Apr 17, 2002 07:31 AM
4126 Views
(Updated Apr 17, 2002 07:31 AM)
What is all the fuss over AOL?
I have had AOL for several years in the past, and I’m so happy that I came to my senses and drop this ISP client.
The Good of AOL
You wont hear me talk to much about the good things that AOL has to offer, but just like most things in life there is always something that you can find that is good about a product. The only things I really enjoyed when I had AOL were the “talking” mail messengers. Yes when you sign on to AOL and if you have email in your “inbox” then it will say “You Got Mail”. This alerts you to check your emails. I did enjoy that aspect of the ISP. The email was easy to use, and to attach something to your mail was easy as 1,2,3. I also enjoyed the part were you could drag a little heart into your favorite’s and then it would be easy access for the next time you want to view that site. With IE you have to click on “add” and then your site is added to your favorites.
I liked the easy “keyword” section; cause you can use this very easy all you had to do was type in one name. Example say I wanted to go to CBS well all I have to do is type the word CBS and it would take me there. Simple and easy and fast.
Bad part of AOL
Wow were do I begin? First off I really don’t like the chat rooms, for one thing when you go to a room you think the people in the room is going to talk about the subject that the room is all about. But once you enter you will find it isn’t that way at all. Instead you have men/woman talking about sex, and vulgar stuff. It isn’t a place were you would want to go if you are not into that kind of talking.
As for the buddy list, yes that is cool, but you don’t have to have AOL to use the messenger service. In fact you can download your own AOL instant messenger for FREE! You can still talk to all your friends that are on AOL and those who are just using the FREE messenger, so why get AOL for the buddy list?
With AOL you will pay more for their service then you will with one of your Local ISP clients. If you don’t have AOL in your local area of free calling then you have to pay every time you sign on to AOL. This can run your phone bill up into the hundreds of dollars or more a month, depending how long you stay connected to the Internet. You can also have a local server and also get AOL, but you will be paying for two ISP connections and there is really no reason for that.
As for the Browser at AOL compared to Internet Explorer, I think they are the same! Internet Explorer is just as easy to use and the AOL browser is. Plus Internet Explorer is free, and comes with your computer.
If you think you are getting a long waiting period to sign on your local server? Well think twice about AOL cause most the time you get a busy signal when you try to sign on, and once you are online and you are busy talking, or surfing the web, or even doing some email all of a sudden your booted off AOL. You then lose all your stuff, and have to sign back online to get connected once again. This really is terrible if you’re in the middle of a download cause once you are disconnected from AOL you lose your download time and have to restart it once again.
To me I really don’t think that AOL is the number one ISP in the country. I would rather pay a lower price for my ISP ($17.00) a month instead of paying ($21-$26) a month. Plus I can get free email, and free web browser, and the free instant messenger with out getting “HOOKED” on AOL. So I would suggest you check out your options first before you commit to the hassle of AOL.
