Quote: "Every time I try to download drivers using AOL I'd always be redirected to the homepage after about 2 minutes. I figured it's a form of forced censorship by AOL."
In the three years I've been with them, I've never experianced that. But I prefere to use IE or firefox over OpenRide or AOL 9. With boardband you don't need to run their software to browse, and I usually collect my e-mail via my www.aol.co.uk's webmail service.
Quote: "I don't like how their software worms its way into every aspect of the machine and basically wrecks it"
That is massively unfair, that vast majority of big providers do this, including MSN and Tiscali. Besides it's aimed at the idiot user level who'd not know what spyware is at all. It does provide a reasonable level of secuity for these users. More advanced users like you and myself, will have no trouble removing anything we don't like and using our own solutions.
Quote: "AOL on windows machines ruins your ping for gaming."
Really? I get pretty low pings, are you sure it's not your phone company. I don't know about australia, but AOL basically buys X amount of bandwidth from BT. More often then not, around here, if something goes wrong, it happens to anyone, reguardless of their service provider.
Quote: "The 'AOL' stigma goes back to its dial-up internet access roots, around the early 1990s. The issue was never with the AOL service itself (although back in the dial-up days, it was nothing to write home about), but rather with the AOL users.
Back in the 90s 'AOL user' basically meant 'noob'.
It was always the AOL users who posted the most stupid dumb-ass questions to Usenet. It was always the AOL users who replied willingly to spam emails. In short, they were regarded as complete morons by virtually everyone else who got onto the net via more traditional means (SLIP/PPP, etc). The AOL users were regarded as noobs because they had to use the AOL software to do anything online, i.e. they weren't capable of using the primitive browsers of the day (think Netscape version 1) but rather had to click pretty buttons in a 'safe' environment.
You must remember this is a time on the Internet when the web *wasn't* the majority use of the Internet, but rather other services like Usenet, WAIS, Gopher, Telnet MUDs and the like all shared equal net traffic. Now of course the web dominates, but back then the average net user had a far more extensive knowledge of how it all worked than they need now. You'd FTP via command-line, you'd know the difference between TCP/IP ports, you'd understand how to configure a SLIP connection. Those that didn't have these skills used AOL. Hence the noob banner they were lumped under.
It's only really the legacy of this stigma that exists today, but not with as much gusto as it did, since AOL have actually got their arses in gear and produced a relatively decent internet access package. That and as we now all know, there are dumb-ass internet users getting online from everywhere, not just AOL.
But essentially, that is where it comes from."
I remember those days, compuserve and ascii images over a 9.6k modem! Great times. But yes, it's amazing how stigma's hang around even when there's little reason for it.
Quote: "What gave it the bad name was it's ability to only be stable on a very select phonelines (ie GOOD phonelines) and it's software taking up close to 50% of your overall system resources."
Tried OpenRide? That's pretty resource intensive as well, espically considering what it actually does.
Quote: "I think something I prefer with AOL over most internet services you *have* to sign in to (PPoP) is that it remembers all of your connection information for you with no way to accidentially delete the password from the standard windows User/Pass screen thing."
The best thing AOL did was start giving out WiFi routers. No more dialing up, except after the odd power cut. I almost forget that I'm using an ISP, it's just like using a LAN service.
I do wish AOL 9.0 allowed for a greater password then 8 characters though, that's not so good.
Quote: "Personally I think NTL are by far one of the best internet service providers, atleast in this country. Connection speeds are always stable, the only downtime you will experience is in the small hours of the morning as they don't do any work on servers or connections during the day unless there has been an unschedualed loss of service. They're also best value for money imo..."
NTL have improved alot in the last 5 years then, I was with then in Cardiff, and the service was really, really bad. I had their max package of 512k at the time, and it was dropping out 12 - 15 times a day. The longest cut out was for 10 days running. I used to work for the NTL technical support desk, and it wasn't an uncommon problem, the company was in a big mess. I dunno about these days though, but if given a choice between cable or ADSL, then it's ADSL all the way!
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Anyway, my only issue with AOL, and alot of companies are doing it these days, is the moving of their technical support services from Ireland and UK centers to India. They are totally useless, being able to carry out only the most basic fault finding proceedures. Frankly, if I have to phone technical support, I basically phone, and if an idian accent appears I hang up and try again, and again until I get though to the Irish, who actually know what they are doing. I find it saves time, beleive it or not.
I lay upon my bed one bright clear night, and gazed upon the distant stars far above, then I thought... where the hell is my roof?
