I just wrote a long fucking post in great debates to start a new thread and all of a sudden, right before I finished it I hear “Goodbye” and then look up to notice a screen that says I have been logged off due to inactivity.
I fucking hate AOL!!! I got so into it, and I’ll of course try again but now my heart’s completely not in it. I’m so fucking pissed at those idiots. They didn’t even ask if I wished to stay online.
If I ever meet that fucking loser whose voice they sampled to say that stupid ass dorky “goodbye” I’m gonna tear him 3 new ones.
Been there, done that. Let me pass on a timeless hint that was given to me a while back when I posted pretty much the same thing. Either get rid of AOL or compose your post on notepad and then copy 'n paste to the board. Aol does this all the time, really sucks, huh?
By the way, I just spent my 200th post on you, wasted my party…you owe me a beer.
Well, I’m already ahead of you with the notepad/copy & paste idea, though I’m not going to do this everytime I post (which is usually from work anyway so I don’t deal with AOL).
And though I came here for sympathy, and not practical advice, you’ve kind of given me both, so have a happy 200th post beer on me you AOL felching goosemonger. (hey, it’s the pit).
I second Threemae’s assessment. I’ve been disconnected dozens of times while posting (mostly due to people needing to use the phone). Instead of having to close down everything 'Net-related, I can still keep typing in the IE window, and reconnect when I’m all finished. I can tell you… most of my good posts were written while I was offline.
I do OK with EarthLink, but maybe it all depends on what area you are in.
Try a local ISP. Ask around. Try NetZero, or something.
I don’t know, I guess not everyone is like me, but I enjoyed trying out new ISPs! When I first got my computer, and discovered the Internet thing, I had AOL for about 2 months. Then I got sick of that shit, got EarthLink. I still wanted to know what else was out there, so I got a limited account with Mindspring (which is really my favorite.) I also tried free trial months of ATT, Prodigy, misc. local ISPs, and whatnot. Through the process of elemination, I found what I wanted.
The secret to going this route is - use a email address that is NOT related to any ISP. That way, you change ISPs, no one cares, no one knows, your email address is the same.
Also, learn how to use Dial-Up-Networking (if you have Windows) because this is a MUCH simpler way of connecting to your ISP. Not all ISPs have the DUN option (I don’t think ATT does) but Earthlink and Mindspring do, as well as many local ISPs. You can have Customer Support talk you through setting things up via DUN, so you can see how painless it is. It’s much easier on your computer than using each ISP’s “proprietary” software, which usually takes over and starts to screw things up.
OK, well, that was unsolicited advice. But the point is, you don’t have to put up with this AOL bullshit.
I used to make fun of NetZero, and even openly mock it. But you know - a lot of very computer savvy people I know swear by it, and have had great success using it - to the point where they would not consider an ISP unless it was for DSL. So perhaps it really is a pretty decent thing.
Still hoping to get DSL. Cable, I’m not too sure about. Don’t know how many people in our area also have cable (which slows the whole thing down). Depending on which one works better…
Anthracite, I have a NetZero account, but don’t use it often because I have EarthLink. But it’s nice to have it as a back up.
One of my friends, a complete computer geek and VERY computer-saavy seems to love NetZero. Of course, he’s also cheap, and you can’t beat NetZero’s price - free! We both also use Juno.
Netzero and Juno suck. Well, I mean they’re okay relatively speaking, but why have an ad staring you in your face when you don’t have to?
Go donate at least $10 to any charity at http://www.worldshare.com and you’ll get free internet access for a year - no banners, either. I can usually connect at a pretty good rate and rarely get disconnected.
My husband and I had AOhell and hated it, too. We got Road Runner recently and just love it! I highly recommend it for anyone that has access to cable. It’s great for Napster, compared to a 56K modem. (Yes, we steal music. What of it?)
Well, I’m on AO-Hell and I don’t ever have the problem of getting booted off with the help of a simple little program called Stay Connected For America-Online. It is made by a company called Inkline Software Labs and works like a charm. You can download the program off their website and I think it comes with a trial period. After that, you pay a one time registration fee and it’s yours. Anyways, here’s the address:
I have Bellsouth’s ADSL. Connected all the time, no disconnecting for phone calls, super-fast and all that good stuff UNTIL the line goes down, which happens often enough to be irritating. Never any explanation of why it is down, never any anticipated repair time and it is always a fight to have the down time taken off the bill. Sometimes it is down for a couple of days and once it was down for a solid week. But when it works, it really works.
Thank you all for the advice, and for agreeing with me that AOL sucks goat testicles.
The thing is, I was at my parent’s house on their computer, and they hardly even know what a computer is for, so they certainly don’t care enough to look around to find something better, but I’m going to pass on this info to them regardless. They certainly aren’t going to spring for cable, at least not until all the other Jones’ have it.
But I’m leaving my job this week to go back to school and I will most likely be looking into buying my own computer, and I ain’t going near those fuckin AOL scumbags. I’ll probably go cable because, man, when you work in a Citicorp office for 2 years in the lap of high speed internet luxury, there just ain’t no going back.
Let me ask a question. I may be going Mac (I am a musician). Does this have any bearing on the ISP I use?
It used to have some bearing, these days it really doesn’t. With Cable/DSL the main thing is you need an ethernet card. With modems, you just need a decent PPP setup, which Macs have.
I’ve been on AOL since 1994. It has steadily decreased in value since then. There used to be message boards there that interested me, but no more; now I use it only as a window to the real internet. But I still like the email addies I (and my SO) have, so I keep it. It’s a part of my credit card bill now, hate to change that.
If you, like me, suffer this addiction, please consider WizOn. http://www.hsqrd.com has it. It is a great timer killer. I have been using it since 7:00 this evening, without surfing any AOL boards at all, with no problems. I have the unregistered version, which is fully functional.
(hey, it’s the pit).