I met my wife on AOL, back in 1997, but I haven't used it for at least five years now. I hated how their software screwed up my PC (VPN connections especially) and dumped them.

A couple of articles on this:

http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB115...ff_main_tff_top

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/10/technolo...=rssnyt&emc=rss

 

Once Broadband was introduced to home users, AOL's business model of making money on user subscriptions was doomed.

Google has the current success model - Advertising.

AOL now needs to see if it can get people to use it as a service for free to attract advertising dollars. Might be a bit late for them.

 

I'm going to have to go over and read these on aol since my popup blocker goes berserk on my firefox browser when I try to open these. That's one thing I like about aol. It reallllllly stops the popups without slowing down the entire system. I use pccillin and a site advisor that keeps the stuff from getting in and popping up, but it slows everything to a crawl. I've started reading the NY Times and WSJ using my aol browser and I get no popups and the service hums right along. That's another reason I kept aol on my computer.

 

Can anyone help with a problem I have?

I use Comcast / Firefox. Whenever I get an email from AOL, even if it's an attachment, I get an error message. These emails are easy to spot because they have a blue header and whenever I get one I have to click on the error message twice before it will allow me to read it, or to even delete it! Since one of my friends constantly is sending me email jokes with AOL emails attached, this gets REALLY old. I don't want to totally block his emails so I put up with it. I've talked to some pc type people and tried changing settings on my pc but so far nothing has worked.

Anyone else have this? Solution anyone?

 

^
Sorry I can't help on this one. I used to get emails from a friend and it was the same situation. I had to keep clicking to open the attachment. Neither of us were using AOL....strange.

Hope one of the computer guys here has an answer for you.

 

Are you using Thunderbird to get your mail? I've never had that problem with attachments and for my comcast mail I use Thunderbird. All I've ever had to do is click on the attachment button and it opens immediately.

 

No, I don't have to drive to get my mail. . . it comes to me.

I use Outlook Express and/or the full version. Same issue with either. I've talked to others who use Outlook and get the same AOL emails and they do not experience the same problem, so I don't believe that's the cause.

 

I use Mozilla's Thunderbird instead of outlook. If I remember correctly when I downloaded Firefox I downloaded Thunderbird at the same time. I LOVE them both and prefer Thunderbird to outlook (probably because I've just gotten accustomed to it). I like the way they screen out all the spam and junky stuff before it even arrives in my mailbox.

 

Dave, have you tried going into Tools/Options/Connection on Outlook Express, and then checking your Internet Connection Settings?

The settings are shared with Internet Explorer on my system. If your settings are (or are not) being shared with Firefox, it may be causing the problem.

I have Comcast too. Any messages from AOL come in as an empty message body with an attachment, which I have to click on to read the original message.

 

DD, looking at Tools/Options/General/Connection it is set on Direct connection to the Internet.