Why Is Aol Crap?

[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.

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's i got over 4kb/s
OVERPRICED! costs like 25 bucks but other isps, better ones, cost about $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 AL (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'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'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'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 But also, alot of comments I have seen are either outdated or misinformed.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'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'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's not JUST AOL.

Their FTP is crap.

Yes, AOL sometimes does bump you off the internet for inactivity. But this doesn't happen nearly as much in the newer versions, and is more a thing of the past.

AOL's mail is bad because you can'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'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'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've heard someone say that the configuration was confusing... this is not true. AOL is extremely easy to configure (mainly because it doesn't have that many options in the first place...)

I've heard someone say their gui doesn'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'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's all that matters.

(Wow, that's a lot of typing)

Anyways, if you don't want to read that... my main point is this:
If you know what you're doing on the computer and the internet, and are experienced, it's time to move towards a REAL ISP. If you're just starting out, but intend to learn more in the future, then don't cripple yourself to start out with... use a REAL ISP. But, if you don'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't experienced it in many an aeon.

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 freely

I 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 webcams

Just 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 for

Like 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 internet

Last 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 newsgroups

No, 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 kids

Eh? What sort of argument is that?

Originally posted by Keikan@14 August 2004 - 14:28
aol is just plain lame

Que? See previous.

Originally posted by Keikan@14 August 2004 - 14:28
aol has bad publicity

Nice 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 world

They&#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 cheapos

Erm, wrong. My AOL-ed brother&#39;s homepage is not AOL&#39;s

Originally posted by Keikan@14 August 2004 - 14:28
dumest customer support on earth

Oh 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 years

Now 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;

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/s

My 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 AL (dialup) because:
Their broswer uses all the resources in the comp. 100% CPU for PIII

I 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 it

No, 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 about

What 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 SUCKS

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.

Originally posted by supersonic@14 August 2004 - 18:53
webspace provided just useless

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.

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 users

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

Originally posted by supersonic@14 August 2004 - 18:53
they port-scan thier members

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.

<!--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

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

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;

[supersonic]

Aria

[exo_body]

lol, this has turned into a mini argument 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?