# Does AOL eat your network? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 24, 2000, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-aol-eat-your-network/47100 "2000-12-24T17:44:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2000, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-aol-eat-your-network/47100/1 "2000-12-24T17:44:46Z")
THe closest I’ve come is uninstalling AOL removes some protocols. Has AOL messed up your network configuration? ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2000, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-aol-eat-your-network/47100/2 "2000-12-24T18:41:43Z")
At the college were I work, AOL used to screw up the protocols badly, usually by installing its own adapter above the network adapter. We switched to a different system and the problem seemed fixed, but now it looks like AOL 6.0 has problems with our proxy server settings. ---
**Author:** ![annalamerino](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b3f665/32.png) [@annalamerino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/annalamerino)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2000, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-aol-eat-your-network/47100/3 "2000-12-24T21:39:10Z")
I like to recommend something besides AOL. I use Juno and Excite/Freelane. Juno is a little restrictive if you’re online a lot, but I don’t think Excite is. Now that AOL is bombarding everyone with ads and popups, it just seems foolish to pay money to be at their mercy.