# AOL is extremly bad



## nickelodeon (Nov 29, 2002)

hey,


I used to have AOL and they r the worst ISP i habve ever come across. There was so many problems with my internet. I kept getting disconnected from Aol and i had a spearate phone line. Also i was about to get rid of AOL and get ADSL and my pay date was on a friday. I was going to cancel AOL on that friday but they charged me for a extra 2 mothes ($50) on the wednsday. I HATE AOL.


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## yul (Feb 11, 2003)

have u thought of getting cable or dsl?


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## codexaenir (Aug 27, 2002)

Now I'm no supporter of the AOL "software"... I can't really blame the service itself.. I know that it's a big bossy company..(Time Warner) but I had few problems in terms of reliablity with it.

Sure... it isn't 100%, but neither is DSL. I have many problems with the DSL down, sometimes as long as weeks. So you can't really blame the service altogether.. 

so I guess it depends on where you live.


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## nickelodeon (Nov 29, 2002)

yul....... I do have adsl now and i use westnet. I have not had 1 prob with westnet.


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## yul (Feb 11, 2003)

good for you.

I also have cable but In India when I say "cable" it is just slightly better than dialup.....so it plain sucks.


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## nickelodeon (Nov 29, 2002)

lol


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## bassetman (Jun 7, 2001)

> the worst ISP i habve ever come across


I agree!


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## NiteHawk (Mar 9, 2003)

AOL is for "The Great Unwashed". I don't know of anyone that has a little tech savy that uses AOL
There are those that use AOL and there are those that use a REAL ISP.


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## rmay635703 (Nov 7, 2002)

Hmm, I use aol and it only costs $4.95 a month, is slow but I get all the email I want and thats all it is used for.


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## nickelodeon (Nov 29, 2002)

hey yul i luv ur icon where did u get it from?


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## bassetman (Jun 7, 2001)

rmay635703, you don't mind all the graphics and ads they DL when you log in (or did they change that?) or the difficulty sending and receiving pics over AOL?


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## yul (Feb 11, 2003)

> hey yul i luv ur icon where did u get it from?


i got the AOL from aol website and the animated X is made in image ready


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## NiteHawk (Mar 9, 2003)

AOL/Time Warner is an interesting "experiment" of old technology meets new technology. However, all is not well in the kingdom of ID! Attached is an artical from the Wall Street Journel dated March 22, 2002 That shows how AOL's Brave New World technology almost brought Time magazine to it's knees and the best and most reliable alturnitive to AOL's internet solutions was to hand someone making $40 - $70/hr a hard copy document, put them in a taxie and send them accross town to make sure it gets there.

Proving once again, to error is human. To really screw things up takes AOL.


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## rmay635703 (Nov 7, 2002)

I rarely "log in" using their software, I log in to webmail and thats about it. (one pop up ad that is disabled by adware) I also have most of the ads disabled by external means by opting to NOT use their latest bloatware to connect when I do actually use their interface.

The ads I get are annoying though (though spam is more annoying) but I've had the account since the dark ages when Tandy 1000's ruled the earth and pretty much every service on the internet is signed up using that account, it mainly a "its only $4.95 a month and I don't want to take the time to move everything over to a new address"

Plus $4.95 a month and the hours add together when I don't use their service so it works fine for me. In this dark ages area I live in there simply isn't any cheaper method to get email or on the internet. My choices are Juno or AOL or a local place that charges $19.95 a month or cable that charges close to $50 a month.



> the difficulty sending and receiving pics over AOL?


I think of that as a benefit, all the spam i get is pictureless and linkless and I GREATLY prefer it that way as unlike outlook I cannot get a virus from automatically downloaded attachments and people around me can't get offended by interesting pics in the spam I keep getting.


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## hermes (Aug 12, 2000)

And not only all the above, but if one of their members attacks your site or hacks you they are simply uninterested.

I had a record of hundreds of failed attempts to log in to my email account (non-aol) by an aol user. I rang their uk helpdesk in waterford Ireland and a most rude and unhelpful person called Orla told me "It is nothing to do with us, you are not an aol member so we are not interested, it is none of our business and there is nothing we can do". This despite the fact I had the IP address used at every attempt along with timestamps.

AOL don't care because no matter what their members do they are still lpooking at their banal advertising splash screens and java pop-ups, so keeping their corporate fat pig backers happy.

Oh and one last thing. If you use their new beta copy you probably have the fizzer worm already. If not you soon will.


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## rmay635703 (Nov 7, 2002)

I agree that aol doesn't care, they are a large beast of a corp and their spam blocking tools are laughable. They also promote spam.

It would be nice if a local company in my area could provide a very low cost alternative for those of us who aren't home most of the time to use the service as I don't want to spend $9.95 a month when my account is inactive or only being used for email and no internet access.

Cheers


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## centscotsman (Jul 7, 2002)

im having a good old laugh to my self here re aol we have been waiting from the 14th of march 2003 for them to cancel our aol broadband connection all they keep saying is its an over sight we cant get sighned up with another b/b provider till they cancel our subscription with bt who do promise us a decent service but big companies like aol /time warner etc get away with this 
rab


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## GoJoAGoGo (Dec 26, 2002)

Your not along in being anti AOL. I never used it but have heard alot of negative things about them. I did have MSN Dial-Up for 1 year. I believe the problem of being disconnected exist with all Dial-Up service as I also had that with MSN and have heard that is the way of life with Dial-Up. 

I now have SBC-Yahoo DSL and welcome the fact of never being disconnected or waiting forever to be connected.


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## NiteHawk (Mar 9, 2003)

What is the current $$ rate for SBC DSL plus your basic phone service?


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## bassetman (Jun 7, 2001)

~$60.00 here US for ISP, DSL and a phone line! 

PS All local call free!


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## GoJoAGoGo (Dec 26, 2002)

SBC-Yahoo DSL is $49.95 per month and basic phone service is around $10.00 per month. Right now SBC-Yahoo has a promotion for DSL which is $29.95 per month for 1 year.


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## NiteHawk (Mar 9, 2003)

Thanks, I'll look into it. If you figure $29.95 per month and then drop your existing ISP at $20.95, for $9.00 a month additional you're getting DSL. Yahoo, is the provider, right? Do you notice more spam? Also, does your pop3 email become [email protected] or [email protected]?


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## twotugs (May 14, 2003)

We pay $30 a month for SBC DSL, but I swear they've charged us a modem rental fee also. I have a hard time decrypting the phone bill, some months.

I use AOL, but pay less ($15 a month) because I don't connect through them. I only keep them around because I have several email addresses that I don't want to give up right now. I've had billing problems, service problems, software problems (like hermes said, beta test at your own risk), and now I've issues with the AOL/ M$ cease-fire. I gotta wonder if Netscape will be cut off (and Pheonix/Firebird/Mozilla, too). We'll see.

Email is [email protected], I believe. I don't use the email they offer, so I don't know what the spam is like.They do have their own busy little browser, and a buncha Yahoo!


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## GoJoAGoGo (Dec 26, 2002)

My email addy is also [email protected]. I joined 1 year ago before Yahoo merged with SBC. If you join now I'm not sure what the email addy will be.


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