what are the alternatives to AOL?

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Nancy

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 9, 2001
Messages
9,896
Location
upstate New York
I may have to go to another ISP in the distant future. I have AOL now, and have had it forever. Now, without Time Warner, I fear that its days may be numbered or it will become ever more unstable. It is already driving me wild with its automatic start-ups, heavy advertising which makes all the pages load slowly or freeze, and many, many other little glitches that make it an unpleasant experience lately.

What do you use?

An how big a pain in the neck is it to change?

What, if any, are the costs?
 
Nancy, do you have the option of internet access through your cable company? That's what I use and it works well for me. The cable company will set it up for you and it should be a piece of cake.
 
Nancy:

We have att.net at home. HOWEVER, all att.net addys revert to yahoo on the web, and our firewall at work blocks access to att, yahoo, gmail and hotmail accounts (for starters).
When we switched from prodigy (yuck!) to att, I got several aol addys and use those since the firewall doesn't block them.
 
Nancy, I've hated AOL since I started with Computers. The sad thing, your used to it and switching now is going to confuddle you for a while. It's easy peezie to switch to another provider, it's just a matter of deciding who you want to use. I assume Time Warner is/was offering the AOL service? Are they leaving? If not, you can go with Road Runner. Depends on what you want to spend.
 
It's a funny situation. I have Road Runner through Time Warner, and they also were hooked up to AOL (Time Warner owned AOL) so I have both. But now Time Warner has spun off AOL and they are on their own. So far, I am continuing on using AOL same as always and neither AOL or Time Warner have said anything about what might happen.

So much of what I do is seriously tied up with the ISP provider that it will be difficult to change w/o having to updated everything, unless I am not understanding the process, which is possible.

I don't have plans to do anything at the present time, just thinking ahead and doing a "What if"
 
Hon really it's simply a matter of taking AOL off of your machine and then using Internet Explorer and Outlook Express for email. If you have problems or want help, I can help remotely from chair here. All you gotta do is ask. ;)
 
Hi Nancy,
If I understand ISPs correctly, I am on Quest and using a broadband connection through our phone line. With AOL are you still using dial-up with your phone? I hated how slow dial-up service was and really like the speed of broadband. At work we have a T-1 or better line which is lightening fast.

I assume you also have AOL email and I suggest you start switching over to another free email service like Yahoo, hotmail, or gmail so that by the time you switch all the people that you email will be using your new email addres before you leave AOL. I have both yahoo and gmail and I prefer gmail.

John
 
I have Road Runner. I used to have dial up years ago. I couldn't survive with that now, I do too much online.
 
Nancy said:
If and when the time comes, I will ask my honored geek! Thanks :D
Click to expand...

Nancy, Ross has helped me numerous times over the years right from his chair to mine. It's really wonderful to have him get in there to fix things up for me.

I am in daughter's house now, but decided to get a new address before I moved here via google (gmail) and find I can carry that with me everywhere, long as I have an internet connection. I miss my IE emailbox tho.
 
hensylee said:
Nancy, Ross has helped me numerous times over the years right from his chair to mine. It's really wonderful to have him get in there to fix things up for me.

I am in daughter's house now, but decided to get a new address before I moved here via google (gmail) and find I can carry that with me everywhere, long as I have an internet connection. I miss my IE emailbox tho.
Click to expand...

That too, can be fixed so that you can use it to get to your Gmail account.
 
Ross said:
Hon really it's simply a matter of taking AOL off of your machine and then using Internet Explorer and Outlook Express for email. If you have problems or want help, I can help remotely from chair here. All you gotta do is ask. ;)
Click to expand...

I just want to sy Ross is VERY good at this remoe stuff, he was even able to walk ME thru it and fixed my problem and i am one of the most computer impaired people i know


in answer to your question, we have comcast thru our cable/tv I don't remeber the cost, but I use gmail for my email, I didn't like outlook because I couldn't check my email from other computers an if I signed in and read thru the comcast homepage, it screwed up my email
 
For whatever it's worth, I, too, have been on AOL just about forever, and still am. However, my daughter talked me into getting a new gmail account (it's free) a few weeks ago. Haven't used it much yet, but may give it a test drive for some business stuff.
 
I'm another person who never liked to have my email a/c tied to my ISP.
My first free mail was Hotmail, then I fell in love with Yahoo about 13 years ago.
And now Gmail is used for FaceBook. They all work really well.
 
Nancy, Our internet provider is our cable company at home and at our cabin, where there is no cable, we have a satellite dish for our internet. I can't say that the satellite is the fastest thing on the earth, but my husband says it is faster than dial up. As far as our e-mail, mine is through the cable company, and my husband uses outlook express for his.
 
Lynlw said:
I just want to sy Ross is VERY good at this remoe stuff, he was even able to walk ME thru it and fixed my problem and i am one of the most computer impaired people i know


in answer to your question, we have comcast thru our cable/tv I don't remeber the cost, but I use gmail for my email, I didn't like outlook because I couldn't check my email from other computers an if I signed in and read thru the comcast homepage, it screwed up my email
Click to expand...

you can have your gmail sent on to your outlook. I did that for awhile. once it comes in to gmail, gmail can send it on.
 
Nancy said:
I may have to go to another ISP in the distant future. I have AOL now, and have had it forever.

What do you use?

An how big a pain in the neck is it to change?

What, if any, are the costs?
Click to expand...

Nancy,

I better warn you about something. Quitting AOL has been compared to trying to leave the mafia.

For instance, say you want to cancel the account and if it was your late husband who started it, they are going to ask to talk to him even when you say he passed away and your name is on the credit card paying for the service.

My own experience from 2006

*****

I'm through with AOL. After 11 years I'm leaving for Bell South and one of its DSL plans. 50 times faster than dial up and only $10-12 more a month. My AOL email is still good even when my service ends on April 22nd. So those of you who know it can still contact me there.

*- AOL's billing dept is such a cluster***k I'm glad to be leaving. A few months ago they were charging my credit card for AOL Traveller's advantage and no one knew how or why I was being billed. I had to dispute the charge to end the service.

Then to cancel AOL they wouldn't talk to me, even though I'm the account holder and my name is on the credit card. Three idiots giving me the run around before I called AOL corporate in Dulles VA. Five minutes with someone there got my service cancelled. April 22nd is my last day.

Adios AOL. I was with you 11 years but you treated me like garbage just too often. You forgot rule number #1 of customer service- The customer is always right even if the computer says not.

*****

Or google search what happened to Vincent Ferrari. He got to appear on Larry King and on the Today show with Matt Lauer.

In spite of a settlement with the New York Attorney General's office, I've read reports that AOL still won't let its subscribers end service easily.


I don't mean to scare or discourage you. Just give a warning as to what you're likely to face.
 
WilliamJE said:
Nancy,

I better warn you about something. Quitting AOL has been compared to trying to leave the mafia.

For instance, say you want to cancel the account and if it was your late husband who started it, they are going to ask to talk to him even when you say he passed away and your name is on the credit card paying for the service.

My own experience from 2006

*****

I'm through with AOL. After 11 years I'm leaving for Bell South and one of its DSL plans. 50 times faster than dial up and only $10-12 more a month. My AOL email is still good even when my service ends on April 22nd. So those of you who know it can still contact me there.

*- AOL's billing dept is such a cluster***k I'm glad to be leaving. A few months ago they were charging my credit card for AOL Traveller's advantage and no one knew how or why I was being billed. I had to dispute the charge to end the service.

Then to cancel AOL they wouldn't talk to me, even though I'm the account holder and my name is on the credit card. Three idiots giving me the run around before I called AOL corporate in Dulles VA. Five minutes with someone there got my service cancelled. April 22nd is my last day.

Adios AOL. I was with you 11 years but you treated me like garbage just too often. You forgot rule number #1 of customer service- The customer is always right even if the computer says not.

*****

Or google search what happened to Vincent Ferrari. He got to appear on Larry King and on the Today show with Matt Lauer.

In spite of a settlement with the New York Attorney General's office, I've read reports that AOL still won't let its subscribers end service easily.


I don't mean to scare or discourage you. Just give a warning as to what you're likely to face.
Click to expand...

Nancy I'm going to send you an email of AOL's flowchart to keep subscribers from leaving them. It's no joke. It's honestly taken right out of AOL's procedures manual for phone support personnel. It is not only eye opening, but downright frightening.

Now your circumstance may be different, but this is how they used to operate and most likely still do.
 
First, I'm another AOL hater! I've never had it but was exposed to AOL while visiting daughters. They both used it but finally switched to cable a few years ago.

We've had internet since 1997, stated off with a dial-up service, switched to local cable in 2000. Few years back, switched our home phone to cable. Now have one bill for phone, high speed internet and digital TV. Only bad thing about a cable phone, is when the cable's down. Our pole line was down for 5 days when hurricane Ike came through in 2008. Our cell phone was a saver.

Also don't care for Internet Explorer and Outlook. I use Mozilla's Firefox browser and Thunderbird mail, internet mail is Gmail.
 
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