Finally....AOHELL masta gone

[GodMinusOne]

Originally posted by ck3k
Didn't someone sell a AOL 1.0 floppy on ebay, and make alot of money?

if they did, let me know, i have 2 or 3 1.0 disks sitting in a box somewhere

[skroo]

Originally posted by KeLviN
not to sound like i'm supporting it but, the new 8.0 seems like it has alot of good features for those using dial up....

A couple of weeks ago, one of our clients had me configure a half-dozen laptops to be given to their field sales staff. The brief was simple: they needed to run Office 2000 under Windows XP, and have some form of dialup access in order to be able to send & receive email.

Of course, being a client, they did what clients always do in these situations, which is FUBAR everything to hell & beyond. They chose AOL for their dialup access on the basis that 'the boss loves AOL, and he never has any problems with it'.

I protested this, stating that because I'm not familiar with either their client software or the protocols used by AOL's network, I wouldn't be able to support it beyond basic installation & configuration, and that we should probably go with someone else. I was informed that 'there's nothing wrong with AOL, and just because you engineering types don't like it doesn't mean it doesn't work, so here's a CD and get to the installation'.

Fine. You write the cheques, I'll do whatever harebrained crap you want.

Six installs later, not one laptop would connect. Each one could retrieve the dialup list from the 800 number, configure the client, and dial - but never negotiate to get on to the network. Oddly enough, however, running AOL in TCP/IP mode over the LAN was just fine. One tech support call to AOL later, their suggestion is, "uninstall and reinstall the software".

Now... Six brand-new laptops (Toshiba Satellites), all running the same (clean) OS and applications, all having the same problem over dialup with what seems to be AOL's own protocol, and their best suggestion is to 'uninstall and reinstall the software'? Given that it took an hour for me to get to that little pearl of wisdom, the client had just spent $90 to get shafted by poor support.

Solution: EarthLink. National dialups, it's plain old PPP so damn near *anything* can connect, and you don't have to use their shitty software. Plus, the tech support's halfway decent (as long as you get a tech in Pasadena). It may not be much better in terms of being a behemoth, but at least it works.

[ck3k]

Originally posted by blackwave
yes a few people use it that would normally not be caught dead using it... <blackwave looks around the forum suspiciously... > we know who you are ;) ... an aside I still have one of the aohell floppies that DT used to toss into the crowd man cons ago...

Didn't someone sell a AOL 1.0 floppy on ebay, and make alot of money?

[Grifter]

Originally posted by blackwave
yes a few people use it that would normally not be caught dead using it... <blackwave looks around the forum suspiciously... > we know who you are ;) ... an aside I still have one of the aohell floppies that DT used to toss into the crowd man cons ago...

I'll give you $0.45 for it.

[blackwave]

Originally posted by KeLviN
not to sound like i'm supporting it but, the new 8.0 seems like it has alot of good features for those using dial up....

yes a few people use it that would normally not be caught dead using it... <blackwave looks around the forum suspiciously... > we know who you are ;) ... an aside I still have one of the aohell floppies that DT used to toss into the crowd man cons ago...

[KeLviN]

not to sound like i'm supporting it but, the new 8.0 seems like it has alot of good features for those using dial up....

[TwinVega]

Re: Re: Finally....AOHELL masta gone

Originally posted by skroo
Oh, and, uh, for the record: it was Steve Case, not Steve Jobs (of Apple) who left :)

HAHA, damn, messed that one right up....too many steves!
Balmer, Woz, Jobs, Case.....

[skroo]

Re: Finally....AOHELL masta gone

Originally posted by TwinVega
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=stor...c&sid=95573503
Steve Job finally left AOL, hopefully this means that AOL will have less of a presence on the internet, this also means that MSN and Earthlink and other companies just like AOL will have to pick up the slack, which might not be a gain at all. Of course, that is only IF they decline as a company.

Which ain't likely. Their marketing techniques plus the fact that the audience they're selling to doesn't know what it's getting or needs pretty much guarantees them a fair chunk of market share, and that's not going away any time soon.

The following only runs up to late '98, but makes for some interesting prehistory on the company's origins: http://iml.jou.ufl.edu/projects/Fall2000/McAtee/

AOL's freaking huge, and short of a massive, haemorrhaging bankruptcy, ain't going away any time soon. Which is a good thing, because it keeps all the tards neatly wrangled into one easily-identifiable pen.

Oh, and, uh, for the record: it was Steve Case, not Steve Jobs (of Apple) who left :)

[astcell]

Originally posted by kampf
I have a photo somewhere of me and a bunch of people with Steve, back in the days when i worked at an AOL call center...

And I have a picture of me with Manuel Noriega in Panama, but I don't show it to anyone. Keep your photo under wraps! :D

[jetforce4004]

ah aol the worst ISP in existance and right after that is msn

[kampf]

I have a photo somewhere of me and a bunch of people with Steve, back in the days when i worked at an AOL call center...

[ck3k]

Re: Finally....AOHELL masta gone

Originally posted by TwinVega
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=stor...c&sid=95573503
Steve Job finally left AOL, hopefully this means that AOL will have less of a presence on the internet, this also means that MSN and Earthlink and other companies just like AOL will have to pick up the slack, which might not be a gain at all. Of course, that is only IF they decline as a company.

He will spend the rest of his years in a house made entirely of AOL cds.

[TwinVega]

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=stor...c&sid=95573503
Steve Case finally left AOL, hopefully this means that AOL will have less of a presence on the internet, this also means that MSN and Earthlink and other companies just like AOL will have to pick up the slack, which might not be a gain at all. Of course, that is only IF they decline as a company.