Ive used AOL for a couple of years and found them to be fine. I dont know where this nonsense about AOL controlling where you go on the net comes from. When you log on you get to their home page, and then you can go anywhere you damn please. You dont even have to use their adapted IE5 browser; you can mimimse that, fire up the vanilla IE5, and not even know youre using AOL.
Reeder:
Blocking email is not a filter. You could always do that.
When I say filter, I mean that, for example, when I get email from a family member, it goes into one folder, when I get work related mail, it goes into another, etc.
I get several hundred emails a day and they are sorted by filters into about 80 different folders.
No they don’t.
I’ve been on AOL for about 8 years now. I have considered dropping it lately because I no longer chat. AOL AIM and my DSL box would allow me to both IM and use the Internet.
It’s not a service issue, it’s a financial issue. AOL is just fine for pretty much everything I’ve wanted to do online.
Cartooniverse
Of the 3 or 4 “free” ISPs I’ve tried over the past 7 years, none had more than ONE access number. My connect percentage was somewhere in the low 30’s. I have never been blocked by AOL to go anywhere I wanted on the Net. I’ve used Netscape as well as IE browsers with no problems.
Granted, in the past few years, AOL has become a monsterous Huge-Conglomo-Mega-Corp, but that’s the American way 
I’ve been using AOL for a long time (since the first version came out). It’s not the best thing possible, but it has two qualities that make it worthwhile to me:
It’s simple,
and it does everything I need it to do.
If I had different needs or wants (like if I wanted a filter like Opal) then maybe I would use something else. But it serves all my needs without a lot of hassle.
[sub]And I don’t pay for it…maybe the main reason I still use it.[/sub]
As AOL obtains more companies, more companies will start offering discounts to AOL members. Seems like a decent reason to me.
I used AOL a while back just because it was free. But the worst thing I found was all the spam and porn.
AOHell sucks out loud, from the air. My trouble is that I can’t get anything else decent, and the moment I can, I’ll switch.
I get dropped repeatedly, they only started having local numbers a few years ago so my phone bills used to be astronomical, and when I do get logged on, it’s often no higher than 9600 baud, swearta god. I regularly have to log off and back on again several times before I can get a decent connection speed.
b.
Just for the record…everything in Biker’s post is false! I’ve used Internet Explorer, Netscape and Opera with AOL with no problem. They have never restricted my access to any websites at all. There are enough reasons to bash AOL without having to resort to falsehoods!
Reasons for sticking with AOL: It’s not that much more expensive than other ISPs; Many people don’t want to go through the hassle of changing E-mail addresses; Their Chat areas are extrememly popular; It’s easier to use; They have many areas that are only available to AOL subscribers; It’s got many dial-up number is almost every area of the country; Service is very reliable.
ALSO: There is an option to turn-off all AOL Pop-up ads, so I never see them…
That’s not true.
Back in ‘98, I had AOL (had been online for a few months). I thought I’d try out EarthLink as well. I went to their site, and started to download their software. But nothing happened. The little “A” in my AOL browser just kept spinning and spinning - but nothin’. Nada. I tried in the middle of the night, several times, each time, I couldn’t get through.
I called EarthLink (had them send out a CD) to complain about not being able to download their software. They said that nothing was wrong on their side - AOL was blocking the downloading of their software. I believe it.
I am very glad I switched to EarthLink. Adios, AOL.
You live in a fantasy world, man. I run AOL and use IE for my browser; I don’t even bother with AOL’s. I could even use Opera or Linux if I was so inspired.
Because my mom pays for it and can’t be bothered to cancel the account and start something else.
Thankfully when I’m away at school I get to use the campus LAN.
hmmmm…
I’m currently logged on to AOL, so just for the heck of it, I decided to check this out. And I had no problem downloading Earthlink’s current software. Granted, I’m using Internet Explorer, not AOL’s internal browser (which is based off of I.E.), but I’ve never had any trouble downloading software for other ISPs (I downloaded NetZero a couple of years ago).
I just think that if AOL actually was blocking users from downloading software for other ISPs, this would be major news. We’re talking antitrust illegal activity here. But I’ve never heard anything about it…so I’m inclined to believe that the Earthlink reps you talked to were just trying to make their competition look bad…
Heh, good point. RDI = Red Dragon Inn, the home of free-form roleplay on AOL. Excellent little crop of writers to be found there. Absolutely the only reason AOL takes up any space on my computer. I’ve been at it for three and a half years now and it’s the most fun I’ve ever had online (well, until I discovered the SDMB, of course).
I did mention this happened in '98. And it did happen. I am sure that AOL isn’t doing it now - many more people on the web, many more ways they could be exposed. They probably stopped a long time ago, before more people found out.
I mean, how else do you explain that I could not download software for Earthlink, even though I tried at all hours of the day and night? Everything else loaded OK, the rest of EarthLink loaded OK, and other web sites I visited loaded OK. It wasn’t as if AOL was slow, or anything. It was just that one thing (the EarthLink software) that wouldn’t go through. And I tried and tried and tried. Over and over. (I was eager to get with Earthlink, obviously!)
When I called EarthLink, I assumed that they were busy, had bandwidth issues. They didn’t. (I mean, who has bandwidth issues at 3 am?) They explained that it was AOL. And what other explanation would it be? Pixie dust? I would be more apt to believe it was a bandwidth issue, or some other problem, if I had trouble accessing other files, other sites. But I didn’t. Just EarthLink’s software. Very, very fishy.
BWAAAHAHAAHAHAHA…cough…cough BWAhahahahaha. What brand of crack are you smoking? When you sign on to any ISP your aren’t signing on the the internet, you are signing on to the ISP’s servers that are connected to the internet (biker, maybe you should learn something about how DNS works). When you go to, say, MSN.com from Earthlink you are hitting the internet. It’s the same with AOL. And, no, AOL does not block browsers or content. I know, I used to work in the NOC. I have used every browser out there with AOL. AOL does not block sites. If a member reports something illegal, like kiddie porn, AOL will tell the proper authorites about it and if you violate the TOS you will be warned or your account maybe canceled. Most ISP’s have TOS in the contracts these days.
As far as AOL having the smallest pipeline, well biker, that is absolutely backwards. AOL has the biggest backbone in the world. I was there when AOL hit a million users online at once. That was in 98. The closest rival had something like 250,000 users online at once.
If you hate AOL that is cool. Just get your facts straight.
Slee
Ahh, the EarthLink fiasco. I was there at AOL during this. I had angry calls about it. Did you ever run a trace route while trying to download the EarthLink software? I did. Earthlink servers were timing out. EarthLinks servers could not keep up with the customer demand. So they blamed AOL. I actually had a member call me with an EarthLink tech on the line. When I ran a trace route and the member ran a trace route the traces all ended at EarthLink and they all timed out. At that point the member figured out that the problem wasn’t AOL’s. At the same time EarthLink techs claimed AOL was blocking TCP-IP connections. I also dealt with that problem. I got a hold of an EarthLink admin. I told him to dump the DNS cache and do an NS lookup on www.aol.com. He did and, behold, the problem was fixed. AOL was’t the problem, EarthLinks DNS server was hosed.
I will never use EarthLink.
Slee
Wow. I learn something new every day. Well, I’ll have to remove that from my list of AOL grievances.
But I have so many more grievances.
AOL’s software has always been hellish with (most) of my computers. The only computers it didn’t screw up in some way were an old 486 laptop and an old 6100 PowerMac. All other computers had some “problem” with AOL. AOL 5 prevented my iMac from dialing up EarthLink (I tried AOL on the Mac for a while - temporary lapse of standards). All of my other PCs (and there have been many, many PCs) had problems - freezing, crashing, that damned spinning wheel that never stopped. The only way to get off is to press CTL-ALT-DEL. Argh. The misery. I don’t know why I kept on trying to install it on my computers. It took me too long to learn, AOL is poison to my systems. (And some of these computer systems were factory fresh - I hadn’t installed anything, or done anything to the system software - but AOL still crashed!)
AOL got so bad on my first PC, I kept on having to reinstall. When I called AOL to finally say that I’d had enough, I had to argue for 15 minutes before they finally consented to LET ME GO. They tried to convince me that all the problems I was having were somehow my fault. Oh boy. “Death will not seperate you” is a phrase used with AOL. They never want to let you go. They even called me after I had cancelled my account, to try to get me to come back. What a bunch of pests.
And then there’s the lie they told me about their web software. I was a newbie, I wanted to make a web site with their online web software. But most of the time, it didn’t work. Miserable. I checked AOL’s message board, hundreds of other users were having the same problem. But when I called AOL to complain, I was told that it had nothing to do with them, was my computer’s fault. Oh boy.
Earthlink hasn’t even given me a fraction of the trouble AOL has. It installs seamlessly through DUN, or through Mac OS’s Internet Setup. No conflicts, no problems. No crap. Give me EarthLink any day. It may have its problems, but it is monumentally better than AOL.
The big reason aol is popular is its the only online service that you can still use wiht out a credit card
If you dont like chat rooms or entertainment content aol will be useless for ya
If ya just want a newsgroup and web browser youll hate it
And now that i have dsl If it wasnt for the rdi i probably wouldnt use aol
I started using aol becuase it was the only service out there and it had the ad&d mud at the time
So its just a matter of economics and taste mainly