Once in a while this happens. Suddenly the AOL connection is cut for no apparent reason. I hear a tiny, soft “click” from inside the computer’s modem and I know by now what that sound means.
AOL 8.0 now has an automatic “try-to-reconnect” feature which practically never works. (I would have said “never,” but it actually did succeed once the other day.)
That voice speaks up and says “Goodbye!” when you sign off. But when this sudden involuntary disconnection happens, the voice says it twice. You would think once is sufficient. But after an interval of two or three seconds, it repeats.
I know that the goodbye.wav file is stored on my hard drive and is triggered by the signoff. But what causes it to play twice?
This double “Goodbye” phenomenon happened with earlier versions; I think I remember it happening with AOL 6 and definitely it used to happen with AOL 7.
The one time the auto-reconnect succeeded, I didn’t hear the single “Goodbye” that your theory would predict; there wasn’t any “Goodbye” triggered. The process went seamlessly (if only it could work that well always!).
Why does AOHell keep getting disconnected anyway? Why does Windows keep crashing? (This is the cue for the Linux crowd to pipe up and ritually intone “Come over to the Linux side…”)
I’m probably full of shit. That was just a wild guess… I run one box with WinXP, and the other is my Mandrake baby. I haven’t used AOL in many years, but I see no point in getting in to that.
Oh, and I’m posting with the WinXP machine right now. Linux is fun, and better, but the learning curve is still too steep for those of us with real jobs.
I have also experienced it. But I have had this happens for many verson of AOL.
It seems to happen when I have many browsers open at one time. My theory is that there is too much data being requested from the AOL tcp/ip stack at one time and it is unable to properly service all the requests. It is just a theory though.
