AOL, now free to good home

Quote

AOL also lost 976,000 subscribers in the quarter, giving it a base of 17.7 million, a trend the company expects to see accelerate as it offers access free to all Internet users. Currently broadband users who still want access to AOL must pay an extra fee.

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Do we have AOL over here in Australia?

Hmm.. I'm going to try this out for the hell of it. If they offer free POP email access that might be pretty cool. Gmail is still by invite only right(they are easy to get I know but still). This could be a great thing for average users.

I don't like the idea of their security software package though. If they are going to support the costs of this with ads then that means it will have ads in the interface or pop ups like AIM. Security software with pop ups? No way. I can't say this is the case for sure though(I havent tried it yet) I'll sign up right now though. :D

you ever try AIM AdHack rridgely? when i used to use AIM, i used that and it worked like a charm. AIM AdHack's website also has a plugin for AIM called Smilez which tabs your conversations :)

Yeah when I used aim I had adhack installed. I was using an old version of aim and I decided to try triton and it was so bad that I uninstalled it and installed gaim instead of digging out the old copy again.

Nevermind I'm going to try the email only. I'm not in the mood to try any AOL software. :P

I found something else interesting:

http://www.downloadsquad.com/2006/08/03/ao...space-for-free/

This could be a pretty cool service if they do it right. IE not making you remove the files from the storage when you download them to another pc, and not being strict about media files.

you ever try AIM AdHack rridgely? when i used to use AIM, i used that and it worked like a charm. AIM AdHack's website also has a plugin for AIM called Smilez which tabs your conversations :)

I recently paired AIM AdHack with AIMutation and it works like a dream. (Supports tabbed convos too)

I don't use AIM because of this problem. I got 2 accounts (1) Admin (2) Useracc

So, when I log out and sign into the admin account, my aim in "useracc" automatically goes into away-mode :mellow: When I do the same with gaim, it doesn't go in away-mode.

If I only knew how to fix this problem then I wouldn't be using gaim today.

Alright I downloaded the AOL security suite. All I can say is AVOID AT ALL COSTS. This thing is slower then anything I have ever seen, has AOL ads imbedded in the interface(change randomly) and overall is a waste of time. The program itself is a rebranded mcaffee suite with even more bloat then the original.

It also came with a IE shell that is pretty much useless. It has tabs but so will IE7. Dont waste your time with this crap.

On top of that I don't even think the Email has POP access. The web interface is nice but who cares?

Dont waste your time with this crap.

Since I used to have them as my ISP many years ago for a 2 or 2 1/2 year period I could have told you that! Now you know to avoid their crapware at all costs - even if it is "free". They couldn't pay me to install and use their software!

The last time I had dial up was in 1998 or 1999 and my ISP was mindspring,I dont even think they are around any more. I never used AOL dial up on my personal machine but I have used other computers that did. I knew how bad their software was but I thought maybe since they were offering it for free I would give it a shot anyway. Wrong I feel cheated from that 45min I wasted. :P And to think some people actually paid $25 a month just for that, not even the dial up access just those services. What a waste of money.

Maybe when they realize that even if its free no one will use it that its time to make something that isnt useless.

At the rate they are loosing subscribers (left and right), and after the Time-Warner thing from a few years ago I don't see them being around much longer, of course they may form into something different altogether like a software vendor - who knows really. I don't really care what happens to AOL existence-wise because I felt cheated when using them as an ISP being overcharged and all for at least two years, good riddens to them forever.