I, for one, hate AOL. It's the ISP I began with, back in 1995. I dropped them in five months, for Earthlink, but AOL kept charging me for months.

It took a letter from my lawyer to get them to back off and refund their overcharges.

Guess what? I had a need for Internet access four months ago, for less than a month. The only option was AOL.

Here it is, four months later, and they're still charging me, despite three letters on my part, one by my bank, and one by my lawyer.

I wonder how many grandmas tried them for two or three months a decade ago and are still paying $19.95 because they have neither the time nor the inclination to contest it.

NEVER AGAIN is my new AOL Motto.

I would say none. I've used AOL since the days of Quantum Link (The Commodore-based service that became AOL, QLink), and I've never once had a problem with them.

My AOL broadband is through Roadrunner, and I still have dialup if the cable goes out. I only need to load the AOL software for dialup. I also have 700 megs of webspace. Roadrunner gave me 5 megs. AOL has had it's problems like all ISP's, but the bad mouthing comes from years of teenagers being thrown off AOL because they couldn't read (or follow) the rules within AOL's proprietary service.

Most of the "bad" stories you hear about AOL are based on rumours perpetuated by those same teenagers; such as not having access to the web. You could even access the web through QLink on a Commodore Vic 20, although it was all text at that time (early 80's). AOL was no different. The people that couldn't access the web either didn't know how, or didn't know that they were.

Most of AOL's content is now accessible by everyone through AOL's website, minus E-mail and other proprietary services available to subscribers.

As far as people getting charged when they *think* they quit the service, call your credit card company. The charges will stop immediately.

I agree, I have aol and have had zero defects so far (8+ years).....I remember the early net with the text only, in the 80's, at the time it was considered a miracle!!! (Especially with the Commode Computer!!)

Dale

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"Ad astra per aspera"

I don't know... when my Mom switched from AOL dialup to her cable company's broadband, they gave her a sales pitch to keep AOL, because they'd protect her from viruses and hackers. So on top of the ~50 bucks per month for broadband, they wanted her to spend ~20 bucks MORE to "protect" her, even though her cable company provided them with anti-virus and a firewall FREE. They argued with her that that was not adequate, and really pressured her. They even continuted to charge her for dial-up for a few months, until I persuaded her to call them and take a "stern tone". They backed down finally and she is AOL free.

I have heard first and second hand that is FAR from an isolated occurrence.

CJSF

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Two years ago moved from my town
I was looking up past the city lights
But the city lights got in my way

See the constellation ride across the sky
No cigar, no lady on his arm
Just a guy made of dots and lines

-from "See The Constellation"
by They Might Be Giants

Actually, this tends to be fairly common group behavior among a wide range of animals, including humans. Blend in with the crowd - no problem. Care to be different, and others tend to go to significant lengths to either force you back "in line," or oust you if you're unwilling to go along.

It's not "higher reasoning," but rather evolution at it's finest. Diversions from group norms tend to be draining on the group. During times of plenty diversions are better tolerated than when the group is under environmental stresss.

Lot's of ISPs use proxy servers. In fact, most people connect to the Internet through proxies - they just don't know it, because their proxies don't require client configuration for a "proxy."

Much of the Internet is also served to local users from reasonably local caches (the client side of the backbone).

At any point, ISPs could alter web pages.

The main reason they don't is that it would take far too much computing time (money).

Sadly, this is the same reason AOL's tech support lacks, they're slow, and they cost more (ie, they want to keep their money, and they can afford to do so because of their market penetration and market economics).

However, like all larger, older companies, they suffer from "company glut," which robs them of much of their profits!