BlitzenZeus
Burnt Out Cynic
Premium,MVM
join:2000-01-13
Beaverton, OR
 ·Verizon FIOS
 ·Verizon Online DSL
| Goodbye AOHell
I'm almost glad they didn't evolve, but they had no real ties into cable, or dsl providers so go beyond the antiquated dial-up business. They overcharged for it, and made it next to impossible to cancel at times. I'm amazed they still are surviving today in any capacity.
I won't miss them, and similar providers who required you install their special software to use their dial-up service. |
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woody7
Premium
join:2000-10-13
Torrance, CA
·EarthLink
·DSL EXTREME
| Time to just Die and go away............. 
--
BlooMe |
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aaronwt
Premium
join:2004-11-07
Woodbridge, VA
·Verizon FIOS
| I never used them
I'm glad I never used them. I dropped my EROLS dialup in 1997 when I got my first cable modem.
I couldn't have imagined going back to dialup after getting those fast speeds twelve years ago. Which at 5mbsdown/1mbs up is still faster than many people have today. |
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Matt
Take me down to the paradise city
Premium
join:2003-07-20
Jamestown, NC
·North State Commun..
| reply to BlitzenZeus
Re: Goodbye AOHell
For all the fun technical people poke at AOL, they accomplished two things we should ALL be thankful for:
1) Unlimited Internet Connectivity for a fair price: $29.99 for unlimited dial-up forced other ISPs to match it, even though AOL didn't provide unfettered internet access until the end of their life.
2) It brought the masses to the internet. Once AOL started accepting email from the internet and allowing internet access to more than their walled garden, it made people a LOT more comfortable outside of AOL. |
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maartena
Stacked.
Premium
join:2002-05-10
Orange, CA
 ·RoadRunner Cable
| AOHell can't die fast enough IMHO...
I have loathed AOL ever since they had their own dialup protocol and browser, and everything needed to be compatible with their software, not the other way around. Yeah they finally switched to TCP/IP in the 2000s or so, but for me..... their reputation was already damaged beyond belief.
Die already, don't come back.
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"I reject your reality and substitute my own!" |
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Josherrr
@comcast.net
| thank god
i have been the tech guy for my family and friends for years and i hate aol with a passion aol and the spam/spyware that come with it will bring the fastest computer to a crawl and it took hours to cancel the service i hate aol... at a time people thought aol was the internet thank god those days are over |
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Killa200
Premium
join:2005-12-02
Spring City, TN | GOODBYE!
As a local computer technician, i am so going to jump for joy the day i hear the company closes its doors. Good riddance to AOHELL's software mess extravaganza that it places on customer's computers. |
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bgraham
join:2001-03-15
Smithtown, NY
·Verizon FIOS
| I cannot believe Bewkes said this.
Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes says:
"We believe AOL will then have a better opportunity to achieve its full potential as a leading independent Internet company."
What a crock. Let the thing die. I guess he can sell AOL for $30 or so on Ebay. |
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fatmanskinny
Premium
join:2004-01-04
Wandering | Is EarthLink going to buy AOL?
Would be interesting to see what The Link would do after this announcement. |
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cornelius785
join:2006-10-26
Worcester, MA | reply to Matt
Re: Goodbye AOHell
i agree. if the internet really ever had a marketer for the internet, i say it would be AOL. what other company sent out millions of free install discs? |
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BlitzenZeus
Burnt Out Cynic
Premium,MVM
join:2000-01-13
Beaverton, OR
·Verizon FIOS
·Verizon Online DSL
| reply to Matt
Well the prices at the end for unlimited dial-up internet were $10-20 at the most to try to keep their customers from broadband, some of the cheaper ones trying to show you additional adds while you browsed, hence my hatred for carriers like this.
Broadband started to be around dial-up prices plus the additional cost of a phone line so those were the first people to change to broadband since it was faster, and cost the same as having to pay for the second line also.
Then broadband became cheaper, some only held out due to forced packaging with tv services, or the felt they didn't want to pay more, however still had to deal with the annoying part of not being able to talk on the phone at the same time. If they paid for a second line, and dial-up at this point there was no help for them.
I have a feeling that the majority of dial-up users left are stuck with poor broadband coverage, they just haven't looked into the real cost of getting anything faster, or can't depend on a wireless cellular provider.
I helped somebody recently who was still using juno dial-up, and I ended up saving them money since they no longer had to pay for dial-up, along with their phone provider had a non-contract dsl/phone package for 1mbit/128kbit for the same price he was already for his single phone line. They would of had to buy a modem, but we had an old dsl modem laying around which worked perfectly for them, however this wasn't without a fight from the sales agents trying to push their faster services, we actually had to hang up as the first guy was being a jerk about it. The second guy actually gave us the package he wanted. It wasn't amazingly fast, we told him he could go must faster if he really wanted, but all he did was e-mail and browse the web anyway. I was honestly amazed they still used dial-up.
--
My hourly rates:
$25 per hour.
$35 per hour if you want to watch.
$45 per hour if you want to help.
$75 per hour if you tried to fix it, and failed.
$125 per hour if you called tech support, and didn't fix the issue while making things worse |
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Jonbo298
join:2004-01-12
Council Bluffs, IA | reply to Matt
They did accomplish some good things for the time, unfortunately (actually fortunately), they didn't adapt to technology as it evolved and now they are where they are. |
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CO_Chris
Premium
join:2001-08-28
Broomfield, CO
·Comcast
·Earthlink Cable Mo..
 ·Comcast Digital Vo..
| reply to Matt
said by Matt  :For all the fun technical people poke at AOL, they accomplished two things we should ALL be thankful for: 1) Unlimited Internet Connectivity for a fair price: $19.99 for unlimited dial-up forced other ISPs to match it, even though AOL didn't provide unfettered internet access until the end of their life. Fixed.. |
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ISurfTooMuch
join:2007-04-23
Tuscaloosa, AL
| And let's not forget...
...that this is the company that bought Netscape, the leading Web browser at the time, and managed to flush it right down the toilet. Of course, the train wreck that was Netscape 4.0 didn't help, but every application has a bad release at some point, but AOL didn't even seem to want to use the browser they bought, since I remember seeing IE bundled with their crapware even after the Netscape buy. |
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ISurfTooMuch
join:2007-04-23
Tuscaloosa, AL
| reply to fatmanskinny
Re: Is EarthLink going to buy AOL?
Nah, they won't do that, or at least they shouldn't. AOL brings nothing to the party. ELN already has enough POPs, so AOL is no help there. Subs? They could get those, sure, but I doubt the idiot execs at AOL will sell out for a price that makes this a bargain. And besides, EarthLink needs to move away from dialup as quickly as possible. The money needed to buy AOL needs to be spent on broadband development. Buying up some small cable companies and telcos would seem to be a better strategy for them. |
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SLD
Premium
join:2002-04-17 | reply to cornelius785
Re: Goodbye AOHell
Except they tried to keep you in their own content zone. Internet access was ony added later. |
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SLD
Premium
join:2002-04-17 | reply to woody7
Too bad they're not taking TW with them. |
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Matt
Take me down to the paradise city
Premium
join:2003-07-20
Jamestown, NC
·North State Commun..
| reply to CO_Chris
said by CO_Chris :said by Matt :For all the fun technical people poke at AOL, they accomplished two things we should ALL be thankful for: 1) Unlimited Internet Connectivity for a fair price: $19.99 for unlimited dial-up forced other ISPs to match it, even though AOL didn't provide unfettered internet access until the end of their life. Fixed.. It was $29.99 when it was first offered, reduced to $19.99 much later. |
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44402812
Hack The Planet
Premium
join:2006-08-28
Plattsburgh, NY
| reply to Matt
said by Matt :For all the fun technical people poke at AOL, they accomplished two things we should ALL be thankful for: 1) Unlimited Internet Connectivity for a fair price: $29.99 for unlimited dial-up forced other ISPs to match it, even though AOL didn't provide unfettered internet access until the end of their life. 2) It brought the masses to the internet. Once AOL started accepting email from the internet and allowing internet access to more than their walled garden, it made people a LOT more comfortable outside of AOL. Number 2 is not necessarily a good thing  Some morons don't belong on the internet! |
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44402812
Hack The Planet
Premium
join:2006-08-28
Plattsburgh, NY
| reply to Killa200
Re: GOODBYE!
said by Killa200 :As a local computer technician, i am so going to jump for joy the day i hear the company closes its doors. Good riddance to AOHELL's software mess extravaganza that it places on customer's computers. Why? I love their software! The more idiots that f#$k up their computer with it the better. More money for me... |
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