I’m stuck running AOL at home as my internet service provider due to family constraints. I think it’s garbage for any number of reasons.
One problem I’ve recently come across is with regard to email notifications of updates to discussion threads to which I’ve subscribed on this BB.
When Taunton sends me an email at my AOL address telling me that additional posts have been made to a particular thread I am monitoring, I only receive the URL address. I have to copy it and paste it into my browser, click on “Go” and it will take me to the entry on the thread.
In discussing this with the good folks at Taunton, I’ve learned that it should appear as an active hyperlink that I need only clink on to be taken automatically to the new post. After investigating that all my AOL email settings were correct and allowed for hyperlinks in email, I contacted Tech Help on AOL and got the run around.
I opened up another account with Taunton using my Yahoo address, and receive emails with active hyperlinks.
Anyone else experiencing this problem with AOL? Anyone been able to solve it other than junking AOL and switching to another internet provider (e.g., Yahoo, MSN, etc.)?
JakeG
Replies
AOL sucks!
And I thought it was me! Maybe i'm not as stupid as they make me seem. Could it be why they lost 250,000 subscribers last year? You find a good one, let me know. Luck.
I had more problems with AOL then any other server! And when I called to get help they always made me feel that it was my computer, as soon as I disconnected from them everything miraculously fixed itself!
I have roadrunner high speed and never have problems with it. Not necessarily a plug for them but its better then what I had in the past.
Doug
I'm glade that you have found out a different way to go, I will check it out. May the force be with you!
A broadband or DSL internet connection, Microsoft OUTLOOK (not express) and Mozilla Firefox is my recipe for an enlightening internet experience. Commercial ISPs like AOL, Prodigy & MSN restrict a user's full internet potential. Some people get so hung-up on the commercial providers...like a kind of heroin addiction, I guess. If they only knew.... jocobeView Image
alternative:
set BT up so it opens to +unread msgs to me" or "of high interest"
that way you go to these type messages and don't have to deal with the email.
do you really have to read that response NOW?
bobl Volo, non valeo
Baloney detecter
You said "set BT up... " and I'm not sure I know what you're referring to.
What is "BT"?
Everything else I agree with.
AOL is garbage. But, as I said, I'm tied to it in the house for family reasons. No reason I can't start to use Yahoo or Comcast or MSN or another service provider, so I will pick one and start.
I was just wondering if anyone had experienced this problem with AOL and resolved it.
Thanks.
JakeG
"AOL is garbage. But, as I said, I'm tied to it in the house for family reasons. No reason I can't start to use Yahoo or Comcast or MSN or another service provider, so I will pick one and start."Here is an option that you might not be aware of.Setup an other ISP, which can be broadband if you have access to it and want it. Then convert you AOL account to "bring your own connection". The AOL fee is much less.You then can do whatever you want with the new ISP in terms of mail clients, browsers, etc. But when "someone" wants to use to use AOL they can. They use the AOL client and get AOL services, but the connects go over the other ISP's network.
BT = Breaktimeat the top of the frame with the list of posts you can select what u want to look at, all, unread etc.click on the one u like.then save that page to favorites, u will et that list as the start then.if u closed u're browser u will have to log in, but u will start with what u saved
unread to me or high interest etc.
bobl Volo, non valeo
Baloney detecter
BT = BreakTime. Duh! Just call me Homer.
Thanks for the response.
yur here at BT - BreakTime...
AOL is a problem and they will not solve it. Lots of lluck.
Get a hotmail acount and use outlook.....AOL is the internet with trainig wheels....but I'm guessin' you already know that!
jocobe
Been using AOL exclusively since day one. I suppose never having known an alternate, I`ve got no reference as to wheter "it sucks" or not. Seems to do everything I need it to do.
That being the case....I always wondered why the message notifications didn`t include a hyperlink.
Ignorance is bliss.
Be clueless!
WANTED!
New Tagline.
I've been communicating with Mark Coleman of Taunton's Web Management Dept. for the past few days about this problem. He's been very energetic about trying to identify the source and solve the problem. Taunton is certainly going the distance to maintain customer satisfaction and my hat's off to them.
Unfortunately, it appears that the problem is not curable from Taunton's standpoint since it appears to be due to a deficiency in AOL's programming. I spent an hour going round in circles with an AOL Tech Rep in its Help Dept. to no avail. He kept telling me that it was Taunton that wasn't sending the email correctly and ignoring my reply that when I received the email on AOL I had to cut and paste the URL but when I received the very same email on Yahoo I had active hyperlinks. How is that possible, I asked? "It's due" he said "to something Taunton is not doing correctly in its email."
Go figure. The blind refusing to recognize their blindness. Well, they just lost another customer because I'm bolting. That didn't faze him either - he didn't even try to convince me to stay with AOL.
My wife and kids can stay with AOL if they want, but I'm gone. Jsut wish I could get out of paying AOL the monthly fee somehow. Oh, well...
JakeG
From the very beginning, AOL tried to do the same thing with the internet, that billy did with software.They have always tried to implement their own protocols, and had no concern whatever for standard protocols already accepted by everyone else.They have been trying to get a corner on the internet access market. Making up their own, non-standard protocols keeps the customers they have, more dependant on them. In thier business model, billy did this, and once he gained enough of the market... he leveraged that into control of the vast majority of the rest of the market. They are just trying to get enough leverage...Every time this sort of thing happens, it is because AOL has implemented some sort of protocol that does not work with what everyone else does.... And every time, they insist that it is everyone else's fault.They are pretty much only close enough to standards, to get you online. Then they have you trapped inside their protocols, with them the only translating link between you and the real internet. This problem with the emails is one of the symptoms of that.Look at it. No one else has that problem with the emails. Only AOL. Yet... it is obviously something that Taunton is doing wrong. The only thing Taunton, (Actually prospero), is doing... is using the same standard email protocols the REST of the frikken world uses...Most AOL users have absolutely no idea what a real internet experience is. It's like a real life "matrix" They keep you living in their little world and hope you never take the red pill...
Are we there yet ?
Luka said: "Most AOL users have absolutely no idea what a real internet experience is. It's like a real life "matrix" They keep you living in their little world and hope you never take the red pill..."That says it in a nutshell...couldn't agree more! C'mon you AOL junkies....take a chance!jocobeView Image
Yup, I have AOL and have to do what you do. No luck just clicking on the address.
Been there,done that! Luck.
I am ruuning from AOL.........Trying out SBC, ok so far.
Mike
Trust in God, but row awayfrom the rocks
Hi,
If your "family constraints" are due to dependence on Instant Messenger you can:
Switch your ISP and download IM from http://www.aim.com/!
AIM's cool. I have family in Germany and Montana and communicate with them thru AIM via webcams. It really works great. AIM is also good for file sharing. We send them large files of pictures thru AIM.jocobeView Image
how much does it cost per month to be an AOL member ?
carpenter in transition
AOL is $14.95 per month. That's on top of the charges from my Broadband carrier.
And, to all that have answered. I know AOL isn't worth it. I'm not using it.
I was inquiring because I was working with the Tech Dept at Taunton about a problem experienced when viewing Taunton on AOL and I was wondering how many other people share the same problem.
So, I wasn't asking to be convinced to change ISP carriers. I was asking to gauge the size of the problem.
But, thanks to all who responded.Griff
I saw that.It wasn't my intention to convince you to switch.It was my intention to let you know that in reality, the problem DOES lie with AOL, and not Taunton.=0)AOL hopes all the AOL users will be convinced the problem lies with Taunton, or whoever else they are having a problem with, and the other entity will become pressured by enough AOL subscribers to 'break' what is a good system of protocols, just to make it more compliable with what AOL wants it to be like...
Are we there yet ?
OK, that's cool.Griff
while my ISP has a web site, I don't have to use it.the email is pop3 is I don't have to use thier site for emailit is dial up
bobl Volo, non valeo
Baloney detecter
Have you ever actually used AOL?
It ain't all that bad...
I had compuserve, and prodigy..back in '88. Aol has the spam filter that works better than any thing I have had tried since.
I get zero trash in my mail, I do have to sort out the 'wanted" from thier controls, but.........
don't knock it, if ya ain't tried it. Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
And you thought you could ignore balloon knot.
Yes, Duane. I have.And I am forced to do so again, every time that I am called to one of the neighbor's houses to fix their computers. After AOL allowed so much crap through, and forced so much of their OWN crap through.You have constant problems with your machine because of AOL. But you explain the problems away, after the problems are fxed, and go right back to using it.Why you do that, and why you are trying to paint them with a "not so bad" painbrush right now, when you know damn well what kind of problems have been caused because you run AOL... I have no idea. Convenient memory loss ?Come on Duane, it's crap, and you know it.
Are we there yet ?
Correct. I wasn't trying to feed the fire. Just my take on a blinded observation by some others. As an ISP that is all we had back then..some stayed (me) due to familiarity.
No harm, no foul... Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
And you thought you could ignore balloon knot.
I need to apologize because correct or not, I came on too strong.I really did not intend to at all. But reading it again, it sure seems pretty strong to me.Absolutely the only advantage I can see to AOL is that someone with no knowledge at all of the internet, ISP's, email programs, etc... can log on.But it is, in essence, one big trojan.I am going to drop it here. I could easily get carried away with all the dangers in that program, and which that program opens people up to. It is software. It is a huge company ripping people off and keeping them blind. It is not the end of the world.Pushing the subject results in people taking offense because they start to think I am picking on them for using it. When instead I am picking on the corporation and it's product.
Are we there yet ?
Luka
All I got to say is, AOL sucks!
And yes I've had it, never again, even if it were free.
Doug
what you said Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
And you thought you could ignore balloon knot.
Dump AOL...I had them and they sucked. Have used both Roadrunner in NY and now Cox broadband here in Okie and love it. Use Firefox for your browser and you'll be happier still.
I don't know of any dial up service that's worse than AOL from talking to others that use dial up. All the crap that keeps clogging up the screen is enough to drive you crazy. Have heard of people having luck with peoplepc.com, if you have to stick with dial up you may look into them.....
If you aren't one of the one's I'm talking about,you shouldn't have any complaints....
We had a AOL "freebie" disc offerd for a 3 month trial, tried it and it was the worst experience of my 'puter' life. We even had trouble getting out of it.IMO,Anything but Aol.
THAT is true.
AOL is like luggage or AIDS, you keep it for life.
I have been with it since ver.1.0, and also need it for another family member who can't handle change very well.
I hear that all of KY will be broadband enhanced by 2007, over the POWER lines..this I gotta see. Until then, I still use a BellSouth Dial up in addition to AOL. All my Biz cards and such have the email addy, so, I have not been in a hurry to switch to anything else soon.
Someone asked the cost..it is 23.00 I think. Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
Have you tried to switch over to BYOA on AOL. AFAIK you can do it with dailup as well as with broadband. And it drops your cost to $14.95.
No, I just leave the sleeping dogs alone for now, way too much going on to go messing with yet another project or commitment.
Just returned with a new front door, 12 sheets OSB and 16 2x6x8, my weekend off the roof.
The internet stuff is best saved for winter time....when I am not frazzeled from working in this ungodly heat.
I will make a note of it tho. Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks