[BC] Comparing AOL

[WFIFeng at aol.com]

In a message dated 10/29/2007 10:49:58 AM Eastern Daylight Time, sid at wrko.com 
writes:

> At this point, I advise my people that if they absolutely, positively
>  must use AOL, they should use the web interface.  If they can't live
>  without the AOL custom software, I install AOL 7.0...probably the last
>  version of AOL that didn't have tentacles reaching into every corner of
>  the computer.  7.0 runs just fine on XP.

Every version after 5.0 wants to install and establish a VPN between your 
machine and their servers. I have had no real problems installing 5.0 onto XP, 
just run the installer in "98 Compatible" mode. (I use this same method to 
install Cool Edit 2000 onto XP.) I have found that the (worthless) AOL 5.0 browser 
doesn't work on XP, but that is no loss! ;)

5.0 was the last AOL version that doesn't set up a VPN. It now appears to be 
slowly "breaking down", though, even on my 98SE machine... AOL's own "news" 
pages cause the crummy thing to "lock up" for up to 5 minutes. If you reset or 
force AOL to close, it corrupts and you have to reinstall. You just have to 
wait... or never use the built-in browser. (It's NG anyway.) Lately, the AOL news 
screen hasn't been updating... same images and stories for the past 2 weeks, 
now. Oh well.

The "Classic" WEB Mail interface is by far the best option:
http://classic.webmail.aol.com

It has far less "clutter" and works quite well.

Willie...


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