Who of you surfs the net with AOL?

[Atahualpa]

Seeing the latest news that AOL has 26 Million Customers in the United States I started to Wonder.

All that I have heard of AOL is that they are crap. That they use their own protocol. That it is slow and what not.

Now I'd like to know how many Apolytoners use AOL as their ISP.

I am also interested in how you are satisfied with the service AOL provides or not.

Please vote.

Ata

[Jaguar]

I am using AOL and am not satisfied with it

[DRoseDARs]

I use SBC Broadband. "And the Lord said, 'It is good.'"

You forgot something...

[Atahualpa]

ah the banana option right

well I never got the origin of this anyway, even though I was actively involved in everyday forum life here.

My deepest apologies!

[CerberusIV]

I use an AOL dial up in the UK. I don't use the Internet enough to really warrant paying near double the cost for a broadband connection.

What can I say - it works and I just ignore most of the AOL rubbish.

[Urban Ranger]

I don't think you could use an AOL account to register at 'Poly.

[reds4ever]

Originally posted by CerberusIV
I use an AOL dial up in the UK. I don't use the Internet enough to really warrant paying near double the cost for a broadband connection.

What can I say - it works and I just ignore most of the AOL rubbish.

I switched from AOL dialup to Pipex broadband about six months ago, and dispite being always online now, my firewall picks up A LOT less intrusion attempts from trojans now than it did when i was with AOL.
But yeah, people moan about the indosynchrases(s) but they're not the end of the world, AOL was the best unmetered provider in the UK for several years, in that they were one of the few that didn't diconnect you every 2 hours or send you snotty emails about DLing too much stuff.

[Harry Seldon]

AOL is the devil's workshop. It's keeps the money rolling in, though. Much of the side work I do involves removing that cancer from people's machines.

[Immortal Wombat]

I used to use AOL for about a year. Worst year online ever. Towards the end, I was getting a connection speed stupidly low, like 20kbps rather than the standard 44kbps, I would get disconnected randomly ever 15 minutes, and it wouldn't let me reconnect until I had restarted my PC. If I tried, the dialup software crashed my PC. I couldn't send email either. It was horrible.

[Spiffor]

I gladly never used AOL in my life, and with the experience I have with friends' computers, I'm glad of it. "Cancer" is the right word to describe this horror.

[Atahualpa]

hmm well that pretty much confirms what I have heard.

News are floating around that AOL lost 1 million customers during one year.

So if the Apolytoner is not the average AOL user, what is the average AOL user like?

ata

[CerberusIV]

The average AOL user in the UK seems to be the person who buys a computer from PC World and doesn't really have much of a clue about how it works.

Many computers sold in the UK have a connection to BT already installed. NEVER use it. My work computer uses a BT dial up (no broadband available here yet) and after half an hour on 'poly it grinds to a halt and says "cannot find server". Cr4p!!! At least AOL never does that to me.

EDIT: BT just died on me again I was about to edit my post to say that I'm not average I think they have it in for me!

[Immortal Wombat]

BT dialup is far far better than AOL. Sorry. It kicks you off after 2 hours, but at least you can get back on again, and you have a decent speed whilst online.

(all uses of "you" purely impersonal)

I only used AOL because I gave in to their flood of free CDs and promise of 150 free hours of daytime surfing.

[Az]

long live broadband internet connection!

[dainbramaged13]

the average aol user as far as i can tell is yes, the person who doesnt have a clue and just wants some internet. Anyone who WANTS dialup knows there are better options and anyone else gets broadband.