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General discussion

AOL Offline

Jan 30, 2005 6:46AM PST

I recently purchased my "dream" machine, a Dell fully-loaded high speed (for gaming, albeit old time: Unreal, Quake) machine. The problem is that it came packaged with AOL 9.0. I'd previously used 6.0 on an older machine and had relatively few problems with that version. 9.0 seems to do one of two things: I'm either knocked offline in the middle of a keystroke or at the point of exit, yet another item is being downloaded. I'm concerned about the overwriting of shared files, as the machine is clean (Norton 2005) and working well so far. Is there a way that I can determine if shared files necessary for the operation of other applications are being affected by these downloads?

Should this be a concern at all? Any response would be appreciated.

Discussion is locked

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Only one answer...
Jan 30, 2005 6:54AM PST

Get rid of AOL! You do it their way or no waySad
There are many dialup ISPs out there and all you want is a means to connect? Try PeoplePC.com or some other dial up, but not AOL! And save money. Better still, find out what your local cable company has to offer.
If the machine is as good as you say, you should be on broadband anyway or you are wasting your bucksHappy

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Only one answer . . .
Jan 30, 2005 7:40AM PST

Yes, you're right, but old habits die hard. Would PeoplePC be your ISP recommendation? We only just recently got DSL in my area (I've signed up and am waiting!!!!), so I should be able to join the rest of the world in about a week. The machine was actually purchased in anticipation of that.

What I'm not hearing is great concern about the downloads affecting other applications. I have MicroSoft 2003 suite on the computer, those applications are my first concern. Thanks much for the response.

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You can uninstall AOL
Jan 30, 2005 7:18AM PST

and install an earlier version if you want. I had AOL up until a few months ago and didn't like 9.0. So I went back to 8.0 and it worked fine. You will need the installation disk for the version you want. BTW, are you using AOL broadband or dialup?

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Uninstall AOL
Jan 30, 2005 7:45AM PST

Thank you for your response. We only just recently got DSL in my area, so I am on dialup, but will shortly be on DSL. I will try the uninstall, as it seems the earlier versions are more reliable. Thanks again.

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Why not
Jan 30, 2005 8:17PM PST

create a Restore Point before you uninstall, in case you have any problems, and what to roll back your computer to the point before you uninstalled AOL.

Mark

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Why Not?
Jan 31, 2005 2:43AM PST

Here's why I'm in the "newbies" forum, rather than annoying others with my questions. I've searched Windows Help and Support and found it. Very cool. Thank you much.