Why Is Aol Crap?

[exo_body]

hey, my friend is soon getting ADSL in his area and he wants to use AOL broadband, but im telling him not to cause every one says its crap....but why? what stuff does it do i mean?

[Keikan]

Ads built in
spam
you have to use that crap browser program thing
Not being able to truely enjoy the internet freely
you'll get im's asking you to look at whore's webcams
unnessary crap you will never use but you need to pay for
you need to make a lameass user name just to go on the internet
the aol program takes up alot of resources

[{I}{K}{E}]

http://ebtx.com/business/aolsucks.htm :unsure:

[exo_body]

@ {I}{K}{E} - yeah i showed him that page,lol, he just says that its old cobwebs :blink:

@ Keikan - ok i shall tell him that, thanks

anything else?

[Keikan]

yes
aol has bad newsgroups
aol's population is made from people that are really really cheap and their kids
aol is just plain lame
aol has bad publicity
aol is a company trying to monopolize the world
they kind of cut you off to the www so you can slave all day in the aol portal with all the other idiots and cheapos
dumest customer support on earth
aol has had the same gui for 12 years

[TheKiler]

I use AOL to use the exploits :)

That's the only great reason to use AOL.

[Guillaume]

Not to mention the fine lines in their contracts that are closer to extortion than actual commerce... :angry:

[TheKiler]

Ahahaha.. yes.. the ol' fine text..

[Mad Cat]

Some people just can't be helped - a more viable option is pointing and laughing.

[Cheese]

Originally posted by Mad Cat@14 August 2004 - 16:40
Some people just can't be helped - a more viable option is pointing and laughing.
Preferably in the style of Nelson from The Simpsons.

http://headworks.net/simpsons/photo/Images/Pictures/nelsonlaughing3.gif

[exo_body]

lol, yeah, he's simply ignoring what ever i tell him. i guess he's hopeless

[tesco]

let him use it...then let him come over and see yours after about a week...he'll beg for forgiveness. :lol:

main reasons i hated the original aol (dialup) are:
the shitty ass browser u had to have open.
the browser took like 5 mins to load. <_<
the options are confusing as hell to get through (might have just been dumb back then)
to connect took a longer than any other isp i had used.
slow...downloaded at like 2kb/s but with other isp&#39;s i got over 4kb/s
OVERPRICED&#33; costs like 25 bucks but other isps, better ones, cost about &#036;15

[Spock4]

no one likes proxy users...
aol is one of them...
there slow...
there stupid ads in the commericials all lies...
who would want them anyway...
aol is full of spyware/adware...

[supersonic]

I personally dislike and hate A:angry:L (dialup) because:
Their broswer uses all the resources in the comp. 100% CPU for PIII
They STEAL your personal information, there is not doubt about it
They display the ads everybody is talking about
For similar price I got Sympatico with 3Mbp (b/c I&#39;m close to thier center though)
Lets not talk about the reputation that is on the line and the Millions of users who are
quitting <_<
Email provided SUCKS
webspace provided just useless
they are slower than hell
they technical support is crap
I got spyware installed in AOL&#39;s folder, wonder who installed it <_<
I got all the crackers trying out new exploits on the other users
they port-scan thier members
Their FTP/newsgroups are garbage
and many other reasons you can find out by using it ;)

[Hitchhiker427]

Before I got a real ISP, I used to use AOL for years (Hey, I was a kid, and that&#39;s what my parents payed for).

In short, yes, AOL is crap. But also, alot of comments I have seen are either outdated or misinformed.

Let it be known that I dropped AOL because it sucked, but I&#39;ll defend a couple of points for it, and explain the things that really are problems.

For starters, the spyware is not all really AOL, but rather the security problems that AOL has and hackers make use of it. AOL has horrible security, and more holes than swiss cheese.

The millions of popups that come up when you log on was a problem in older versions (like 4 or 5). I newer versions have an option in preferences to turn them off, and it works.

The newsgroups weren&#39;t THAT bad... kinda.

People say their technical support is crap. Yes, yes it is. But unfortunately, most big companies have crappy technical support, so it&#39;s not JUST AOL.

Their FTP is crap.

Yes, AOL sometimes does bump you off the internet for inactivity. But this doesn&#39;t happen nearly as much in the newer versions, and is more a thing of the past.

AOL&#39;s mail is bad because you can&#39;t use Outlook or any similar programs with it, but when it comes down to it, the mail service is improving. They do offer spam blockers for the mail, and even though it doesn&#39;t catch everything, it does alright. I had no problem with the mail service when I used AOL.

AOL does have a built-in popup blocker, which until recently, even IE lacked. AOL&#39;s popup blocker does work... kinda.

The fact that AOL has to be open to surf the net was the biggest thing that bothered me about it, and is the main reason I switched. Other browsers offered so many more features in comparison, that I would rather use them. This was okay... except that AOL was minimized in my taskbar eating all of my resources. This was annoying.

I&#39;ve heard someone say that the configuration was confusing... this is not true. AOL is extremely easy to configure (mainly because it doesn&#39;t have that many options in the first place...)

I&#39;ve heard someone say their gui doesn&#39;t change or anything. For starters, you can change the gui (but only with the resources they provide, unless you use a third-party app), and you can removed pieces of the toolbar that get in your way. So, this isn&#39;t really a viable complaint.

Also, alot of people say things like "They have a bad reputation", and "why would you want to use them". Frankly, these mean nothing. Who cares if no one else likes something? As long as it works for you, that&#39;s all that matters.

(Wow, that&#39;s a lot of typing)

Anyways, if you don&#39;t want to read that... my main point is this:
If you know what you&#39;re doing on the computer and the internet, and are experienced, it&#39;s time to move towards a REAL ISP. If you&#39;re just starting out, but intend to learn more in the future, then don&#39;t cripple yourself to start out with... use a REAL ISP. But, if you don&#39;t know crap about computers, never intend to learn things about computers, and just want something easy to use and basic, then out of anything else, I would recommend AOL.

Good day, all.

[Chewie]

LOL sounds like lotsa AOL bashers that haven&#39;t experienced it in many an aeon. :D


Originally posted by Keikan+14 August 2004 - 14:23--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Keikan &#064; 14 August 2004 - 14:23)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'>you have to use that crap browser program thing[/b]No you don&#39;t, you always needed to start their software in the past (they&#39;re certainly considering dropping this restriction, if they haven&#39;t already) but there has never been anything stopping you connecting with their software and then browsing with M&#036; IE (as opposed to the one &#39;inside&#39; their software), Netscrape (strangely, their own program and not in their software), Opera, Firefox, Mozilla, Mozarella, Cheddar or anything else you can get to view web pages.


Originally posted by Keikan@14 August 2004 - 14:23
Not being able to truely enjoy the internet freelyI smell something familiar, reminding me of cattle.


Originally posted by Keikan@14 August 2004 - 14:23
you&#39;ll get im&#39;s asking you to look at whore&#39;s webcamsJust like you do with other ISPs when you have Me&#036;&#036;enger, ICQ Hotmail or often just an ordinary email address.


Originally posted by Keikan@14 August 2004 - 14:23
unnessary crap you will never use but you need to pay forLike all the shit you don&#39;t use in Windows and don&#39;t mind being there, for instance the calculator, Solitaire, WinMe&#036;&#036;enger, WIndows Movie Maker, WMP, System Restore... fuckit I&#39;m bored so I&#39;ll stop.


Originally posted by Keikan@14 August 2004 - 14:23
you need to make a lameass user name just to go on the internetLast I heard, you need a lame arsed username to use any ISP&#39;s internet service.


Originally posted by Keikan@14 August 2004 - 14:28
aol has bad newsgroupsNo, AOL has a poor newsgroup service, but how many of the people visiting this forum actually know the benefits of them? Very few - probably less than 5%. As an example, there isn&#39;t a Newsgroup section in the filesharingtalk forums because there isn&#39;t enough interest.
As a second point, people who are serious about using newsgroups for the things everyone coming here hold dear to their hearts, recommend paying for a premium service because most ISP ones are crap.


Originally posted by Keikan@14 August 2004 - 14:28
aol&#39;s population is made from people that are really really cheap and their kidsEh? What sort of argument is that?


Originally posted by Keikan@14 August 2004 - 14:28
aol is just plain lameQue? See previous.


Originally posted by Keikan@14 August 2004 - 14:28
aol has bad publicityNice to see you carrying on in the same vein.


Originally posted by Keikan@14 August 2004 - 14:28
aol is a company trying to monopolize the worldThey&#39;re all trying to take on the world. All da Freeserve customers in da h0wse say H0_o&#33; In Dutch.


Originally posted by Keikan@14 August 2004 - 14:28
they kind of cut you off to the www so you can slave all day in the aol portal with all the other idiots and cheaposErm, wrong. My AOL-ed brother&#39;s homepage is not AOL&#39;s (http://www.rotten.com)


Originally posted by Keikan@14 August 2004 - 14:28
dumest customer support on earthOh my, the irony&#33;
Au contraire, AOL&#39;s customer support is second to none when ordinary customers have a problem. In fact I&#39;d go as far as to say it&#39;s possibly the best service I&#39;ve contacted - it&#39;s certainly better than NTL&#39;s over here&#33;


Originally posted by Keikan@14 August 2004 - 14:28
aol has had the same gui for 12 yearsNow you really are clutching at straws, aren&#39;t you?


Originally posted by Gurahl@14 August 2004 - 14:59
Not to mention the fine lines in their contracts that are closer to extortion than actual commerce...&nbsp; :angry:No more than any other ISP&#39;s fineprint... AOL actually give you free service if you phone and pretend you want to cancel - that&#39;s a great loophole&#33;


Originally posted by ROSSCO_2004@14 August 2004 - 16:57
slow...downloaded at like 2kb/s but with other isp&#39;s i got over 4kb/sMy brother&#39;s AOL dialup was downloading at ~6KB/s this afternoon.


Originally posted by supersonic@14 August 2004 - 18:53
I personally dislike and hate A:angry:L (dialup) because:
Their broswer uses all the resources in the comp. 100% CPU for PIIII would doubt that is typical of their installation.


Originally posted by supersonic@14 August 2004 - 18:53
They STEAL your personal information, there is not doubt about itNo, you GIVE THEM your personal information, which is something every ISP has to have to provide you with a service.


Originally posted by supersonic@14 August 2004 - 18:53
They display the ads everybody is talking aboutWhat ads? All ISPs display ads.


Originally posted by supersonic@14 August 2004 - 18:53
Lets not talk about the reputation that is on the line and the Millions of users who are quitting&nbsp; <_<LOL, what fucking reputation are you talking about here? A ludicrous statement.


Originally posted by supersonic@14 August 2004 - 18:53
Email provided SUCKSAnother gem. While their email ain&#39;t what I&#39;d want, the majority of people I&#39;ve come across seem to be using online services rather than their ISP&#39;s anyway - so they can read it at work/school and at home.


Originally posted by supersonic@14 August 2004 - 18:53
webspace provided just uselessAs is most ISP&#39;s. My Blueyonder space may be 25MB, but it&#39;s a poxy url and plain ol&#39; HTML is all I can use on it. :(


Originally posted by supersonic@14 August 2004 - 18:53
I got spyware installed in AOL&#39;s folder, wonder who installed it&nbsp; <_< My brother hasn&#39;t - I wonder where it went?


Originally posted by supersonic@14 August 2004 - 18:53
I got all the crackers trying out new exploits on the other usersDon&#39;t understand that one. No firewall?


Originally posted by supersonic@14 August 2004 - 18:53
they port-scan thier membersA lot of ISPs do this now to detect users that haven&#39;t updated Windows to close security holes. If I don&#39;t put two specific IPs in my firewall&#39;s trusted area, it&#39;ll block them and I have no connectivity.

<!--QuoteBegin-supersonic@14 August 2004 - 18:53
Their FTP/newsgroups are garbage[/quote]FTP? They even have an FTP service? Shit, I&#39;ve had providers without one and it doesn&#39;t impact the service in the least.


Now some of you may have seen me posting in AOL&#39;s defence before, and you&#39;ll know how I feel about it, but I&#39;ve gotta go through it for the others... :)
I don&#39;t like AOL but I do appreciate the service they offer. This service is not for me, and it&#39;s obviously not for a lot of others here, but for people like my brother (fuckinghell, he&#39;s using NIS2003 AND AOL at the same time... why doesn&#39;t his computer just fucking lock up in despair?????&#33;&#33;?1) it&#39;s perfect. For people like my old boss and many others, it&#39;s exactly the thing they need. AOL do not have Customer Service or Technical Support departments that are any worse than most other ISPs. What people don&#39;t take into account is the manner of the customers that phone CS and TS - get beligerant and &#39;arsey&#39; at a police officer and you&#39;re likely to get arrested, but do it to CS or TS and you&#39;re gonna be frustrated.
The fact is that people who know what they&#39;re doing don&#39;t need AOL because it&#39;s not aimed at them. They are not in the target audience, if you like.
It strikes me that this kid may well need AOL - Indeed, there&#39;s a few people in here that could do with it but think they don&#39;t&#33;
In short, forget how bad AOL used to be, they&#39;re not that bad any more.

[supersonic]

I would doubt that is typical of their installation.
<_< I need to install it and post scre3ns maybe.

No, you GIVE THEM your personal information, which is something every ISP has to have to provide you with a service.

there is a difference between STEALING your personal information and the information you give them. According to what they say is that they don&#39;t use these information for BS, but they do&#33;

What ads? All ISPs display ads.
Thats not true, mine doesn&#39;t

LOL, what fucking reputation are you talking about here? A ludicrous statement.

True, My statement was ....I don&#39;t know what I was thinking :lol:

Another gem. While their email ain&#39;t what I&#39;d want, the majority of people I&#39;ve come across seem to be using online services rather than their ISP&#39;s anyway - so they can read it at work/school and at home.

But their email SUCKS, they are supposed to be BETTER than other ISP, because Millions of noobs use AOL and their crappy email service.

As is most ISP&#39;s. My Blueyonder space may be 25MB, but it&#39;s a poxy url and plain ol&#39; HTML is all I can use on it. sad.gif
But their webspace is useless, because you can&#39;t even use the 5 MB (at the time I was using it) because of limitations. They put the webspace in all their ads as if it was...

My brother hasn&#39;t - I wonder where it went?
C&#39;mon Adaware detected it, who installed it then ;)

Don&#39;t understand that one. No firewall?

A lot of ISPs do this now to detect users that haven&#39;t updated Windows to close security holes. If I don&#39;t put two specific IPs in my firewall&#39;s trusted area, it&#39;ll block them and I have no connectivity.
I used to use sygate and I got these attacks continously, just slowing down my crappy internet connection, DDosing...again, my statement was unclear :lol:

FTP? They even have an FTP service? Shit, I&#39;ve had providers without one and it doesn&#39;t impact the service in the least.
Like I said "garbage", we&#39;re better without these crappy services that they fill their ads with.

I&#39;ve used AOL for quite a while (years) and I don&#39;t think that they offer any good services. About AOL&#39;s changes and how it is not the same anymore, yea right, &#39;tis like I&#39;m ever going to believe. All I know that my ISP doesn&#39;t add #&#036;#&#036;ing services and ads that I don&#39;t need, and my computer NEVER crashed. Where using AOL was a night mare. You be the judge.

[Rip The Jacker]

gAyOL has....

Image Compression&#33;

:ph34r: :ph34r: :ph34r:

[supersonic]

Aria :rolleyes:

[exo_body]

lol, this has turned into a mini argument :ph34r: sorry&#33; but this guy is very good at computers, for his age i mean. but is it true that most of these things only correspond to AOL&#39;s dialup? and that their DSl is better?

[Hitchhiker427]

oh yeah, my only experience is with their dialup service. So, maybe the DSL is better/worse. But yeah, AOL does suck, but not as much as people say nowadays. It&#39;s just "cool" to bash popular things as much as possible, so people jump on the badwagon.

If your friend&#39;s any good with computers, and wants as much power and much freedom as he/she can have, I would not recommend AOL. I&#39;d just appreciate it if everyone got their facts straight before offering advice, and office real advice other than "it sucks". Thank you.

[Chewie]

<deleted due to duplicating below>

[Chewie]

Originally posted by supersonic+14 August 2004 - 21:26--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (supersonic &#064; 14 August 2004 - 21:26)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'>
No, you GIVE THEM your personal information, which is something every ISP has to have to provide you with a service.

there is a difference between STEALING your personal information and the information you give them. According to what they say is that they don&#39;t use these information for BS, but they do&#33;[/b]They can&#39;t steal what you give them. They can pass it on (which is usually in their T&C & policy statements) but it&#39;s not stuff they&#39;ve clandestinely raided your hard drive or kitchen drawer for.


Originally posted by supersonic@14 August 2004 - 21:26

What ads? All ISPs display ads.
Thats not true, mine doesn&#39;tNot even an advert on their home page?


Originally posted by supersonic@14 August 2004 - 21:26

Another gem. While their email ain&#39;t what I&#39;d want, the majority of people I&#39;ve come across seem to be using online services rather than their ISP&#39;s anyway - so they can read it at work/school and at home.

But their email SUCKS, they are supposed to be BETTER than other ISP, because Millions of noobs use AOL and their crappy email service.Why are they supposed to be better? WTF is that argument? Email is email, and some are better than others. Computer literate people appear to mostly use an online service, while n00bs use whatever their ISP sets up for them. If your savvy about computers then you prolly won&#39;t be signed up with them.


Originally posted by supersonic@14 August 2004 - 21:26

As is most ISP&#39;s. My Blueyonder space may be 25MB, but it&#39;s a poxy url and plain ol&#39; HTML is all I can use on it. sad.gif
But their webspace is useless, because you can&#39;t even use the 5 MB (at the time I was using it) because of limitations. They put the webspace in all their ads as if it was...As if it&#39;s a selling point? Well, welcome to the 80s mate. This has been going on for years in every corner of life. Why does everyone in here recommend XP Pro Corp over Home? Because it&#39;s better? Do all these people know what&#39;s better about it? No they don&#39;t all know, and even those that do seem to assume that everyone should have the few extra features when the vast majority of home users won&#39;t even notice them. Just because a &#39;Pro&#39; version always has extra features, it must be the one to get and use.
Marketing strategies make me wanna hurl sometimes, but this is the way it happens everywhere. Blimey, look at Bush, Blair, Thatcher, Reagan - they all rode in on spin and marketing. Emphasise your plus points or the opposition&#39;s failings enough and that&#39;s all the voting public will think about.
I don&#39;t know about you, but I&#39;ve been second-guessing the real meaning to advertising for a looong time, and I&#39;ve been alerting my kids as well.

<!--QuoteBegin-supersonic@14 August 2004 - 21:26

My brother hasn&#39;t - I wonder where it went?
C&#39;mon Adaware detected it, who installed it then ;) [/quote]I was removing crap from my brother&#39;s puter today (did his stepson put it on with Imesh?) and Spybot, Adaware and HijackThis didn&#39;t show up anything nasty connected to the AOL installation.

[Chewie]

Originally posted by supersonic+14 August 2004 - 21:26--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (supersonic &#064; 14 August 2004 - 21:26)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'>
FTP? They even have an FTP service? Shit, I&#39;ve had providers without one and it doesn&#39;t impact the service in the least.
Like I said "garbage", we&#39;re better without these crappy services that they fill their ads with.[/b]What difference does the quality of an FTP service make when you&#39;ve got MajorGeeks, Tucows, Download.com and Christ only knows how many other file repositories?

<!--QuoteBegin-supersonic@14 August 2004 - 21:26
I&#39;ve used AOL for quite a while (years) and I don&#39;t think that they offer any good services. About AOL&#39;s changes and how it is not the same anymore, yea right, &#39;tis like I&#39;m ever going to believe. All I know that my ISP doesn&#39;t add #&#036;#&#036;ing services and ads that I don&#39;t need, and my computer NEVER crashed. Where using AOL was a night mare. You be the judge.[/quote]
We can only speak from our experiences (well we&#39;re supposed to anyway) and mine have been much better than they were when AOL4 was the software. With all this talk about adverts your post sounds more like resentment.



Sorry about that, couldn&#39;t get all the quotes to show properly :">

[Chewie]

Originally posted by Hitchhiker427@15 August 2004 - 00:29
oh yeah, my only experience is with their dialup service. So, maybe the DSL is better/worse. But yeah, AOL does suck, but not as much as people say nowadays. It&#39;s just "cool" to bash popular things as much as possible, so people jump on the badwagon.

If your friend&#39;s any good with computers, and wants as much power and much freedom as he/she can have, I would not recommend AOL. I&#39;d just appreciate it if everyone got their facts straight before offering advice, and office real advice other than "it sucks". Thank you.
Amen, brother :D

[Keikan]

you have to use that crap browser program thingNo you don&#39;t, you always needed to start their software in the past (they&#39;re certainly considering dropping this restriction, if they haven&#39;t already) but there has never been anything stopping you connecting with their software and then browsing with M&#036; IE (as opposed to the one &#39;inside&#39; their software), Netscrape (strangely, their own program and not in their software), Opera, Firefox, Mozilla, Mozarella, Cheddar or anything else you can get to view web pages.
Well AOL&#39;s browser is based on IE and IE is bad.



Not being able to truely enjoy the internet freelyI smell something familiar, reminding me of cattle.
Nothing like the smell of a fresh cool glass of milk&#33; :)



you&#39;ll get im&#39;s asking you to look at whore&#39;s webcamsJust like you do with other ISPs when you have Me&#036;&#036;enger, ICQ Hotmail or often just an ordinary email address.
I use msn messenger and never get im from people i don&#39;t know; my isp email doesn&#39;t get spam



unnessary crap you will never use but you need to pay forLike all the shit you don&#39;t use in Windows and don&#39;t mind being there, for instance the calculator, Solitaire, WinMe&#036;&#036;enger, WIndows Movie Maker, WMP, System Restore... fuckit I&#39;m bored so I&#39;ll stop.
I never will, never did pay for my windows but you need to pay for AOL (Broadband)
this isn&#39;t a valid comparison



you need to make a lameass user name just to go on the internetLast I heard, you need a lame arsed username to use any ISP&#39;s internet service.
Well here i don&#39;t need a username to double click on my browser and go to a website or connect to the internet and I&#39;m using one of your any isps



aol has bad newsgroupsNo, AOL has a poor newsgroup service, but how many of the people visiting this forum actually know the benefits of them? Very few - probably less than 5%. As an example, there isn&#39;t a Newsgroup section in the filesharingtalk forums because there isn&#39;t enough interest.
As a second point, people who are serious about using newsgroups for the things everyone coming here hold dear to their hearts, recommend paying for a premium service because most ISP ones are crap.
I have great newsgroups unlimited downloading of anything



aol&#39;s population is made from people that are really really cheap and their kidsEh? What sort of argument is that?

I&#39;m glad you asked that&#33; What is aol&#39;s best attraction? The 3 months free thing, so people can just go on for free because their too cheap to shell out 10 bucks (dialup).
Their kids are also forced to use this even though they might know better.



aol is just plain lameQue? See previous.

It&#39;s a simple statement aol is just plain lame.



aol has bad publicityNice to see you carrying on in the same vein.

Well why do so many people say it sucks?



aol is a company trying to monopolize the worldThey&#39;re all trying to take on the world. All da Freeserve customers in da h0wse say H0_o&#33; In Dutch.

Well it&#39;s true aol is a company trying to monopolize the world.



they kind of cut you off to the www so you can slave all day in the aol portal with all the other idiots and cheaposErm, wrong. My AOL-ed brother&#39;s homepage is not AOL&#39;s (http://www.rotten.com)

Your comment is in the wrong subject. I&#39;m not talking about webhosting.



dumest customer support on earthOh my, the irony&#33;
Au contraire, AOL&#39;s customer support is second to none when ordinary customers have a problem. In fact I&#39;d go as far as to say it&#39;s possibly the best service I&#39;ve contacted - it&#39;s certainly better than NTL&#39;s over here&#33;


I have talked to tech support about serious problems (not just prank phone calls) and they do not know what the hell I&#39;m talking about.


[QUOTE=Keikan,14 August 2004 - 14:28]aol has had the same gui for 12 yearsNow you really are clutching at straws, aren&#39;t you?

If i didn&#39;t accidentally wipe my hard drive clean I would post screen shots right now.



What ads? All ISPs display ads.

wrong. websites display ads, ads on aol are built in into the aol program meaning that isp displays ads

[Hitchhiker427]

Here, let me take a shot:


Well AOL&#39;s browser is based on IE and IE is bad.

"IE is bad". This is simply an opinion and not a fact. In short, this is not a reason to dump AOL (the IE debate can be left to one of the many other threads)


I use msn messenger and never get im from people i don&#39;t know; my isp email doesn&#39;t get spam

Yeah well, I used AOL for years, and never got junk from the instant messenger. But, I&#39;m sure that some people using it have. As you must be sure that people using MSN messenger have had the same.


I never will, never did pay for my windows but you need to pay for AOL (Broadband)
this isn&#39;t a valid comparison

Yeah, my windows is pirated too, so I&#39;m not gonna bash piracy, but still, Windows is a commercial program that you&#39;re supposed to pay for just as AOL is. The fact that people can illegally obtain Windows easier than they can pirate AOL Broadband has nothing to with that.


Well here i don&#39;t need a username to double click on my browser and go to a website or connect to the internet and I&#39;m using one of your any isps

Heh, not gonna argue on that one, man. That was an annoying feature in AOL. Although, most dialup providers do require you to do that.


I have great newsgroups unlimited downloading of anything

Yeah, those newsgroups are great to you, but they may be trash to someone else... just as AOL&#39;s newsgroups are great to some and trash to others.


I&#39;m glad you asked that&#33; What is aol&#39;s best attraction? The 3 months free thing, so people can just go on for free because their too cheap to shell out 10 bucks (dialup).
Their kids are also forced to use this even though they might know better.

Sorry man, but that has nothing to do with why someone shouldn&#39;t use AOL. A good decent person and a cheap bastard can both use the same type of software for different reasons, ya know. You have no argument there.


It&#39;s a simple statement aol is just plain lame.

What the hell? This is practically saying "AOL is bad because it is lame". WTF? This is no decent point of argument&#33;


Well why do so many people say it sucks?

Yeah, and why do so many I&#39;ve talked to enjoy it? Simply opinion, my man.


Well it&#39;s true aol is a company trying to monopolize the world.

Oh, give me a break. Just because the company itself might have ideals other than yours does not mean that a piece of software it produces is inherently "evil". Jeez, who cares if they&#39;re a monopoly? That&#39;s not a reason not to use the software.


Your comment is in the wrong subject. I&#39;m not talking about webhosting.

Yeah, I got what you were saying man, and just because Chewie&#39;s comment wasn&#39;t actually the same point you were going for, doesn&#39;t mean that you are right. In fact, you aren&#39;t even partially right. AOL doesn&#39;t close you into any sort of portal at all. True, you can enter many AOL only areas full of other AOL users, but you can just as easily go to any other website and community if you&#39;d rather.


I have talked to tech support about serious problems (not just prank phone calls) and they do not know what the hell I&#39;m talking about.

Heh, yeah, I&#39;m not going to defend their tech support. That was a "fun" experience. But, for what it&#39;s worth, most other companies have similar quality tech support. They are mostly people from other countries (who we can pay for next to nothing) who know very little about computers themselves, but rather refer to the references given to them. Yeah, but that&#39;s life...


If i didn&#39;t accidentally wipe my hard drive clean I would post screen shots right now.

Um, actually this point of argument has nothing to do with you wiping your harddrive, but rather the GUI thing... Yes, AOL&#39;s GUI has changed considerably. They use a similar theme throughout versions, but get either version 8 or 9. You can customize the appearance to your liking.


wrong. websites display ads, ads on aol are built in into the aol program meaning that isp displays ads

yet again, this is true for OLDER versions of the software. I successfully used newer versions of AOL with no ads built into the software. Plus, many ISPs DO have ads of their own. Many of them brand IE with their logo and "Internet Explorer powered by our ISP" and place links onto the desktop (just like AOL). Although, there are ways around that, there are also ways around AOL&#39;s problems.



I didn&#39;t intend to post here again, but after seeing Keikan&#39;s response, I just had to.

[Chewie]

Fuck this quote bollox, it getting a bit pissed up&#33; :)



Originally posted by Keikan+14 August 2004 - 14:23--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Keikan &#064; 14 August 2004 - 14:23)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'>you have to use that crap browser program thingNo you don&#39;t, you always needed to start their software in the past (they&#39;re certainly considering dropping this restriction, if they haven&#39;t already) but there has never been anything stopping you connecting with their software and then browsing with M&#036; IE (as opposed to the one &#39;inside&#39; their software), Netscrape (strangely, their own program and not in their software), Opera, Firefox, Mozilla, Mozarella, Cheddar or anything else you can get to view web pages.
Well AOL&#39;s browser is based on IE and IE is bad[/b]
Bad? You could at least point out some security holes to blow my argument away&#33;
Regardless, you can use whatever browser you prefer, you are not limited to the one in the AOL software.



Originally posted by Keikan@14 August 2004 - 14:23
you&#39;ll get im&#39;s asking you to look at whore&#39;s webcamsJust like you do with other ISPs when you have Me&#036;&#036;enger, ICQ Hotmail or often just an ordinary email address.
I use msn messenger and never get im from people i don&#39;t know; my isp email doesn&#39;t get spam
I don&#39;t get IMs on M&#036;N Me&#036;&#036;enger now, which is nice, but other people I know do, and other IM programs have this problem too (Mirabilis are you listening?).



Originally posted by Keikan@14 August 2004 - 14:23
unnessary crap you will never use but you need to pay forLike all the shit you don&#39;t use in Windows and don&#39;t mind being there, for instance the calculator, Solitaire, WinMe&#036;&#036;enger, WIndows Movie Maker, WMP, System Restore... fuckit I&#39;m bored so I&#39;ll stop.
I never will, never did pay for my windows but you need to pay for AOL (Broadband)
this isn&#39;t a valid comparison
It is a valid comparison. Whether you pay for your OS or not, it&#39;s fucking lame to bitch about included features you don&#39;t use.



Originally posted by Keikan@14 August 2004 - 14:23
you need to make a lameass user name just to go on the internetLast I heard, you need a lame arsed username to use any ISP&#39;s internet service.
Well here i don&#39;t need a username to double click on my browser and go to a website or connect to the internet and I&#39;m using one of your any isps
On cable, you may not need to enter it for that but you do need it for your email, support and billing ;). I know that my lameass username was decided for me by BlueYonder, but AOL gave my brother the choice.
I don&#39;t know exactly how AOL&#39;s ADSL works but I believe the usual method is for the modem to dial and exchange login details. That&#39;s how Tiscali works over here, anyway.



Originally posted by Keikan@14 August 2004 - 14:28
aol has bad newsgroupsNo, AOL has a poor newsgroup service, but how many of the people visiting this forum actually know the benefits of them? Very few - probably less than 5%. As an example, there isn&#39;t a Newsgroup section in the filesharingtalk forums because there isn&#39;t enough interest.
As a second point, people who are serious about using newsgroups for the things everyone coming here hold dear to their hearts, recommend paying for a premium service because most ISP ones are crap.
I have great newsgroups unlimited downloading of anything
So do I, but for how many people is this a deciding factor? It&#39;s very rare to find an ISP with a news service as good as ours, and the point is this failing is not unique to AOL - it&#39;s the general state of affairs across all ISPs.



Originally posted by Keikan@14 August 2004 - 14:28
aol&#39;s population is made from people that are really really cheap and their kidsEh? What sort of argument is that?
I&#39;m glad you asked that&#33; What is aol&#39;s best attraction? The 3 months free thing, so people can just go on for free because their too cheap to shell out 10 bucks (dialup).
Their kids are also forced to use this even though they might know better.
Be careful not to tar all parents with the same brush. Most ISPs offer a free period although not as long as AOL, but this isn&#39;t the biggest factor for parents... that accolade goes to it&#39;s safe. AOL do harp on about the parental control features&#33;
I make decent money from de-pr0ning and dialler removal on computers with teenage boys in the household and parents are always worried about that shit on their computers. Every one of them has asked me how to prevent that shit on the computer because they&#39;re worried how their kids are going to turn out LOL. I always ask the father what he was like at that age and point out that he should only start to worry when he comes across naked men on there&#33;
Second on parents&#39; list of priorities seems to be it&#39;s easy - they like that a lot, because it infers that they can handle it even if they don&#39;t know what they&#39;re doing.
The free helpline is another plus for parents. It works, too, because my brother&#39;s computer is the only AOL-ed one I work on regularly - and never anything to do with AOL.
I know this because I am one and I know a lot of others that aren&#39;t particularly computer literate.



Originally posted by Keikan@14 August 2004 - 14:28
aol is just plain lameQue? See previous.
It&#39;s a simple statement aol is just plain lame.
That is a lame statement and one that a child would use. You have intelligence, K, don&#39;t make yourself look like a tit by using preteen shit like that.



Originally posted by Keikan@14 August 2004 - 14:28
aol has bad publicityNice to see you carrying on in the same vein.
Well why do so many people say it sucks?
LOL. Why do lotsa kidz lie about losing their virginity? Why is grass green? Does your chewing gum lose it&#39;s flavour on the bedpost overnight? Is it true what they say about Dixie?
Look at it this way; everyone around here is saying they&#39;re not going to see the Catwoman movie because it&#39;s crap. It hasn&#39;t been released yet and they haven&#39;t seen it, so how can they know? Word of mouth.
Word of mouth is the best form of advertising, and by the same token it can be a company&#39;s worst enemy. The thing is, AOL has millions of customers that don&#39;t bitch about the service and a few thousand that do. Even though the people that do bitch mainly do it in a fashion resembling a spoilt brat not getting his ice-cream, it&#39;s the percentage of the overall that needs to be taken into account not the actual number. All ISPs have their detractors but 2% of AOL&#39;s customer base is a much larger number than 2% of Demon&#39;s.



Originally posted by Keikan@14 August 2004 - 14:28
aol is a company trying to monopolize the worldThey&#39;re all trying to take on the world. All da Freeserve customers in da h0wse say H0_o&#33; In Dutch.
Well it&#39;s true aol is a company trying to monopolize the world.
And? Hey, why don&#39;t you ditch Windows completely then? Bad argument - use your brain, man&#33; :)



Originally posted by Keikan@14 August 2004 - 14:28
they kind of cut you off to the www so you can slave all day in the aol portal with all the other idiots and cheaposErm, wrong. My AOL-ed brother&#39;s homepage is not AOL&#39;s
Your comment is in the wrong subject. I&#39;m not talking about webhosting.
No, my comment is bang on. My brother&#39;s homepage is outside the portal and would be blocked by AOL&#39;s filters if enabled, and therefore indicates that he is not restricted to the AOL portal.



Originally posted by Keikan@14 August 2004 - 14:28
dumest customer support on earthOh my, the irony&#33;
Au contraire, AOL&#39;s customer support is second to none when ordinary customers have a problem. In fact I&#39;d go as far as to say it&#39;s possibly the best service I&#39;ve contacted - it&#39;s certainly better than NTL&#39;s over here&#33;
I have talked to tech support about serious problems (not just prank phone calls) and they do not know what the hell I&#39;m talking about. I&#39;m not talking about prank calls, I&#39;m talking about belligerant people phoning up and being given the runaround because the person the other end can&#39;t just say "fuck off for 10 minutes and cool down" to them. I have spoken to them too, and they&#39;ve been courteous, understanding and efficient - better than two other ISP&#39;s helpdesks I&#39;ve contacted. In the same way, my brother got his collar felt by &#39;the law&#39; after a &#39;nothing&#39; pull, but I have been stopped without a tax disc, insurance details or driving licence on me yet drove on without incident.


<!--QuoteBegin-Keikan@14 August 2004 - 14:28
aol has had the same gui for 12 yearsNow you really are clutching at straws, aren&#39;t you?[/quote]
If i didn&#39;t accidentally wipe my hard drive clean I would post screen shots right now.
AOL 9 looks very different to earlier versions to me. Why would you keep screenshots of AOL windows for such a long time? ;) Peculiar.


What ads? All ISPs display ads.
wrong. websites display ads, ads on aol are built in into the aol program meaning that isp displays ads
You put up with adverts on websites but can&#39;t stand it in their software? If you connect and minimise then go about your business with Firefox (or whatever) you wouldn&#39;t even notice them.

[supersonic]

They can&#39;t steal what you give them. They can pass it on (which is usually in their T&C & policy statements) but it&#39;s not stuff they&#39;ve clandestinely raided your hard drive or kitchen drawer for.
Yea so what if they pass TOO much information about you?
Who said that they do what their T&C or P policy says?
http://www.internetnews.com/xSP/article.php/3372711

Not even an advert on their home page?

My ISP doesn&#39;t open its homepage without YOU requesting it.


As if it&#39;s a selling point? Well, welcome to the 80s mate. This has been going on for years in every corner of life. Why does everyone in here recommend XP Pro Corp over Home? Because it&#39;s better? Do all these people know what&#39;s better about it? No they don&#39;t all know, and even those that do seem to assume that everyone should have the few extra features when the vast majority of home users won&#39;t even notice them. Just because a &#39;Pro&#39; version always has extra features, it must be the one to get and use.
Marketing strategies make me wanna hurl sometimes, but this is the way it happens everywhere. Blimey, look at Bush, Blair, Thatcher, Reagan - they all rode in on spin and marketing. Emphasise your plus points or the opposition&#39;s failings enough and that&#39;s all the voting public will think about.
I don&#39;t know about you, but I&#39;ve been second-guessing the real meaning to advertising for a looong time, and I&#39;ve been alerting my kids as well.
AOL doesn&#39;t offer what it says it does, that was my point. They don&#39;t have one thing that is superior to other ISPs, so why should you go with AOL? Why not get the PRO for more features, instead of HOME with less features? Not all people say that PRO is definitly the BEST, I&#39;m 1 o&#39; them.
not talking about selling... <_<

Why are they supposed to be better? WTF is that argument? Email is email, and some are better than others. Computer literate people appear to mostly use an online service, while n00bs use whatever their ISP sets up for them. If your savvy about computers then you prolly won&#39;t be signed up with them.

If they are not better, then why the #&#036;#@ should you choose them? You lost me, because my point was that the email service they offer is not better to the email service other ISPs offer, and some ISPs offer more email storage and other things than AOL, so why should you use AOL?

I was removing crap from my brother&#39;s puter today (did his stepson put it on with Imesh?) and Spybot, Adaware and HijackThis didn&#39;t show up anything nasty connected to the AOL installation.

I don&#39;t know about your borther&#39;s comp, but I know one thing for sure, I got the spyware in AOL&#39;s folder and why AOL is specific. Where I couldn&#39;t find any spyware anywhere else on the comp.

What difference does the quality of an FTP service make when you&#39;ve got MajorGeeks, Tucows, Download.com and Christ only knows how many other file repositories?
It doesn&#39;t matter? how the #&#036;#@ you gonna download and use the service if it is not good? we&#39;re better off without it.

We can only speak from our experiences (well we&#39;re supposed to anyway) and mine have been much better than they were when AOL4 was the software. With all this talk about adverts your post sounds more like resentment.

I spoke from my real experience with AOL. I don&#39;t know about yours, but you go to websites/boards about ISPs with lots of people who had an experience with AOL and ask them. You also will not see AOL on top of the list (of ISPs best to worst), thats all I know. All I&#39;m saying is that AOL is not the BEST, compared to other ISPs and there are other BETTER ISP.

[Keikan]

Firefox has a built in popup blocker
i downloaded aol 2.5 for expirementing though i like the 2.5 connecting screen because when your logging on instead of that aol man walking you see like a lightling bolt cool huh?

Alright alright then I just have one question before i rest my case

Do you Chewie use AOL (broadband/dial up)?

If no, why?


XP Pro Corp over Home
you can&#39;t pirate home? thats why pro corp is better?

[TheKiler]

Originally posted by Keikan@15 August 2004 - 09:39
Firefox has a built in popup blocker
i downloaded aol 2.5 for expirementing though i like the 2.5 connecting screen because when your logging on instead of that aol man walking you see like a lightling bolt cool huh?

Alright alright then I just have one question before i rest my case

Do you Chewie use AOL (broadband/dial up)?

If no, why?


XP Pro Corp over Home
you can&#39;t pirate home? thats why pro corp is better?
IE has a built in pop up blocker (since SP2)
I downloaded AOL 8.0 and used an exploit, it was pretty fun.
I owned this popular chat room for a while and pissed everyone off (Had the lightning bolt :D)


XP Pro is better than home because there is more features.

[Chewie]

Originally posted by supersonic@15 August 2004 - 13:57

They can&#39;t steal what you give them. They can pass it on (which is usually in their T&C & policy statements) but it&#39;s not stuff they&#39;ve clandestinely raided your hard drive or kitchen drawer for.
Yea so what if they pass TOO much information about you?
Who said that they do what their T&C or P policy says?
http://www.internetnews.com/xSP/article.php/3372711
How can you be so fucking ignorant in regard to an episode that can happen to any company in any field, anywhere in the world. One fucking member of staff does that and you imply the company is guilty.
You are incapable of independant thought and there is absolutely no point trying to discuss anything with you in an adult fashion.
Discussion end.

[Chewie]

Originally posted by Keikan+15 August 2004 - 14:39--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Keikan &#064; 15 August 2004 - 14:39)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'>Alright alright then I just have one question before i rest my case

Do you Chewie use AOL (broadband/dial up)?[/b]You didn&#39;t read all of my first post, did you?

<!--QuoteBegin-Keikan@15 August 2004 - 14:39

XP Pro Corp over Home
you can&#39;t pirate home? thats why pro corp is better?[/quote]People in here have recommended that others with valid copies of XP Home download and install &#39;Pro Corp&#39;. What a complete waste of time for 95% of the people it&#39;s recommended to.

[supersonic]

Originally posted by Chewie UK+15 August 2004 - 20:59--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Chewie UK &#064; 15 August 2004 - 20:59)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin-supersonic@15 August 2004 - 13:57

They can&#39;t steal what you give them. They can pass it on (which is usually in their T&C & policy statements) but it&#39;s not stuff they&#39;ve clandestinely raided your hard drive or kitchen drawer for.
Yea so what if they pass TOO much information about you?
Who said that they do what their T&C or P policy says?
http://www.internetnews.com/xSP/article.php/3372711
How can you be so fucking ignorant in regard to an episode that can happen to any company in any field, anywhere in the world. One fucking member of staff does that and you imply the company is guilty.
You are incapable of independant thought and there is absolutely no point trying to discuss anything with you in an adult fashion.
Discussion end. [/b][/quote]
This was an EXAMPLE of what this company is TOTAL SH&#33;T. It is just pointless discussing anything with YOU, because you think that SHIT is gold. :angry:
btw the company IS guilty because they let their employees play around with their customers&#39; informatin, because they don&#39;t FU#king care about them. Like it is gonna matter for me, use AOL and goto HELL.

[Hitchhiker427]

yeah, dude, I don&#39;t think Chewie thought AOL was gold... you know, hence the reason he doesn&#39;t use it.

He doesn&#39;t use it, because it is not the best thing for him. But, the fact is, it is the best things for others. The idea of totally bashing every aspect of a product over a few problems is not the way to go about things. One must consider both the good points and the bad in something.

Chewie is not trying to convert any of you to AOL, or try to make you realize that it is superior to anything else. He&#39;s just simply trying to compare the good along with the bad.

I totally agree with him on one point, and that&#39;s

You are incapable of independent thought and there is absolutely no point trying to discuss anything with you in an adult fashion.

The fact is, I highly doubt AOL is the choice ISP for any of here (by that I mean, tech savvy), but there are plenty of people that I would recommend AOL for. You simply need to understand that not everyone thinks like you, or has the same opinions... but I doubt that&#39;ll happen anytime soon.

[supersonic]

I totally agree with him on one point, and that&#39;s

QUOTE


You are incapable of independent thought and there is absolutely no point trying to discuss anything with you in an adult fashion.
<_< kids <_<

There is nothing good about gAyOL, thats all I know.

[supersonic]

I&#39;m sorry if I have been rude in any way, sorry Chewie UK & Hitchhiker427 if I&#39;ve posted anything that might&#39;ve made you angry or annoyed in any way. This was meant to be a discussion, not a fight, sorry again.

[tesco]

Originally posted by supersonic@15 August 2004 - 19:26


I totally agree with him on one point, and that&#39;s

QUOTE


You are incapable of independent thought and there is absolutely no point trying to discuss anything with you in an adult fashion.
<_< kids <_<

There is nothing good about gAyOL, thats all I know.
:rolleyes:

first u say they&#39;re kids then u say "gAyOL" :lol:

[supersonic]

it wasn&#39;t me only who say its gAyOL

[clocker]

I used AOL for nearly two years, first on dial-up then on DSL.

My biggest complaint during that period was the ridiculous amount of downtime the system suffered.
Every snowstorm and many thunderstorms killed my access.

Calling AOL was useless...the standard response was to "call the phone company, there is a problem with the lines".
Well, fact is, I DON"T CARE if there is a phone line issue...that&#39;s their problem, not mine.
I was buying internet access from AOL and they weren&#39;t providing it.
Who they subcontract to ain&#39;t my problem.

A serious amount of bitching , and not-so-veiled threats to stop the service, lead to AOL providing free service for the last eight months I was connected through them.

When Comcast cable finally became available I jumped ship and haven&#39;t looked back once.

[TheKiler]

Nice speech clocker. AOL is crap, like I&#39;ve said before, use it for the exploits :)

[silent h3ro]

Everyone loves Comcast&#33; :01:

[Ariel_001]

Originally posted by Chewie UK+14 August 2004 - 15:49--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Chewie UK &#064; 14 August 2004 - 15:49)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin-Keikan@14 August 2004 - 14:23
unnessary crap you will never use but you need to pay forLike all the shit you don&#39;t use in Windows and don&#39;t mind being there, for instance the calculator, Solitaire, WinMe&#036;&#036;enger, WIndows Movie Maker, WMP, System Restore... fuckit I&#39;m bored so I&#39;ll stop. [/b][/quote]
All that shit is removed on my system. :rolleyes:

I don’t tolerate crap... B)

Anyways AOL is good for noobs and your “average” user that don&#39;t do anything on the internet other then go on a few pages and read some email.

[freak]

Aol&#39;s for user who do not understand how to use the internet. plus theres a bunch of ad&#39;s and bunch of other packaged junk.

<_< And thanks for bursting my bubble&#33; I forgot aol was still around. well i knew it was still there but i&#39;d rather forget aol altogether :D

[sparsely]

the main reason is simple.
notice how many people say "Well...back when I was 9 years old and didn&#39;t know anything about computers or the internet I used AOL and...."

*edit
fortunately, I am not one of those. I had family who taught me good computer stuff :D
thanks mom&#33;

[Keikan]

my moms friend told me to get cable or dsl because dial up should be free and my mom listened