Tech: AOL v. Earthlink

Subject: AOL v. Earthlink
From: Bud Savoie
Date: 10 Sep 00 - 09:43 AM

My 13-year-old daughter, who naturally knows far more about the Internet than I do, keeps telling me we ought to get rid of AOL because of delays, cutoffs, and other repeat problems. Recently I received some info about Earthlink, which makes the provider sound desireable. Mudcatters have all sorts of experience with all sorts sof carriers, so maybe you can advise us. Shjould we stick with AOL, move to Earthlink, or maybe go to some other carrier?

If we switch, what happens to all of the bookmarks I have accumulated on AOL?

And is there an easy way to notify everyone that my email address has changed?

Bud

Subject: RE: Help: AOL v. Earthlink
From: Bill D
Date: 10 Sep 00 - 10:58 AM

Bookmarks can be moved (at least, I can import them from the browsers I use)...AOL does have many hassles and limitations. Depending on where you live, a local ISP provider 'can' be best, but if you are not where there is competition, Earthlink could be a decent choice.

And there is 'usually' a way to select all the names on you email list just before you switch and send a notice to everyone that after 'X' date you will be at a new address.

(I'll check that bookmark thing...does anyone have direct knowlege?)

Subject: RE: Help: AOL v. Earthlink
From: Banjer
Date: 10 Sep 00 - 02:07 PM

Never had either AOL or Earthlink. I have known people who had one or the other. The Earthlink crowd seemed much more pleased with their service than any of the AOL crowd. I have known folks to quit AOL for the same reasons your daughter speaks of. I have my service through the phone company (GTE) but am getting a bit annoyed at them. NOt because of their service, which to date has been wonderful, but they are now offering the same service to new subscribers for $15.00 a month and I am paying $19.95 for the same thing. The only thing I like is that the charge is included in my phone bill and I don't have a bunch of seperate bills each month.

Subject: RE: Help: AOL v. Earthlink
From: kendall
Date: 10 Sep 00 - 02:43 PM

AOL BITES

Subject: RE: Help: AOL v. Earthlink
From: Susan of DT
Date: 10 Sep 00 - 03:54 PM

Earthlink works fine for me

Subject: RE: Help: AOL v. Earthlink
From: Lepus Rex
Date: 10 Sep 00 - 05:41 PM

Heh, back when I was on IRC, AOLers were laughed at, harassed, shunned, banned, and DOSed. They've got a bad reputation for being really lame (and for thinking that AOL is some really exclusive club). Most non-AOL folks wouldn't even acknowledge them. Maybe that's what your daughter was thinking, too? ;)

---Lepus Rex

Subject: RE: Help: AOL v. Earthlink
From: Bev and Jerry
Date: 10 Sep 00 - 09:45 PM

We live so far from civilization that AOL is not available with a local phone number. But we switched from a local ISP to Prodigy about a year ago and have been delighted with their service. Prodigy makes it very difficult for you to phone them but everything can be easily done on line (using AOL). We have switched credit cards and changed from monthly to yearly on line without any problems.

The way to switch ISPs smoothly is to have both of them for one month. This gives you plenty of time to take care of houskeeping chores such as transferring bookmarks and notifying friends of your new e-mail address. If, after you notify everyone you can think of, you still get mail at the old address, you can deal (or not) with those people one at a time.

Bev and Jerry

Subject: RE: Help: AOL v. Earthlink
From: Allan C.
Date: 11 Sep 00 - 12:21 AM

A lot can depend upon where you live. I had an Earthlink account where I used to live. The dial-up number was a local call. No problem. But when I moved out to the sticks there was simply no dial-up for Earthink which wasn't long distance. So I opted to try their 800 number dial-up. Guess what. There is an additional five dollar charge for using the 800 number. Now, this entitles you to a (smirk) generous allowance of five hours of internet time. Oh, but that's not all! They charge an additional FIVE DOLLARS PER HOUR for any internet time beyond the original five hours.

Now, it is to their credit that Earthink is very careful to explain this up front before allowing an 800 connection. And I suppose that five hours of internet time may be just fine for someone other than me. And the additional charges may not be too rich for some. But in my world, this simply wouldn't work. I dropped them like a hot potato.

So check out the dial-up possibilities before you get too involved - especially if you live somewhat far away from the larger towns.

I had a VERY unpleasant experience with the billing practices of AOL a couple of years ago. For that reason I would never ever consider using them. But that is more of a personal grudge. I know there are those who find AOL perfectly suited to their needs.

Subject: RE: Help: AOL v. Earthlink
From: Mrrzy
Date: 11 Sep 00 - 09:11 AM

AOL sucks, BUT I tried bunches of other providers, and came back to AOL simply because of the better access. I know that sounds strange, but with all the others I've tried, I get busy signals for about 15 mn before I can hook up, and with AOL, maybe 1 or 2, but usually I just connect straight away. And I'm not in that rural an environment.

About address changes, I have one of those "free email for life" accounts, and only give that address out to people. Then when I switch carriers, I tell THAT account where to forward my mail (now it's to [e-mail]), and I don't have to tell my friends anything at all. I started that because of switching to and from AOL, but it has simplified my life considerably.

Subject: RE: Help: AOL v. Earthlink
From: jofield
Date: 11 Sep 00 - 08:45 PM

Well, at my house we still have the original AOL account my wife opened a few years ago. I refused to use AOL because they have so much proprietary crap and advertising -- I wanted an "invisible" ISP, where I just launch my browser and never have to see their cutesy little interface. My first try was EarthLink. Only complaint is that every 2-3 minutes, the server went into a 30-45 second "stall". I assume this is how ISPs handle a serious oversubscription problem -- if you make every subscriber wait 30 or so seconds every 3 minutes, you can appreciably increase your capacity without actually spending any money. So, I switched to MSN. Exact same thing -- for all I know, I'm actually addressing the same "outsourced" server. Anyways, I can tolerate MSN -- during the "up" time, it's nice and fast, and I feel like it's just me and the Web, without AOL's proprietary graphics and ads. But, I must admit, even though my wife has an EarthLink account, she won't give up AOL -- her work requires reliable Web access, and AOL never seems to go into those "stalls". Actually, EarthLink and MSN have performed so similarly, that I was going to ask any computer gurus in the crowd if there might be something INTERNAL to my computer and software that is causing the "stalls". Just wondering...

James, in Bristol, RI

Subject: RE: Help: AOL v. Earthlink
From: Bert
Date: 12 Sep 00 - 11:48 AM

Earthlink carried on billing my credit card for months after I had cancelled the service. I had to speak firmly to them to get a refund.

Bert.

Subject: RE: Help: AOL v. Earthlink
From: GUEST,Guest Still
Date: 13 Sep 00 - 12:40 AM

I was with Mindspring for a couple of years and was very pleased with them. Then New Years, 2000 came and my service became so messed up I went to AOL. Well, that was really a bad move, I'm going to Earthlink in a couple of weeks. ( I just got booted off while writing this and don't really know why I was able to fish my way back again.)

AOL REALLY SUCKS! I am constantly being booted and way too many commercials. Guest Still

Subject: RE: Help: AOL v. Earthlink
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 13 Sep 00 - 11:26 AM

AOL = America Out to Lunch

Subject: RE: Help: AOL v. Earthlink
From: bseed(charleskratz)
Date: 14 Sep 00 - 12:38 AM

I suppose there's really nothing keeping me on AOL except inertia--I have frequent freezes when I'm on line, particularly in the spell checker for email, and about once a week I get a "Yoor service has been inadvertently terminated" message that has nothing to do with my forgetting to answer in the affirmative to the "Do you want to stay online?" dialog box that opens up every fifteen minutes.

One thing in their favor: They frequently have sales on programs such as Stuffit that are 30% lower than the prices at the mail order houses such as Mac (PC) Warehouse. That is one of the things keeping me with them, maybe the only.

--seed

--

Subject: RE: Help: AOL v. Earthlink
From: Bill D
Date: 14 Sep 00 - 01:25 PM

I thought Stuffit was free!...Maybe they have a real gimmick..selling freeware at 30% off...*grin*