AOL Users

[R. Richard]

This type of 'service' is one of the reasons I no longer have an AOL account. They wanted me to renew, I told them 'I'll pass.' They asked my to just try and I told them 'Kiss my ass.' Comments?

AOL Tells Customers to Find New Carrier

DULLES, Va. - America Online, which earlier this year stopped signing up new broadband customers, is telling existing broadband subscribers in nine Southern states that they must find a new broadband carrier by Jan. 17.

Those customers who do not switch to a new broadband carrier by that date will have their accounts revert to AOL's traditional dialup service, said AOL spokeswoman Anne Bentley.

The company has been e-mailing its customers in those nine states that they can switch to high-speed broadband service offered by BellSouth Corp. for a special promotional rate.

Most of AOL's 23 million subscribers receive standard dialup service for $24 a month. The company will not disclose how many customers still receive the $54 monthly broadband service, which Bentley acknowledged is relatively expensive compared to other broadband pricing packages now available to consumers.

Bentley said she expects AOL will phase out existing broadband customers in the rest of the country in a similar manner over the next year.

The affected states are Florida, Kentucky, Georgia, Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, North Carolina and South Carolina.

America Online is a unit of Time Warner Inc.

 

[cantdog]

They have nothing I want. I have no children in the house to protect from themselves, I get tired just watching all the stcks and stacks of windows, and the ads are so thick you can't move around. When my daughter had AOL I was on Delphi. That won't mean much to people who don't remember the old days of text based 'net.

I've never been tempted, and I won't start now.. I help out an old lady in my church who needs the thing, she thinks, to be able to keep in touch with her eldest son in California. She reads every piece of spam and replies to a lot of them with "no, thanks, this isn't for me" letters. AOL is her choice, but what does she know?

The interface is hideous and the services are utterly superfluous.

cantdog

 

[dr_mabeuse]

Just what Cantdog says. AOL is just a bunch of bells and whistles that does nothing that you can't do yourself. Expecting people to pay $54 a month for the priviledge of making your computer screen look like an overcrowded old time circus poster is just insane.

---dr.M.

 

[R. Richard]

I am currently using Yahoo as an ISP, as it was basically the only way I could get a standard service with DSL. What are you guys using?

 

[Edward Teach]

I use Earthlink supplied through Time Warner Cable. T/W also has Road Runner at the same speed, price, etc. but I could keep my email address with Earthlink.

Many people use AOL because they send out those CD's by the gazillion which configure your connection, etc. Easy installation has always been their hook.

They are just like Microsoft; easy install, lousy product.

Ed

 

[Weird Harold]

I am currently using Yahoo as an ISP, as it was basically the only way I could get a standard service with DSL. What are you guys using?

I don't have DSL, but I could easily switch to my ISP's DSL service if I wanted to -- It's $20/mo for dil-up and $39/mo for DSL.

I'm with Intermind.net -- a local Las Vegas company that provides a conection with just the Dial-up Networking that comes with Windows.

I found them through ISPFinder.com When SBC/Yahoo bought our Prodigy and provided me with 240 Meg of software to provide me with new and improved spyware and system lockups.

 

[English Lady]

AOL is crap.....and that comes from the mouth of one of the geekiest computer geeks I have ever known -my husband *L*

We're on NTL 's broadband package I think it's around £38 for the 1.5 mb service -though their upgrading the service again in future I think and we'll be able to get 2mb for less than £30 sometime in the future. It works well for us as we get one bill with the TV,phone and broadband all in one.

Not much help to you Americans though -sorry *L*

 

[OldScotlandYard]

pervs, you are all nicked!

 

[sincerely_helene]

pervs, you are all nicked!

I'm nicked, you're nicked, we're all nicked! So what?
As long as everyone still goes through the effort to dress for Christmas, Easter and family reunions, I see no reason to discriminate.

 

[CrimsonMaiden]

We're on cable broadband provided by our local cable company. It's a bundled package with our cable, so it's a little cheaper than what you'd normally pay. It's 3 mb down (started at 1.5 and went up to 3 with no price increase) and comes with 20mb of webspace. It's regularly $49.99, but we don't pay that much since it's discounted through the package. (Regular residential is $39.99 and it's 1.5 mb).

If you want broadband here, it's either through the cable company or DSL through the phone company. I've heard DSL in these parts sucks (and it's more expensive for the same speed service. I checked.)

 

[Boota]

I use AOL and have no problems with it. No pop ups, nothing like that. Of course I'm not much of a computer guy. In fact, I don't do anything online except visit a few message boards and look up movie showtimes. I don't use the internet to steal copyrighted material or all that stuff my friends think is so important. LOL. Email for business and a few online acquaintances. Other than that I use my otehr computer almost exclusively. It's a glorified typewriter. It will never be online. AOL has more features than I will ever need, so I haven't felt the necessity to upgrade yet and get even more shit that I don't need.

 

[Mysteryjj]

We're on AOL broadband, unlimited time online, unlimited downloads size, all for £20 a month, can't see a lot wrong with that, just don't bother with their browser, minimise that and open the Avant browser hubby installed.

JJ xx

 

[logophile]

Tribbles

As a former AOL user (for 10 years), I have come up with an analogy for AOL, MSN, and Yahoo Messenger. They are like Tribbles. They are cute and cuddly. They are friendly. They are virtually impossible to pass by. And not so slowly, they get into your hard drive and reproduce them selves, and wind their way into every file you have until suddenly your computer won't function if you try to completely remove them after installation. When my computer finally died a horrible and painful death this year, I vowed I wouldn't install any more Tribbles! They're so troublesome!

 

[snowy ciara]

I will never ever use aol again. My new tower came with AOL 9.0 installed. First thing I did, (well, first thing my setter upper did.) is DELETE THE CRAP!! I have a cable isp, through my cable tv co.

 

[pop_54]

Don't upgrade to AOL 9 I did and it stripped the guts out of IE causing all manner of problems with the browser and normal every day, non-internet use, with no iexplore left I couldn't even display images on IE from the hard drive without a fatal error. I wound up reverting to AOL 8 and having to re-install IE 6. AOL has since been despatched to the recycle bin as well, (shredded actually), and I have Tesco net.

 

[Just-Legal]

BT Broadband 1mb

I'm still here *g*

 

[Goldie Munro]

BT Broadband 1mb

I'm still here *g*

I know noothing about these things but I'm with you!

 

[cantdog]

I use AOL and have no problems with it. No pop ups, nothing like that. Of course I'm not much of a computer guy. In fact, I don't do anything online except visit a few message boards and look up movie showtimes. I don't use the internet to steal copyrighted material or all that stuff my friends think is so important. LOL. Email for business and a few online acquaintances. Other than that I use my otehr computer almost exclusively. It's a glorified typewriter. It will never be online. AOL has more features than I will ever need, so I haven't felt the necessity to upgrade yet and get even more shit that I don't need.

That's my wife's stance. She knows little about it all, she wants to know less. She e-mails, and that's all. If she wants a browser, she comes upstairs and uses mine. Her AOL is version 2.5 and she can't be bothered to change it.

What you don't use, you don't need.