AOL vs. Other ISP

Great Debates
1

(Sorry if this has been posted before, I did try the search.)

I have AOL at home and a direct connection at work. I like AOL. It’s intereting and fun and easy. I can sign on and see my friends, if no one’s on, it’s easy to find other stuff to do. I would not have found this Straight Dope site if I hadn’t seen the link to it a long time ago on the AOL welcome screen and checked it out. Seems everything is at my fingertips with a keyword.

When I’m at work with the direct connection, I either go here or a couple of other regular places I know about, or think of thinks and look on AltaVista and see what comes up. It’s usually harder for me to stay entertained while online at work, haha, because I have no idea what’s out there or what to look for, and when I do search for stuff, there’s pages and pages of stuff I WASN’T looking for.

So all of you who hate AOL so much, why exactly, besides that it costs more? IMs can be turned off or blocked, I only get porn mail if I go into a public chat. There are 7 screen names, so I make up a new, temporary one if I’m going to chat or put up a personal ad or something. Sometimes it’s nice when strangers say hi, they aren’t all perverts. :slight_smile:

So I’m wondering what vital piece of information I’m missing. I fully admit my ignorance about this whole internet thing.
Please enlighten…
Thanks in advance,
A girl

PS Entertaining sites or other boards that would keep me entertained during my “breaks” at work would be greatly welcomed! :slight_smile:

2

You see? You made a mistake right there, but comparing AOL to an ISP. Try and follow me here…

Internet: AOL only reluctantly allowed its users to access this crazy internet thing, and their connection to same sucks. As does the browser they use as well.

Service: I don’t think it’s even possible for me to mention service and AOL in the same post without giggling like a schoolgirl.

Provider: This implies that they actually provide something. And they do - if you consider them to have provided a busy signal during peak hours. And if you consider the dial tone you get to be provided by AOL after they disconnect you without warning after 40 minutes, sure they provide.

So, let’s not make the mistake of calling AOL an ISP. As we can tell, they do not have the qualifications…

Yer pal,
Satan

3

I’m on AOL at the moment, and having conflicting feelings about it. On the one hand, I like the “family friendly” aspect to it. There’s “homework help” which we have used before, and parental controls, etc. Since I have three kids ages 9, 11, and 15, this is important to me.

OTOH, it’s starting to drive me crazy! It seems that in the last three or four months we are getting much worse “service” than we used to. We get bumped constantly – several times a night, and run into the busy signal or other problem constantly – even though we have four access numbers lined up for use. It’s not unusual for it to take five or six tries just to get online.

I’m not familiar with what services other ISPs offer – is there anyplace to go to find out, short of doing a trial offer? Earthlink, for example, will not give you a free trial, and if they are connected to the Scientologists I don’t want to give them my money. Is there another ISP that is “family friendly” out there?

-Melin

Voted Best Moderator

Siamese attack puppet – California

4

Don’t support the corporate behemoths–go local!

My ISP (Iglou) serves just a few cities in Kentucky and the surrounding states, but it’s fantastic service. I’ve never been cut off, and I’ve never had a busy signal.

At $20/month for unlimited, it’s a little more expensive than some of the others, but you get what you pay for.

Dr. J

5

Satan -

I don’t have a problem with any of the things you mentioned. The browsers work for me, I don’t get a busy signal, and with one of those anti-timer deals, I don’t get knocked off.

I’ve heard people complain about busy signals, and it used to be really bad when I first got AOL years ago, when they started the monthly rate thing, but not anymore. I have three browsers on my computer, if something didn’t look or act right on AOL, I’d just open the Netscape or Microsoft one. I have had a problem in the past when I was updating my page and AOL wouldn’t refresh, it doesn’t happen much anymore. It hasn’t been a problem worth switching services over. What is it about AOL’s browser that supposedly doesn’t work?

I tried MSN for a while there, and that bumped me off too, but I think at that place is was a problem with the actual phone line providing a bad connection. And then when it did work, I’d just connect with MSN and open AOL.

I still fail to see why I should use an ISP. I’m asking for specific information and reasoning, not just jabs at AOL, because if there’s something I should know, besides personal preference, I might swtich.

A girl

6

Once in a while I get bumped off, but I figured that happens with every service that uses a modem, haha! See, I’m learning! It’s not a huge problem though, maybe I’m just lucky with that… :slight_smile:

I think AOL offers a lot more than just internet access, that’s why I like it. With just the internet connection, I feel kind of lost… :slight_smile:

A girl

7

I chose AOL for two reasons:

  1. It was what my whole family had.

  2. They offered me a free month.

I have since decided that those weren’t good reasons.

I haven’t had the connection problems other people describe (if I did, I probably would cancel once and for all … right now I’m lazy, and I don’t feel like e-mailing all the people who use my AOL address, and I’m never quite pissed off enough to take the plunge). What drives me absolutely batty is their approach to marketing.

The first time I tried to call them about a service problem, they would not connect me with a representative until I listened to their spiel about the 9-cent long-distance service. Somehow or other, the salesman talked me into signing up. (Yeah, I’m a wimp.) I talked it over with my roommate and we decided it wasn’t such a good deal after all. I called them again to cancel and got routed around their voice mail system for about half an hour. I talked to another salesperson who would not take no for an answer. She kept pressuring me for a reason why I wanted to cancel. I told her it was because I don’t like aggressive telemarketers, and she was well on her way to becoming one of them.

Six months later, I recieve an unsolicited e-mail welcoming me to AOL’s long-distance savings plan. I called them to cancel again. They charged me for the call.

Three months after that, a telemarketer calls at 8:45 in the morning. (I’m a grad student, mind you. If you’re lucky, I might be thinking about getting out of bed at that hour.)

“Hi! Could I talk to Mr. or Mrs. Porpentine?”

(I am not married. I was tempted to give her my parents’ phone number.)

“Uh … speaking.”

“This is Sharice from the AOL long distance savings plan. Our records show that you cancelled your service, so I was calling to find out why.”

“YOU COLD-CALL ME AT SOME UNGODLY HOUR OF THE MORNING TO ASK ABOUT SOMETHING I DID MONTHS AGO, AND YOU DON’T EVEN KNOW ENOUGH TO CALL ME MS. PORPENTINE, AND YOU WANT TO KNOW WHY THE BLOODY HELL I CANCELED SOMETHING I NEVER WANTED IN THE FIRST PLACE? IT’S BECAUSE OF PEOPLE LIKE YOU, THAT’S WHY. AND IF I EVER GET ANOTHER FUCKING CALL FROM A FUCKING TELEMARKETER, I WILL CANCEL MY SERVICE FOR GOOD.”

“Oh. Well, have a nice day.”

(That’s what I should have said. In real life, I politely asked her to call back at a different hour. Haven’t heard from her yet.)

Sorry if this is off-topic (actually, I’ve forgotten what the topic was). Thanks for the opportunity to vent…

“And thanks agin fur the plague, Porpentine.”
– mr. john

8

AOL is easy, which is the appeal for new computer users. It’s not so appealing once you’ve found your legs and discover that using the AOL interface limits your ability to access the full Internet.

When I first opted to go online from home, I thought I’d try AOL because of the amount of free time they offered, and because CompuServe dragged its feet getting their installation software to me. So I tried to get connected at 4 a.m. on Jan. 1 (OK, so the party was over and I was wide awake), and I couldn’t make the connection. Not once. Not twice. It took nearly 20 minutes of repeated attempts to get online, at a time of day when I figured I had to be one of the few loons wanting to do this, so I didn’t have a very good first impression.
Connection problems and getting cut off continued to be sources of frustration for the three months I held on to my AOL account.

The greatest nuisances, from my perspective, were:

[list=a][li]Not being able to access websites that were not somehow registered (if that’s the appropriate term) with AOL. I’m not talking about adult sites, mind you, just commercial or academic sites that did not have an AOL keyword, or something.[/li][li]Not being able to send/receive email attachments (although I understand that they fixed this after I left).[/li][li]Not being able to telnet into my school account to read email, see announcements, etc.[/list=a][/li]
My current ISP, Earthlink, is a bit lacking in the technical support department, but I have never had connection problems, I can get my email straight from the web no matter where I am, and I have unlimited access to anything I might wish to see. All for $19.95 a month. Also, when you sign up, Earthlink provides additional info for people transferring from AOL to ease the switch.

I can appreciate that finding what you’re interested in on the net at large can be frustrating, because there is a lot of junk floating around out there. These days, though, the home pages for the most common search engines (Excite, Yahoo, Infoseek) also have lots of links to specific areas of interest that can narrow down your search. NorthernLights and the Mining Company are also pretty good.

9

Hey, thanks for that info. AOL lets you access mail from the web now, thank goodness! :slight_smile:

I don’t really surf that much, maybe that’s why I don’t see too many of these problems.

AOL is only a couple bucks more than what I’ve seen listed so far. I thought the other providers were a lot cheaper, too.

I still think AOL’s better for me, I guess it’s just a personal thing, maybe like the Mac/PC debate… :slight_smile:
A girl

10

I think that AOL has better spam than an ISP.
Not to mention that old AOHell thing. I was using a friends AOL account and went into one of their chat rooms and almost right away the screen name I was using was “saying” things that I was not typing in.

Sometimes you feel like a coconut, sometime you feel like a yak.

11

Oh, you mean this isn’t one of those “mammoth vs giant squid” threads?

Never mind.

12

I use Earthlink, but I connect to AOL that way…I started out with AOL in 95 and have many friends on there. I enjoy the occasional chat room (usually only Colorado Room.)

Content is good and often if I can’t find it on the 'net I will find it on AOL.

As for AOL’s connection to the rest of the internet their gateway SUCKS which is why I use an ISP as opposed to AOL (AOL is not an ISP it’s an Online Content Provider)

So many people have problems accessing pages on the 'net from AOL it’s ridiculous!

So I am for and against AOL.

OH yeah, as a part-time web designer I hate AOL’s browser, it messes up so many of my graphics it ticks me off…they butchered IE.

13

Satan - AOL is very much an ISP. Its distinction is that it has a proprietary interface that can’t be ignored. Most ISP’s just get you a connection, you’re a node on the network and you can have your way with the Internet without restriction.

AOL does not restrict where you go, it restricts how you go. At least that was the way it was when I had AOL.

Melin - If you want to experience what a non-proprietary interface ISP provider would be to like: login to AOL, then close all its windows. Then open up Netscape and that’s about what you get with an ISP without a proprietary interface. Your just out there will full access. (I’ve never has to setup for children and that alone might make AOL a better choice.)

When you use Netscape like this in AOL and you open AOL back up the Netscape window minimizes and goes to an Icon or back on your taskbar. You will not be able to use the mail facility of Netscape, which has quite a few very useful features over AOL’s interface.

As I remember it AOL was restrictive about allowing other peoples programs to fire up through its interface so you can’t experience everything on an AOL connection like you can on an open ISP.

To realize the benefit of using an open ISP you have to go through the learning curve just like relearning AOL. You’d also have to setup your browser and shortcuts to take the place of the many thinks that are available through AOL’s interface. For family type usage AOL is probably outstanding and I don’t know of any ISP that comes close. For learning how to use the Internet A girl has described exactly the shortcoming of using AOL. When you go off your AOL interface your sort of lost. But once you’re off the experience is richer - but it does take more effort.

As far as the connection problems go, AOL here used to be crummy at first. After their build out the service here was excellent and beat the local ISP’s without question for a quite a while. The ISP’s here have since caught up to AOL. It really depends where your located for the type of service you get from AOL or an ISP.

For the junk mail part, AOL was excellent at filtering junk mail. They are responsible for getting junk mail off the net with their very aggressive lawsuits. The Justice Dept did a good job also. The amount of junk mail you get depends on your ISP’s filters.

14

Have been a aol member for a long time during which time I have tried other services.

my main reasons why I don’t switch is that:
1 I will lose my aol web page.
2 I will lose my aol email address

Reasons I will eventually stop using aol:
1 when bell atlantic fianlly gets dsl in my area, i will switch to their service.
2 aol email is very limited compaired to others.
3 generally slower connection to the net, files dl about 1-2 kb/s slower

reasons I like aol:
1 very little trouble connecting, even during peak hrs (it use to be bad)
2 simplicity - you don’t have to set up an im service, everything is pretty much there
3 I like the content, I know it is available on the net somewhere, but I don’t want to search.
4 I found the straight dope
5 National local numbers, which come in handy when I travel.
6 I can get my email on my palm.

15

A lot of the hatred of AOL comes from long ago, and has nothing to do with the current AOL service.
Basically the internet(pre 1992 or so) was a toy for computer nerds in college and industry. It was relatively small and exculsive community with a few new members each year , who could be quickly assimilated into “correct internet usage”. Along with the fact that the user base was computer literate who didn’t need(or at least admit they needed help) with technical stuff it was an ordered society headed by a fairly snobby crowd.

Then about 92(approx) browsers appeared, allowing everybody to download naked pictures of Pamela Anderson. So there was a massive influx of new home users into this community, most of whom didn’t know much about computers, and nothing of proper net etiquite. The small community couldn’t assimilate all those people quickly enough. And the ordered world broke down. The greatest sins were, not reading the FAQ, posting in incorrect areas,spamming to be noticed, and worst of all demanding instant answers to questions from people who volunteered there time in the first place. It was a classic turf battle between old timers( who didn’t want to share their toys) and new comers(who thought the internet should change to suit them).
The majority of the new users had email adresses that said AOL.com(plus the fact that since it was the easiest to use, they were the most uninformed). So AOL became the scapegoat for all the rude clueless newbies that were wrecking the internet.Which is the reason that so much AOL hatred got started, then got picked up by other people and repeated(because if a computer nerd says AOL sucks them you look smarter if you say it does too) even though they didn’t really know why AOL sucked.

16

Earthlink = THE DEVIL (WE know who you are SKY!! WE know where you are!! Your days are numbered!! :stuck_out_tongue:

Not to be confused with Satan though :slight_smile:

17

Well, as a former AOL employee (not a volunteer) I would highly advise you to get a local ISP.

Several good reasons arise:
&deg busy signals in many areas,
&deg a shoddily written AOL client that tends to “reorganize” your computer to meet its needs,
&deg silly ads on every “page”,
&deg a TOS that is unfairly defined and arbitrarily executed,
&deg a member-base consisting mostly of newbies, criminals, and idiots (AOL’s words, not mine!)

However, none of that really matters to me.

My problems with AOL lie with its philosophy.

To AOL, members are expendible–another dozen newbies will sign up for every member that quits.

Tech Support is still free on AOL–I’ll give 'em kudos for that. However, the Techs are not well trained, and are bound by “call-time”–they have 7 1/2 minutes to get you off of the phone by any means available (they can’t just hang up, though.)

Child Pornography is rampant on AOL. AOL knows that it is. AOL does next to nothing about it (until something breaks in the news–then they’re up in arms about it!)

Those are my real problems with AOL. And those are the reasons that their software will never again reside on my harddrive. (I’m a bit of a hypocrite, though–I use AIM…)

Normally, I would suggest reading over the information at:
www.observers.net

But, due to infighting and board politics, now may not be such a good time.

If you feel like wading through the bickering, there is a lot of good information there, though.

-David

18

. . lot of good statements being expressed here. aol is very good for newbies, those who have children, etc. i started out with them and stayed for a coupla years by which time i felt totally bored with their content. yes their TOS is very restrictive.
and i hope their techs have improved since 1998 . . in the beginning i would get online; surf my fav places and everything would lock up after an hour or so. at the time i didnt have a clue about browser settings; etc. and neither did their techs, 3 different ones all told me the same thing . . uninstall/reinstall aol. which i did twice. finally i got a tech who explained setting and purging my history/temp folders. that helped a lot but still i’d always come to a point where i’d have problems. all in all; aols aberration of internet explorer is hell. plus your fav places lived in a file on your hard drive you couldnt open. i got wise and started surfing with IE instead and transfering my fav places to there. then i start thinking “what do i need aol for?” their “good housekeeping/entertainment tonight/disney content” i never look at it. im building my daily/regularly visited fav places in IE . . hey! im making my own content! theres the difference. so i made yahoo my home page, customized my news, investments, etc. signed up with a free ISP (ifreedom) . . and dumped aol and saved the $21.95 a month. sure i get disconnected; especially when writing posts or long emails. . but thats because im “inactive” to the ISP . . but i can finish it because IE doesnt close . . sign back on, send and nothing is lost. try that with aol. you can also configure IE to read pages offline. my fav places are on my hard drive in a folder i can open/edit/backup anytime. its truly a better online experience. if you still want aol content its ALL available for FREE . . just go to aol.com
chat/personals/news/martha stewarts tips . . all there . . minus the heavy graphics. if you download aol IM which is free . . what are you paying $21.95 a month for? email?

19

I used AOL at the start cause that’s all there was. I cancelled after a month & kept getting charged for a couple more months but I called them & got a credit. At that time you could get a person on the phone in a reasonable time period.

Some idiot called me on average of 75 times a month. I called him asked him whats up? He didn’t know that his AOL backup number was set to my number. So I told him. NExt month another 75 calls. I call him again #$%&*!!! THen I guess he changed it.

20

Actually, I’ve never gotten bumped off of my Mindspring account or my work access, but I would get kicked off almost nightly back when I had AOL. Not to mention the fact that I never get busy signals, while I got them constantly on AOL.