Thread: Notice to AOL members who might be trying to become a member

If your email is with AOL, go ahead and try to register. But if you never get the confirming email, you will simply have to change your email to another ISP, such as Yahoo mail, or just figure on joining another forum somewhere.

90 percent of emails I get from folks that never got the confirming email (so you can log in for the first time) are from AOL users and frankly I'm just very tired of it and don't have the time to help correct the misdeeds of someones screwball ISP.

You sound weary, Milacron. Frankly, I don't see how you keep up with it all. Hats off to
you. Old Bill

AOL seems to be blocking lots of stuff. I know its fairly common for message board or bulk list emails not to go through to their users.

I use AOL because I have had it forever.

AOL barely works with other Time Warner stuff such as Road Runner. I have to turn off AOL to send emails through road runner or my own website www.mebfab.com.

Also it interferes with some other non-internet software. I need to delete it but most contacts I have use my AOL email.

AOL tries to trap you in their environment so you never learn the internet exists without them. I tried to use my brothers PC once and whatever crap AOL wraps around IE just wouldn't let go. Yuck!

He since moved to a real ISP on my advice.

Clutch

once upon a time, we got one of those 'free trial' AOL version 6,675,954.4 (or whatever), and we gave it a try......basic windows 2000 on the ol' PC, nothing fancy....just loading the AOL disc kept causing our system to crash.....then the uninstall required my PC guru to come over to fix my system....what a PITA....never again.....

Don't be weary and condescending Milacron. Not everyone is as wise as you.

Those of us who run AOL do so with our eyes wide open and live with its faults. Not everyone needs to maximize every possible refinement from their ISP. AOL runs trouble free for me but I make few demands of it. Message boards, research, and eBay mostly. I get a kick out of the people who sneer at AOL as though its too childish or tame for serious people. Chances are these same folks on their next post will lay out a long string of problems with a hodge-podge of unrelated internet and system software they're running and having problems with.

Had AOL back several years back and it was a nightmare. I have friends who use it now and they have issues on a regular basis.

Of course I do make demands on my computer and use everything on a daily basis. It must work flawlessly especially when the cost of an ISP is not cheap. If I pay for it I want it to "DO WHAT I WANT IT TO" every time.

All I can say to post #7 is if you are happy keep AOL --- Don't belittle Milacron and others, Milacron is correct and I applaud his comments.

Originally Posted by ietech

Milacron is correct and I applaud his comments.

Thanks. Re Forrest's comments, I didn't perceive anything "condesending" about my post, just the facts of the matter. There is only so much time in the day and constantly dealing with other folks troubles via AOL is just so downright "boring" I simply can't keep it up and retain my "zest for life"

Bottom line, if you like AOL fine...just don't make your troubles, my troubles.

"Bottom line, if you like AOL fine...just don't make your troubles, my troubles." Exactly

I use Bell South DSL, now AT&T since the merger, and it has been screwed up as far as emails from PM for quite some time.
Apparently the sheer volume of email from the PM server, what with 30K+ members, many of whom subscribe to threads of interest, and get lots of email from PM, causes the AT&T email system to think PM emails are spam, and they block it. No notice to me, no posting in my mailguard file, where suspected spam usually winds up for me to review and either delete, notify AT&T that it isn't spam, or just ignore till AT&T automatically deletes it after 30 days or so. Also they don't notify Milacron or the server that they have blocked emails to me from PM, they just dump it off into cyberspace. Had the same issue on another forum I visit on Lincoln MK VIII cars.
The owner of the MKVIII forum was somehow successful in correcting the problem, but Milacron hasn't had much success, although he and I have talked at length about it, and he has tried to correct it also.
I don't want to change ISPs now, and get locked in to a contract that would cost me money to change when the next big advance comes about in available technology. So I went over to Yahoo and set up another email address just for emails from PM's server. At first they placed some of them into my "bulk file" as suspected spam. But after my moving several emails from PM over to the regular file from the bulk file and then opening them there, they all appear in the regular email received file.
So a sort of end run is possible by setting up another email address on Yahoo or hotmail, etc. and listing it as your email address for PM.
Dave

I don't know what Mr. Addy is talking about. When he gets away from AOL, then he'll be REALLY mad at it.

My brother had a message he sent me after getting off it called "Escape from AOLcatraz"

Richard

AOL is a computer virus in my opinion.

Forum Members:

I had aol on a old mac years ago,got rid of both and been happy

ever since. New macs are neat but not aol .Comcast and Yahoo seem to

work for me.I recently joined a forum that did not allow Yahoo,different

strokes for diffrent folks.

Good Luck:Machineman007
Castle Rock,Colo,U.S.A.

I worked there for 8 years as a software developer. Layed off december '06.

Every AOL member needs to realize that since they moved to the free service, you no longer need to use ANY aol software AT ALL. You can treat your email account like a relatively normal IMAP mail account.

If you still use AOL as your ISP, make sure that that you are on the $9.99/month plan. They will not tell you that you can do this and want you to keep paying $26 or whatever.

Also- AOL tends to be quite aggressive about trying to stick SPAM into a SPAM folder. This is likely where people's confirmation emails are going.

I'm not trying to defend AOL here- I just want folks to understand the current state of AOL. Summary- you do not need to pay them anything if you just want to keep your email address and use another ISP. And this is a good thing to do.

Up until about a year ago I have had AOL since '97. I Have had a lot of pc problems over the years and a lot of them were because of AOL. My computer guy stripped every evidence of AOL out of my computer then and I have had no problem since. AOL carries email and address list on their side of the fence so you will not lose service if you erase all AOL from your computer. To get on aol without them as a server go to www.aol.com and use your present email address and everything will be fine. You should not be paying anything for this service. I also have Google's email (gmail.com) and it is one of the best out there.

TMD

Originally Posted by ironhoarder

Every AOL member needs to realize that since they moved to the free service, you no longer need to use ANY aol software AT ALL. You can treat your email account like a relatively normal IMAP mail account.

If you still use AOL as your ISP, make sure that that you are on the $9.99/month plan. They will not tell you that you can do this and want you to keep paying $26 or whatever.

How is this done? If I just want my email address to stay the same, whom do I use as my ISP? I'm on a windows pc.

Originally Posted by metlhed

How is this done? If I just want my email address to stay the same, whom do I use as my ISP? I'm on a windows pc.

You can use any isp and still keep your AOL email address. If dialup is all that is available or you feel like paying for, there are cheap options. Actually, AOL has a $10/month option too. Netzero is one, there are others.

Your ISP gets you connectivity. Period. Currently, your AOL email account is similar to a free yahoo account, etc. Personally, I use Gmail a great deal.

So- how is it done? if you want to keep aol as your dialup, you call cust service and tell them that you want the cheapest dialup package which is about $10. If you signup with somebody else, call AOL and say that you want to keep your email and move to the free plan. You need to be insistent. The "customer service" people are trained to try to keep you paying $26/month.

The only AOL software I use these days is AIM- and I use the AIM classic- it is a lot less intrusive.

My poor inlaws swear by AOL because it is so easy to use. I'm always having to fix problems on their computer and most of the time it's because AOL uses so many resources! If they uninstalled it they'd for sure have a faster computer. Definitely don't have AOL on the same computer as CAD/CAM!

I used AOL for years. My wife suggested that I drop AOL and move my EMail address over to Yahoo where it is free. When I didn't renew my subscription with AOL, they gave me my AOL email free. Now I have both!