Aol loses two million customers.

[SLICK RICK]

I don't get anymore disks from them though.

Yea, now that I think about it, I haven't seen one of those free AOL disc in a while.

[bazooka]

I don't get anymore disks from them though.

Yea, now that I think about it, I haven't seen one of those free AOL disc in a while.

I got one just the other day. I would be more than happy to send it to you.

[SLICK RICK]

I don't get anymore disks from them though.

Yea, now that I think about it, I haven't seen one of those free AOL disc in a while.

I got one just the other day. I would be more than happy to send it to you.

As much as I'd appreciate it bazooka, I think I'll pass on that one.

[bazooka]

If I had a dime for each aol disc I got, I would be rich.

[Doramius]

@ Bazooka - Mee too.

I still get the AOL discs, but I usually save some of the cases. The Crystal Super Jewel DVD cases are great. I think Verbatim sells them, but they ain't cheap. I also got a little wooden box style case recently. I pulled the label off carefully and the outside of the box was still sticky, so I took a really nice silver mylar wrapping paper and covered the box with it. I placed a light felt in the bottom of it and I'll use it for sending DVDRs to family as gifts. Just finished a master of our trip to Knottsberry Farm a month back. I only have 6 boxes though. I need to raid the local Hollywood video because they have the free AOL discs in the cases I like. AOL discs make great coasters too.

[Rookie64]

If only they were re-writeable


I used to get a lot of use out of the old floppys they used to send 8)

[ChrisX]

I just got a promo email from Netscape offering cheap $9.95 Internet access plan to sign up.

This reminds me of AOL

[handyguy]

I always chuckle at their high speed offers too, just $15.95....and all it does is cache stuff to your hd so the pages load faster. Netscape already does that for free.

[HillJack]

AOL is where i got my first listen of the duckjob.wav.. you all remember that dont you.. the funniest thing on the net to this day.. i had tears in my eyes from that one..

Hahaha, atleast I wasn't the only one! In fact, I think I still have it on a tape somewhere... ahh the good old days.

[ChrisX]

Finally these people are starting to wake up to the fact they have been ripped off for years.

I am sick of both the free aol cd's and the aol commercial as to how to make the internet better.

IMO, the way to make the internet better is to get rid of Aol. - End Rant.

I just got another AOL promo today and you know what?

It is on the new AOL 9.0 AIM. I have enough.

I did receive it and I don’t why I got it even though I don’t use their instant messaging service.

Not only as unsolicited email promo, it got into the wrong email address of what is recorded and on a no longer used ‘Netscape’ user name.

To my surprise that ‘Netscape’ user name still exists even not used for a year.

I just deactivated the account as deletion not available.

I just found something that I didn’t know way hidden in Netscape, change ‘Netscape Network Marketing preferences’.

I changed to NO for all and this includes their affiliated services such as AOL, AIM and CNN.

Check out: https://myaccount.netscape.com/marketing.psp

I also changed ‘Netscape Membership’ on my alternative email address too

Check out: https://myaccount.netscape.com

I also noticed that AOL membership on AIM as automatic on joining Netscape Network Membership for the browser and Netscape Mail.

I think this was why AOL and AIM got my email address when I first registered with that Netscape user name many years ago even though I’ve changed the email address a number of times.

It is pretty weird on a user name I no longer use. The promo still got to me today.

Oh well, no more AOL and I am sick of them.

[bazooka]

Aol is splitting into four parts and is telling broadband customers in 9 states that they need to find a new provider.

[DereX888]

Aol is splitting into four parts and is telling broadband customers in 9 states that they need to find a new provider.

Good.
Too late though.
F***g millions of supposedly happy dial-up AOL idiots, I mean users, are the major reason for such slow rollout of broadband in North America. Every ISP is, or at least was, thinking until now: "why invest in end-user broadband connections if those idiots are already happy with overpriced crappy phoneline connections".

[Doramius]

Broadband is overpriced, too. It needs to have more competition, but because most areas usually only have 2 potential ways of getting it (DSL through phone carrier or Cable's Broadband) the companies can easily set up a price halt on something similar to a monopoly. Gas & electric companies have been doing it for ages, too. Broadband should only cost about $12-$15 for full capabilities and still be more than enough for the companies to make large profits. They don't do it, because it would be the same or cheaper than dial-up usage. They want to make broadband a premium service. I sasy cut off the dial-uppers and use the extra money to open up network traffic. It's too jammed in some areas and they can clean it up, too. For them it's easier to put the money in their pocket then help out the information highway improve. We should all be able to move cleanly through the internet at speeds of 10mbps.

[Roundabout]

That's why Wimax (check Google) and BPL (Broadband over powerlines) will be coming in the not too distant future. So there will be competition, albeit slowly. Only then prices may start to come down. The duopoly (A situation in which two companies own all or nearly all of the market for a given type of product or service) of DSL and Cable has gone on long enough. There needs to be true competition and congress is taking some action to make it happen. We'll see in the next couple of years. I certainly hope it happens.

[Doramius]

They are definitely trying to do something. There was even talk about it becoming a public service, but that will never happen. They said the same thing about the phones and other utilities, and some of it was tax paid utility, but that ended when or before my grandfather was in high school.

I think once satellite becomes more common, people will be turning to it for broadband. If more people use it the costs will drop immensly and several carriers can compete for your business. Why do you think satellite is dropping in cost so often. Even rural areas that can't get standard Cable or DSL can get digital satellite with the choice of about 5 different companies for service. You can't get that for LAN phone or your electric. Cells have driven the cost of LAN phone costs so much that you can get unlimited calls (local & LD) for around $40-$60 a month. I remember when my local bill was just that much. If I called LD often, my bill was over $150. I don't even pay near that with an unlimited plan and DSL together, along with nearly every feature provided by the carrier {IE: caller ID, call forwarding, 3-way calling, etc.}. I pay $35 a month for my cell phone for a low monthly minutes plan and I still never use all of my minutes (company pays for my bill there, too. SO I really shouldn't count it) However, the point is the competition has driven costs down extremely in the last few years. It'll happen once more people go satellite. If there ever was a big reason to go satellite, that would be it.

[Roundabout]

That's the key, if we can get enough companies into providing broadband, then the prices are bound to drop. As it is now, where I am, I can't get DSL so cable is the only game in town next to dialup. And they charge $54.95/mo. if you don't have some kind of special. And all the introductory specials eventually end, then you have to pay through the nose. I cut my BB access off and went back to dialup.

I'm hoping within a year or so that there'll be some other alternatives out there for us, but we'll see. In the meantime, I'll just have to live with what I have. Not that big a deal really. Friends have BB so I can d/l whatever I need at their house anyway, if necessary. I'm actually getting used to this 28.8Kbps connection again, and it's not so bad.

[Doramius]

DSL you have to be a certain distance away or you can't get the signal. I don't know why for sure, but it's probably due to a carrier signal frequency that gets directionally coupled out at a tap near your main phone box to your house. However, broadband doesn't need to be a secondary wave or signal on a line. It can have it's own line, but companies and local governments don't want to invest in it. It had to be done at some point in time for electric and telephone. Federal requirement could be made to at least require a dummy line be added for newly placed and any replaced lines. That way there's something if a company decides to start offering the service. However, cable, power and phone companies have a big stick about letting that happen. Phone companies were the first to offer poles to allow lines to travel from house to house. Power companies followed their lines on these poles because the 2 businesses were competing against each other and they pooled money together so it was cheaper by them only having to cover half the cost of poles and the labor to put them up. Time passes and cable companies add their lines and pffer their ability to cover the cost of expenses of putting up poles and the labor to do so. Internet comes along and now Cable and Phone companies have something to compete over. Now they aren't letting anyone else run lines on the poles because it will create competition. You remove the need for having to use cables, and anybody can jump into the works. Joe Smith down the street can open his own broadband service with a small fee to anyone who's able to receive his signal. If he only charges $15 a month. and everyone else is charging $50, more people will subscribe to him and he'll grow. Unfortunately, it'll be slow since he's in a small town in hickville, USA. He's not big or strong enough to fight the bigger companies in the bigger city areas to get position in the other areas and offer service.

[Roundabout]

DSL you have to be a certain distance away or you can't get the signal. I don't know why for sure, but it's probably due to a carrier signal frequency that gets directionally coupled out at a tap near your main phone box to your house.

I believe that distance has to be within a mile or so from the CO, or you can't get DSL. Where I live, the CO is downtown and I'm at least 3 or 4 miles away, therefore, no DSL for me. However, I think they can install some type of amplifer that will allow it to go further, but they haven't done that at this point. I have no idea if they ever will.

That's why I think my only hope is for Wimax. The signal is RF and can be received with about 30 miles of the base station. That makes it very economical, and I think it will be a reality in the next year or two. Hopefully, it won't cost an arm and a leg. Anything more than about $30 a month is too much in my book. I just want decent speed at a decent price. I don't need the fastest line, I'm just web surfing and E-mailing now. Since p2p may wind up illegal before long (if RIAA/MPAA gets their way), it takes away the incentive for faster lines.

[ChrisX]

I believe that distance has to be within a mile or so from the CO, or you can't get DSL. Where I live, the CO is downtown and I'm at least 3 or 4 miles away, therefore, no DSL for me. However, I think they can install some type of amplifer that will allow it to go further, but they haven't done that at this point. I have no idea if they ever will

I am like that only a short distance to the local center.

I am only around 2 km away from the telephone exchange and I can apply to get ADSL for Internet access.

This is main complaint; it is limited on distance, just like Roundabout says so.

A major telephone company here in Australia, ‘Telstra’ is trialing ways to extend the ADSL or DSL distance a little further.

They are doing this amid heaps of complaints of limited availability of Broadband Internet access in Australia.

I am not sure how they going to do it and I read about signal losses on ADSL as the distance goes further.

Telstra is trying to and find ways to overcome this problem.

Amplification maybe be one way to get to further on DSL?

Check out: http://whirlpool.net.au/article.cfm/1385

More info at Telstra

BTW, I can only get Internet access on dialup, ADSL and maybe on ISP wireless too.

[Roundabout]

I did some checking and I was off a little on the distance <> CO requirement, but besides distance, the other thing that makes it impossible to get DSL where I am is the SLK96 units they use to save money on running new lines.

You need to be within about 15,000 feet of a phone company's central office to get the service. In testing the circuits, Qwest has found that some people as far as 18,000 feet away from a central office can get DSL service.

The 15,000 foot limit is because of signal loss. Typically, if you are over 15,000 feet away from the central office serving your location, too much data will be lost to make the service usable.

Even if you are within 15,000 feet, you still might not qualify because of line conditions and signal loss.

Certain devices and wiring may prevent a line that would otherwise qualify from doing so.

For example, Qwest commonly uses "pair gain" devices like SLCs. An SLC is like DSL in that it converts a line to use digital instead of analog. However, the increased capacity is then used to carry more phone lines instead of enhancing the one.

Qwest commonly uses these devices where they have run out of wires for new lines. (It costs a lot less to setup an SLC than it does to run more copper wires from the central office to the home/business.)

These devices can have a detrimental affect on modem connections and automatically disqualify you for DSL.