For a couple of weeks now, AOL has not been kicking me offline for inactivity. It seems like it used to happen after about 10 minutes of inactivity. I’d gotten in the habit of not logging off when I went to bed or left for work, knowing AOL would kick me out in a few minutes and then I’d just have to hit Enter to get back on when I returned to the machine.
Well, no more. With the exception of going offline to make a few phone calls, I’ve been continuously on for two weeks. I don’t plan to leave the situation as such; I’m going to start logging off. This has been a test period.
So, is this a change in AOL’s MO? Are the rest of you AOLers experiencing the same thing?
I did check to see if my billing plan had somehow been changed, and it has not. I am running Zone Alarm and have wondered if that might have something to do with it.
Ironically, as I typed a few paragraphs of response to this thread, I got the AOL boot and lost it (hmmph!). Now that is frustrating, I’ve prolly lost 50-75 posts from getting the inactivity kick.
Usually, with the exception of late at night, I get the kick after 5-10 minutes of inactivity.
I might be looking into one of those programs, Rysdad.
For the longest time you could type “quickmenu” into keyword and one of those news thingys would come up and keep you from getting thrown off for all eternity but seems they got hip to it and banished the feature. If you’ve upgraded AIM I think there’s a news ticker with the new version which might produce the same result
I’ve been experiencing the same thing. I’ve got aol 5.0 for Mac, and apparently I can now stay online forever, except for the usual “unexpected” disconnects. The strange thing is that it’s only happening to certain lucky people. Why me?
I am not an AOL user but I would guess that the thime it take before you get kicked off has a direct relationship what how busy the server is. If you suddenly can stay on longer, what proably happened is that the number that you call just got a server upgrade and can handle more traffic. This would make it so more people can be on and it doesn’t need to activly kick people off.
The primary reason anyone gets booted from AOL is server congestion. I can be doing something and see the server slowing down. So if Oprah or Britney comes on for a chat, I’m most likely getting booted.
I have noticed something that AOL says isn’t a problem, but I have noticed time and time again. If I’m running Netscape outside AOL with AOL running as my ISP, I am far more likely to get booted than if I’m using the MIE that comes with AOL.
The booting doesn’t seem to be version related except that no currently supported version of AOL works properly with a 486 (or earlier) PC, a Pentium is required. I am beta testing 6.0 and it doesn’t seem to solve any of the booting problems. I does give me handy tips on why I may have disconnected, none of which have anything to do with the reality of the situation.
Interestingly enough Netcom (or Mindspring or Earthlink or whatever it’s called this week) boots me just the same as AOL. And both are far more likely to boot me during the afternoon than in the middle of the night. Around 4PM (Eastern) I can watch the internet crawl to a halt no matter who I’m using. Then I get booted.
I have 5.0. It varies with me from about 8 minutes to 20 with inactivity. Some websites have constantly reloading ads, which show activity and AOL thinks you’re still working and leaves you alone. AOL mail write shows no activity and if you’re too long, it will warn you.
AOL 6.0 is coming out now, and I’m going to try that. My biggest beef is that AOL looses my connection several times a day and it’s not the phone service.
I have used this handly little proggie for years now, with nary a problem getting booted for inactivity. http://www.hsqrd.com/wizon.html
Also, I recently got Earthlink, and you have to check the option somewhere in their settings to not get logged off for inactivity. IIRC, it is checked by default, you have to un-check it. I accidently stayed online 18 hours after forgetting to log off one night.
You can go to http://www.download.com and do a search for StayOn Pro, which is a great little demo that quietly hits IP addresses in the background. Unfortunately, it’s only good for thirty days or so before you have to pay for it. Since I’m one of the rats ditching the sinking AOL ship, I no longer need it, but those of you sticking with Mr. “You Are Now Connected To AOL–Do You Want To Stay Online?” might want to consider throwing the programmer a bone.
I can’t help wonder if programs like StayOn are partially responsible for the large number of “pings” that folks with dedicated IP addresses have been noticing lately. That would be amusing: the legacy of AOL affecting non-AOL users as well…