AOL

[just_do_IT]

Heres the story.

ADSL offered me a GREAT deal. I take the deal but realize that I better drop my cable account before the next billing cycle. So I hook up a modem and search the yellow pages for a good isp. (My ADSL modem has been mailed to me from my new ISP)

I cant find anything local that is decent price wise, so I decide to take advantage of an AOL disk I got in the mail a L O N G time ago.

Pleasantly surprised I was to be offered 3 months free.

NOT happy to find out that I HAVE to have thier crap software on my computer eating my resources in behind my own preferred browser, NOT happy to have spyware constantly triggering my firewall and NOT happy to have excessive popups without even being on a website.

IMO the biggest POS CRAP JUNK BS ISP on the entire planet.

Anyone else ever deal with them? Am I over reacting here??

[KingCobra]

Ya I tried that crap when I first started the internet because there was no other ISP in my area then. You just brought back nightmares.

Now I have cable and looking forward.

[Sephiroth]

nope, you're not, it's just as crappy as you said, and then some

it was the first isp i ever used, and i still have nightmares, it's buggy as hell, at least was back then, their parental control features they push so heavily is a joke, it's way too easy to circumvent if you know what you're doing, too much spam, bloated to hell and back browser you're forced to use, need i continue? aol = aohell

[Cyberion]

And to think... I actually liked them at one "phase".. hahahahh... AOL does have its own selling points, however with people getting more and more comfortable with using custom build systems, the desire to use a strict UI for browsing and e-mail is less then loved.

[Jarod888]

I hated the BS Spyware, usually in the past I havnt ran a firewall, and so I was testing out a few and with every firewall I installed, their BS shit was always calling home, plus I was getting subseven backdoor blocks all the time. I figured hey I aint paying for this so, everytime it would come towards the end of my free period I would call them up and say hey your piece of crap is messing up my computer, I would huff and puff till they would give me more free months.. I used their service for just over 9 months without ever having to pay a dime for it. Then I moved and cancelled them for good.

[mikeh420]

I first joined AOL in 1990, and after waiting 6 months for them to get their "9600" lines they kept promising, (I had a 14.4 modem at the time) I quit and joined a local ISP which already had 28.8 lines in place. Seems AOL is still promising the world, but all you get is spam! 90% of my brother's AOL e-mail is spam. Almost as bad as my ISP, PacBell!

[billybob3]

I used to use AOL. I rememeber when each tiem they would come out with an update, I would get really excited at the new look! It was great...until I started trying to surf the net. Using INternet Explorer(minimizing AOL) is even faster. Then those idiots cancelled my account because I sent an email to a few of my buddies(like 10 of them) and they claimed it was CHAIN MAIL or SPAM. I couldn't believe it...and man were my parents pissed.

Now, my mom has signed back up with them, and she uses AOL, while I use Earthlink(which sucks too).

[DoG]

You spamming?? I would never have believed it :P
JOKE!!!

Yes, AOL are perhaps the biggest piece of crap ISP running- and its probably their popularity that made them that way. If you watch an AOL ad on TV, they either make me want to puke cor smash the set up, they make a BIG song and dace of their ever growing userbase, they don't mention the fact that they protect spammers on their own networks. I went through a period of recieving 10 - 20 emails a week through my various email accounts all from AOL accounts (Usually "bounce" accounts), they were the hardest to stop. In the end i had to block all incoming mail that wasn't in my address book. The paerental features are so poor an 8 year old could circumvent them (Was called to house where an 8 year old had done just that!) and their software is buggy as hell. As their userbase grows their services will continue to deteriorate, hopefully to the point where they are taken down by trading standards or whom ever controlls the standards of services in your particular neck of the woods. The sooner the better if you ask me.

BTW: This is just MHO

[JacKDynne]

Hehe

Really, I don't know what all the fuss is about, I mean I like going through a middle-man to get to the net, I like my stuff filtered 'cause I am not responsible enough to come to my own conclusions, I like being asked if I want to buy/sign up/etc. whenever I log on, I like not being able to access certain sites because of browser limitations, I like the respect I get when I say in newsgroups/chatrooms that I am an AOL user, I like having my news force fed to me, etc. I REALLY like the little man inside my computer that tells me "You got mail!" when I have email and all the friends that I have made in the 'Hot Tub Chat for Singles' chatroom that I go to every night for 5 hours.....


:P

/JD

[DoG]

LMFAO JD