AOL problems

My mom has been having some AOL problems for awile now and I can't seem to fix it. She can never log on to AOL the first time and it stops when checking password. To fix these we have to press ctrl+alt+del and end the task then a AOL screen pops up with an option to restart. We click restart and it loads AOL fine. Whats going on??

 

AOL Problem--man, you thread title just begs for someone to make fun of it.

What version, if I may ask, is she using? AOL X through 9.1 was garbage piled upon garbage....you might consider downloading AOL Desktop 10.1 and completely removing everything and then installing 10.1

If she had AOL pre-10, it updated up to 9.1 but never updates higher than that.

 

It is version 9.1, so should I update to 10? Also I dont want her to lose any information if I do update. Maybe updating it will fix the problem but if it doesnt than I know that there is something interfering with it.

 

I have only updated 1 machine from 9.1 to 10 so I cannot say for certain.

What information are you concerned about losing?

AOL stores current email online, while the older information is archived in a local cabinet. As I recall, when uninstalling 9, it asked if I wished to keep the old cabinet files (said yes) and upon installing 10, it was able to access the archives.

There may be a way to export bookmarks/favorites and then import those in.

You could also, I suppose, just update 10 over 9 and see if that works.

Or, uninstall 9 and reinstall it.

I found AOL 10 to be much more system friendly (less memory usage, zippier), but again, not a big volume of experience there....I usually try to talk everyone out of AOL when I can.

 

@Jack_of_Blades,
Is AOL your Internet Service Provider? Or do you have DSL/cable modem? Just wondering why you use AOL.

 

Our ISP is verizon but my parents have used AOL for e-mail and for web surfing for years. They use to pay for it but its free now but they don't have technical support. I told my mom she should upgrade from 9.1 to 10 and for some reason she couldnt find 10 only 9.5. She updated but the problem is still happening. Would uninstalling AOL perhaps fix this?

 

You could always give it a shot. (the uninstallation/reinstallation) To be honest though, the AOL Browser is nothing but a version of IE embedded in the AOL software, and the E-Mail you can use either through a web browser or you can set it up through Outlook or Thunderbird/any e-mail app. This might be the perfect time to backup their AOL bookmarks and switch them over.

 

I found AOL 10 and I think I am going to uninstall 9 and install 10 but I have a few concerns.

My first is my moms Address book... will this be saved??

My second is my mom's saved e-mails... she has some that date back to 07 but she keeps them as records. They are saved on AOL but if I transfer all of them to Save on PC I should be able to load them back up to 10 right??

If I can bypass these two problems then I think I will be good to go but even after this I don't know if this will fix the problem.

 

According to this, if it does not automatically restore you can manually do it.

http://help.aol.com/help/microsites...UBLESHOOTING_1_1&dialogID=148324654&stateId=0 0 148338196

Remember-- when uninstalling it automatically backs up your email/personal info to the desktop in some folder called personal file cabinet.

If you don't trust automatic back ups, look for a FILE called

{name}.psi

It is usally in "C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\AOL\C_America Online 9.0\organize

 

I uninstalled version 9.1-9.5 and I installed version 10.1 and wow! Not only did the problem completely disappear its a brand-new interface which looks cleaner and more organized. It transfered all the data from the old version which includes address book, saved e-mails and favorites. My mom is going to be stoked!

 

It will take her a little bit of getting used to, but it is not all that different. The person I did it for and one other person I spoke with ended up preferring the new version.

From my perspective, on the machine I upgraded, the performance of 10 was much better than 9.1

 

Hi,
In my opinion you should get your mom off AOL entirely and get her using a webemail client like Gmail. There are others besides Gmail but Gmail is by far and away the best in my opinion. Using AOL for email, and using their built in browser means you are entirely dependent on aol for your email communications and browsing experience. This is not a good idea.

While AOL may work just fine for you Mom's email it has some downsides.
- AOL uses it own software installed on your computer, if there is a problem with that software you risk loosing all your data, email, address book, etc.
- Do AOL have a web email service? this I don't know. If it doesn't it means you won't be able to access your emails from more than one computer, this is a big problem if your computer dies, or if your away from it and need to check your email.
- AOL store all your emails, addresses, data on one computer. If that computer is lose, stolen, broken, killed, then you loose all your data.
- Using a web email service like gmail frees you from all of these limitations.
- while gmail doesn't have a tech support line you can call they have great help forums to help you out if you need it.

where to get a gmail email address from
www.gmail.com

Here are some ways to transfer addresses, emails from AOL to Gmail
From the official gmail blog
http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2009/05/import-your-mail-and-contacts-from.html

Here's another way to get email address out of aol into gmail.
http://www.nicholasroussos.com/favorites/how-to-export-contacts-from-aol-to-gmail/

Here's an article from the gmail blog on security. It'd be good for your mom to read it.
http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2009/10/gmail-account-security-tips.html

 

Actually, there are several incorrect statements you've made:

AOL does use it's own software for some things, but basically it's uses Internet Explorer embedded for browsing the web.

AOL E-mail is also accessable through the web. If something did happen to her AOL installation, she would still be able to access the email/address book from mail.aol.com