Why AOL is the enemy

[likwid]

Just got into a conversation about why AOL are so unpopular and though I'd gather everyones memories for those who weren't using the internet before early 00's.

Care to explain?

Anyone who has been using a computer since the early 00's remember AOL's sins.

They were at one time the worlds biggest ISP and became and remain hugely unpopular.
- AOL cd's everywhere and i mean everywhere, most ended up in landfill sites
- forcing users to install terrible software on their computers which used the service you paid for to feed you spam through AOL browser (modified IE)
- famously terrible customer service
- dishonest charging of payg customers, something like adding 15 seconds then rounding up to the next minute.
- virtually impossible to uninstall there software (adware)

 

[Morte]

The annoying woman (Connie?) from the TV ads.

 

[xb8browney]

I used to get a disk every day through the post

 

[bledd]

'impossible to uninstall' - add/remove programs.

 

[Ben M]

That browser was ****ing horrible. Right pain in the ass.
All the programmes that came with it too.
That woman's voice.

 

[likwid]

'impossible to uninstall' - add/remove programs.

Didn't work. There are still plenty of sites on the internet about this.

 

[tres]

I would have

 

[stoofa]

Before broadband was an option to me I used AOL (reasons to follow) and I'll admit that the service was absolutely fine.
There was never any downtime - it was always available to me when I needed it.

Now to the main reason.
Before broadband it was obviously dial-up.
With "flat rate" dial-up you basically paid a monthly fee for however long you were online for.
However to stop abuse many ISP's forced a disconnection after 1 hour, a few were good enough to give you 2.
Not a major problem, get disconnected, reconnect immediately.

AOL however did not impose such limits - they had an unofficial 8hr connection time (unofficial because I know I remained connected for well over 24hrs in one stint).
Basically if you had ISDN you could get an "always on" 64k connection from AOL.

Yes I had to use the AOL dialler.
However that was a simply matter of launch, connect and minimise.
I could still use IE and I could still use Outlook to send/recieve email via my own domains via POP.

Much of the "AOL Hate" was simple bandgwagon jumping.
Only a very small percentage of AOL bashers ever used the service and really only those that used AOL could really give a fair review of the service.

 

[Cosimo]

I used to get a disk every day through the post

... and in magazines, it was just a never-ending stream.

 

[Hedge]

Was the browser not Netscape? I vaguely remember netscape being around then and im thinking it may have been linked to AoL

pretty mental how huge they were, and how hated they became. Ive been with Telewest / Virgin nearly all of my years but i think there was a brief time when I was an Aol victim too

 

[nicktay2605]

The annoying browser, the fact the software couldn't be uninstalled, the constant discs being sent. However, the most annoying thing above all was the terrible connection reliability, and the annoying voice that accompanied being kicked off the internet every 15 minutes. I still sometimes hear that woman's voice in my nightmares simply uttering 'goodbye'

 

[Masterdog]

I remember AOL being a lot faster than most other ISPs at the time (probably due to the fact that they cached most of the content). But still, it was very intrusive and limited. Imo though, it got much of its bad reputation from the fact it was the first place most 'noobs' went for their internet access, and became a haven for uninformed, annoying Internet users.

 

[SKaRT]

I used AOL for a really short period of time before broadband was around (56k) and the worst part by far was the fact it was practically impossible to get any kind of decent ping from their service. Regularly pinging 300+ to UK based servers while other ISPs would have your pings down in the 120-150 regions. Only had to suffer their awful connection for a month or so though, switched to another provider almost instantly after having a connection that bad.

 

[yhack]

You don't even need to use the software to connect to it.

 

[Kaed]

One of the 'greatest' utterances of a AOL sysadmin...

'There! - now everyone has full Usenet access!'


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_September

 

[willhub]

I know that when I uninstalled AOL's software it was gone, easy to install for anyone who knows how to use a PC.

All you need is a router then you don't need any software to connect to the Internet from AOL.


Care to explain why AOL is the enemy? Granted it's not the best ISP around but I bet some people have had worse experiences on other services.

 

[MaX_PoWah]

Its just absolutely awful, my uncle has it, and still uses it, the problems i had getting it to work with a router were unbelievable, the people at the other end of the phone were useless, the software makes his computer rediculously slow and occasionally cause it to crash.

Quite why anybody would use it out of choice is beyond me, i know people are averse to change sometimes, but do yourself a favour seriously and get rid of it.

 

[willhub]

Does he insist on using the software?

There was some router problems, but they where really easy to solve, all you needed was a new username, they changed it to dialbb or dialdb whichever one it was @(your phone number)

The problem is the phone support is so crap they take ages to get to the point treating you like a dumbass when you know more about the damn thing than them, all you want is a simple piece of information.

I'd never choose AOL anymore, only use it at home cause my dad insists on it, but it's not as bad as people makes out, even the software whilst does use a large portion of ram is all not that bad tbh.

 

[Le_Petit_Lapin]

The CD's, the endless, neverending stream of CD's for me.

It was like a Zombie horror film except with the zombies being replaced by AOL CD's.

 

[wordy]

The annoying woman (Connie?) from the TV ads.

Her with the dress that was made up of scrolling webpages?

She'dve got it.