A.O.L.

AOL, as the name suggests, was designed for the American market as a one stop shop for connection.
It bundled together broadband, e-mail, exclusive content including music and videos.
It was set up as a kind of walled garden where verything that AOL believed that the menber wanted was pre-packaged, censored, sanitized and generally mucked about with.

Now if you only want a to access a small amount of the internet with a plug and play setup then its perfect, but for members that prefer to go off the beaten track and actually use a search engine, rather than the lame keyword system, then AOL lets you down on all fronts.

AS Bankfodder mentioned, from a technical stand point there is nothing wrong with the offering, but as AOL tends to use a proxy system this can result in some annoying results.
Basically they operate a large proxy pool of IP's that are regularly redistributed between their members, thus casuing some annoyance on sites that note your IP as well as user details.
It becomes even worse when it comes to e-mail as a number of other suppliers have black listed AOL's mail servers due to high volumes of spam.


Now to some up.
AOL is designed for the NON technical member. Someone that just wants to surf to a small number of "safe" sites and that know very little about computers and online security, hence all the bundled security suites, and browser. They are under the, I believe false impression, that they are safe as AOL is looking out for them.

In my professional experience, AOL members are a being fooled into believing that the internet is a nice shiny place where nothing nasty happens. AOL mambers' machines I have found contain the MOST malware, etc of any connected computers.

This is one of the reasons I believe that people that are new to computers and online activities should be shown the basics of at least how to stay safe online and being weary of nasties, like a CBT for coumputers.
The simple stuff like ensuring security sutes are working and updated, simple maintenance, being aware of e-mail scams, etc.

Hope this has helped in some little way.
IMHO avoid AOL altogether and get broadband form another supplier, why pay for the bundled extras when you don't really want them and wont use them.
Remember: Google is your Friend.

Hi

I've been with AOL for years and as stated earlier its very easy for us non tech people. I've honestly never had a problem but I wouldn't say I'm a heavy user though I do keep the computer on. I've got my Dad on - is there such a things as a ultra non tech? - and I have my businesses on. I get hammered by people saying "you DONT use AOL do you" and like a person with some addiction I just reply embarrassed " I do " and then give a "Oh we are looking to move to a better provider" hopefully to give me some credibility!

AOL is very simple to use and I guess its what you are comfortable with that matters.

I can feel myself going red so I'll leave it there.

Hi Ive been with aol from the outset which is quite a few years, in fact when my first computer had valves on the m.board. Apart from the monthly subscription which seems to be lower or below than other providers Ive never had to pay for any routers with them. I know at first I had to make sure i had a computer with a built in modem but since moving to broadband i have had 2 routers from them at no cost. I did try Telewest for a short time included in a cable package but found that all i got was the use of their server to rout through, anything else and i was at the mercy of IE. I do get the odd problem with it like not being able to access Yahoo mail but thats all. From what i have heard there seems to be far more problems with other providers like BT has lots of connection problems. My Gfriend regularly asks me to check BTs fault page to see why she cant log on or access things when shes on line and there seems to be loads of faults listed. I'm no massive aol fan but if its not broken don't try and fix it.

I have been with Aol for about 7 years I have had no problem with them .I get my unlimited connection for £9.99 a month I have my phone calls with them local and national unlimited for £4.99 a month .Free tech help .and if you complain about anything ( and I am very good at complaining ) you get credits to your account , sometimes quite a lot .I think I have had an excellent service with them with both dial up then Broadband.Until now grrrrrrrrr I have gone wireless or at least got the router to. The tech have done everything to try and find a problem as I can't go wireless either no signal or very weak signal .They have so far credited £40 to my account because of my complaining and sent me another router , only just got it so not tried it.I can link both PC's up by ethernet so really it's ok and every few weeks I complain and get more credit .So for what it actually costs me, it meets my needs, I am happy to stay with them.

The only really really big complaint I have had is there indian call centres as it's completly different service to their Irish one if they can't understand your dialect they sometimes put the phone down on you .Also they seem to work by a script so if you ask a question off script they are completly lost AND they don't give credits .

Ahhhh AOHELL as i like to call them, ever since the days of the 28k modem i have never liked them, back then they used to restrict access to the internet making you pay extra to visit certain sites that were not a part of their network or not in their interests for you to be viewing, they also had so many backdoors open on systems that it was a hackers dream, i remember in my younger days running open port ip scans on the AOL IP range and commonly finding thousands of open systems.

I always swore to avoid AOL as a provider and warned my mum about them as well, however when i lived in a flat above her (long story) she ordered AOL broadband, after blowing my top at her, she pointed out that she had already signed the contract and was stuck with it, unless she paid up 12 months in advance to get out of it (NICE!) so i decided oh well i might as well use and abuse her broadband, and networked our computers together, taking into account that broadband adsl is primarily for multiple computers to be able to access the internet at the same time, this shouldn't of been a problem, apart from the AOL software stopped the internet sharing wizard, and also altered the network settings so that you couldn't set it up manually either.

So a quick call to AOL revealed that it was IMPOSSIBLE to network and use AOL ADSL on multiple computers to access the internet (WHAT A SCAM) of course i didn't accept this and promptly bypassed their systems and had both machines online at the same time, and phoned them again to say what if i did this, to which they catagorically denied that i had done that, and that i wasn't browsing on two machines at the same time lol.

Shortly after that however aol changed its system to allow you not to have to use its incredibly resource hungry front end, and just use a dialer system.

Personally i still tell everyone to avoid AOL, their customer service is awful, and as you found compatiblity with hardware a nightmare, the best use i have found for an AOL cd is using it as a placemat for my coffee cup.

Tony
Source of knowlege:- working with computers since i was 5yrs old

I had to add my two pence worth to this review.

I have been on dial up for EVER!! Then BT decided to bring my village into the 21st centuary and wham bam I got AOL Broadband.

Now I am not technically minded, but I do have a brother who is a whizz at PC maintainance and another who writes programmes for banks, airlines etc. So both called and offered their services to intall braodband. "its ok" was my reply "im sure it cant be that hard" and do you know what...it was easy as ABC. It was installed within 30 minutes, including the wireless section which means I can use the lap top while the children use the pc or visa versa.
I had to call the call centre with a question (as the disc they sent with the package forgets to tell you to restart the pc in order to be able to use B/B. During the conversation the assistant (who was Indian) was very helpful and thanked me for raising the issue of the disc. I then got an eail offering £40 caredit to my account from Customer Services for the trouble of ringing in!!
I have no problems with downloading. I have compared my service to my dad who has virgin (ntl) and he has so many cock ups (not literally) that he is considering changing. I have friends who are on onetel and in my opinion its an awful system which dont allow email from AOL and dont allow members to email aol. Why it is up to them who their members email is beyond me!
Just my two pence worth!

Why does everyone seem to think the grass is always greener on the other side?

To explain, when I first got a modern "multi media" PC (my previous computer was a 486!) with a 56K modem I chose AOL basically because (a) A CD had come through the post and (b) I probably didn't know any better!

Anyway, another reason was that they were one of the first to offer a flat rate 24 hour access, with no limits for £14.99. Pretty good value at the time. When broadband arrived, I upgraded to AOL gold . Again a no fuss no limit service. I've since installed home networking (when AOL started supporting it) and was supplied with a wired DG834 Netgear router (great trusty bit of kit). I installed myself after a while a wireless access point to provide a link for the laptop that was bought later. To cut a long story short, I now run 2 PC's, 2 laptops and 3 games consoles (PS2, PS3 & Xbox) through AOL's connection without any problems. The router system even means I don't need to run AOL's software (which I always found a bit "childish" anyway).

Truth be told I'm probably paying a bit over the odds (£25 pm) for my internet connection, and have sometimes looked at changing provider, but am put off at the hassle stories of switching provider etc. As they say, if it aint broke don't fix it!

I just thought I'd stick up for AOL. You get horror stories about any of the IP providers and I think it all comes down to individual circumstances (location etc) at how good a service you get.

I have had a dial-up connection with aol for about 18 months and i haven't had any problems with them despite everyone warning me about how poor the system is. Is it true that if you try to remove aol it can damage your computer?

No it is not true.

Can you imagine the compensation to be paid out by AOL if it damages pc's. Although this "advice" has been around for a while it is mainly given by users of other interent providers when they realise you are still on dial up in this "must be faster" era. I used Dial up for years, and have only just recently converted to broadband....see post 6.

AOL? Aarrgh I hate it! Unfortunately when we moved house it was the only broadband supplier we could get, we had it previously and looked forward to using another ISP when we moved, but it wasn't to be. I find it conflicts with everything, our latest problem is that windows did an automatic update and now we can't access half of the web sites we want to. Tech support is useless, an Indian call centre working from scripts. Hoping that by the time our 12 month contract is up we will be able to go to somebody else. My advice to anyone thinking of using AOL, steer well clear, its useless!

My two pennies worth...

AOL is great for those who are not very compurter savy, I would reccomend them over BT any day to those kind of people.

yes they are overpriced for the true speed they offer, but ive just upgraded my nan from dial-up to BT broadband, and as soon as i installed it i thought, damn, i should have gone with AOL.

I have a lot of experience with AOL, and i must say they are very good for the kind of people that "dont do computers"

in reply to the first post.......why didnt you just use the router they gave you? lol

I have just had a "chat" with an aol employee. I was most annoyed to find AOL / Carphone warehouse are joining together and if you upgrade to BB you get a free lap top. "No way" says the OH..."yes way" says me. So I called them and asked for my lap top. "OOOOOOhhhhh Mrsfoot you cant have it" came the response "as you are in a contract with us and its only been 3 weeks". "Oh really" says I.
"So when did this offer began" I asked. "2 and half weeks ago" came the reply. "MMMMMMM so let me think, i upgrade 3 days before the offer and no one thinks to tell me...and you think a small hiccup like a contract clause telling me I will have to pay you for me going is goin to stop me going to Orange who are giving free lap tops?" says me with a i love the UTCCR's smile on my face. "Errrrrn Mrsfoot let me re arrange your contract, I will begin it again from today and you will receive you lap top at the end of September"
Oh and to top it off......I got a free month for the trouble

Because it was very low spec.

can you give me the contact number of the person you spoke to as the people i speak to generally can't help me at all.
And have you got your laptop yet as i'm still waiting.?

AOL Broadband service is OK. Maybe because once I am connected I do not use the AOL website as my default. In fact I only had to dig out my AOL username recently after about a year.

It is the part where one has to deal with AOL knucklehead telephone reps that sucks big time. Also their marketing people may be guilty of miselling.

To give a typical example I have just upgraded to the £19.99 package because of the offer of a free laptop. Unbeknown to me there is a bundle in this package of pay as you go. The telephone automatons say there is no way one can cancel the pay as you go part without an increase in the monthly payments to £29.99. Now if that is not daylight robbery, I don't know what else is.