from the listed...Block all others" selected, then be sure to add worldstart.com to your list. Click Next.

If you were accidentally filtering us out, just click the "Recently Deleted Mail" link at the bottom of your mail interface. Check there for our newsletters. If you find them, highlight and select "Keep as New" to put it back in your Mailbox.

Hopefully, one of these solutions will get those newsletters back to your Mailbox again.

Lousy Graphics
AOL software has a default setting that causes the fine work of photographers to be compressed and screwed up totally! They do this to speed up photo transfer and save themselves some bandwidth. What you get is smeared pictures. Here's how to fix it:

Remove Compressed Graphics as a web setting:

-Click "My AOL."
-Click "Preferences."
-Click "www."
-Click "Web Graphics."
-Click OFF the "Use compressed graphics" button.

Pages That Won't Reload
AOL page reloading can be a frustrating experience, especially if you are waiting for web race results and you check the same site over and over. Again, to save bandwidth, AOL screws you and keeps giving you a saved version of a previously viewed web page, even if you hit reload over and over. Here's how to fix it:

Force a page to Reload, even if AOL wants you to look at the old one:

-Hold down the Control key when you reload. This will force the software to get the newest version off the web, not your computer's memory.
error main.idx damaged
go to c:/program files/america online/backup and the copy the Main.idx file and paste it in c:/program files/america online/idb folder to overwrite the previous one.

[ohiobob]

Jim
I knew they were terrible,,but I didn't know they were THAT TERRIBLE  I had an Uncle that
Championed  :roflmao: for AOL about 12 years ago,,he thought the Sun Rose,and Set in AOL's Ass !!!  well he came to my House at the same time,,12 years ago,and he seen my Computer and he said he liked the Speed,,we had a damn DIAL UP at the time and it was SUPER SLOW,,but do you think he would change ??? hell no he didnt change  he is dead now,,he went without ever using the "REAL" Internet
What I have noticed is that ALL the AOL'ers I know are LOYAL to the end,,maybe that BAD service is actually Brain Washing them ??? and then they can pass the AOL "Bug" down to their Kids and keep the AOL Boat afloat ??? hey,,that rhymes 
Bob

[MI VHNTR]

A OH He** software is also a BIG computer resource hog. I booted them years ago after one of their infamous "updates" corrupted my registry and crashed my computer. MI VHNTR

[browning204]

they were my first internet provider, I booted them after a couple of months. I was sick of being kicked off and the updates and crap.

I went with comcast which I still haveMy g/f still gets on aol to check her old account mail and is always cussing at the computer, I told her to delete it from the comp.

[KySongDog]

AOL sucks.   

I don't know anybody that uses it.  Too many problems and too slow.  It simply sucks. 

[KillerCaller!]

You guys are just jealous! AOL forever!
I like the browser and that's about it. I kicked them loooong ago.