AOL and XP

[LPeeples]

I use Comcast and recently upgraded to XP on the desktop (fresh install). I did a fresh install of AOL 7 (via web download), and when I sign on, instead of the buddy list, I get an error:

"AOL has detected an error with your connection to the internet. Please exit AOL software and then sign on again."

I cannot access any web sites in AOL (But can with Explorer), and cannot get to the buddy list.

Problem happens with Comcast Cable Access under a Linksys router and dial up.

When I exit and sign on, it does the same thing, logging to different users does not matter. We tryed removing the AOL Client, adapter, fresh installs, no help and went through all the typical help things AOL suggests.

Any suggestions?

 

[Lactic.Acid]

Go shopping for necessities, get comfy on a couch and call AOL tech support. Your problem has something to do with AOL's crapware, I mean software, since you can connect with IE and the error is solely AOL-related. To save yourself the time, try uninstalling/reinstalling AOLs software first (granted, if 7.0 is anything like every other version, it will never uninstall properly)

Or better yet, drop the AOL (or use the msn thingy if you really need the pretty bells an whistles...)
/Lactic

 

[LPeeples]

Thanks for the advice...I've contacted tech support more times than I care to admit and have done all the normal tricks, and then some.

Lou

 

[GoNz0]

Well. I solved all my aohell problems once and forever.

I rang em up and told em were to shove there account & orderd ASDL.

 

[xsivforce]

Try trillian and still use aohell IM without aohell check it out here--->http://www.trillian.cc/

 

[CVettebound]

I'm getting the same error messages that you are using AOL and XP. Every time I start AOL, up in the left hand corner of the screen it tells me in a grey box, that it is updating the adapters. Then when it does log in, there is the same error message that you are getting where the buddy list would be. It says "AOL has detected an error with your internet connection. Please log off AOL, restart your computer".

If you find a fix, or work around for this. please let me know. I've spent more hours on the phone with AOL's tech support than I care to admit to also. After speaking with at least 10 different technicians and a supervisor at AOL, they all claim it's not their software, and that it's a computer manaufacturer problem. I don't buy it, since the problem is only with AOL, and everything else on my computer is working fine.

I have also done the repeated uninstalls, and re-installs, with no success at fixing the problem.

 

[Qumahlin]

goto the aol download page, instead of downloading aol 7, download aol 6 for XP, that should correct the problem for you cvettebound

as for lpeeples, have you made sure to have your router set up to allow the ports aol uses through? The reason you can access websites in explorer in explorer is because it's just using your comcast connection.

What the AOL BYOA plan does when you logon TCP/IP is create it's on sort of WAN connection, you can even verify this by logging onto aol via tcp/ip then going to task manager and looking at your connections. The new connection to aol will be listed. You have to make sure that you have your router set up to allow the connections through same goes for any firewalls.

 

[LPeeples]

Qu,

Thanks for the advice. I have the same problem with dial up and I can access AOL fine on my other system, with the same configuration. Other ideas?

Lou

 

[LPeeples]

WoooHooo...I just installed AOL 6 on XP and it works!

I'll live with that! Thanks for the advice.

Lou

 

[Qumahlin]

Yeah, there are alot of problems with Aol 7. And AOL 6 has just as many features pretty much, it's missing a few of the 7.0 features but most people never use em anyway!

The beta of AOL 7.2 is pretty stable it's the new aol using the gecko engine instead of MSIE and so far I haven't had many problems, except that gecko has issues fast rendering dynamic pages and large forums like virtualplastic

 

[CVettebound]

I agree with LPeeples - Woohoo - Just installed Windows 6.0 for XP, and will live with that. That works, and that's good.

Just for anyone's info, tried, upgrading to AOL 7.0 again, once I had the AOL 6.0 for XP working, and ended up getting the same Internet connection error from before. So uninstalled AOL 7, and reinstalled the AOL 6.0 for XP, and it's working fine.

AOL needs to work on their bugs with AOL 7.0 and Windows XP compatibility.

 

[bill1035e]

I read a couple months ago that AOL released a specialized version 6.0 made especially adapted for XP.It can be found on betanews.com still,I believe.If not,let me know and I'll find it for you. I dont think theyve adapted 7.0 for XP yet.I tried it (7.0)and had the same problem as you.It seems incompatible.

 

[Qumahlin]

Originally posted by bill1035e
I read a couple months ago that AOL released a specialized version 6.0 made especially adapted for XP.It can be found on betanews.com still,I believe.If not,let me know and I'll find it for you. I dont think theyve adapted 7.0 for XP yet.I tried it (7.0)and had the same problem as you.It seems incompatible.

Thats the version I told them to download, it's available right on aol's site, they use to just have the adapter, but then they just updated the whole cd. and added it to their download site

also if you have AOL cd's layin around someone pointed out that the ones with harry potter on them are AOL 6 for XP

 

[Mister Zee]

Man.... Why the HELL do you use AOL in the first place!??? Because it has free months in the beginning?? Common!!! It's the lamest ISP ever!!!! They get customers because they have costumers. Period. I've been working for ISP's for the past 2 years, and I have internet since 1995... Trust me.. AOL is a JOKE!!! Not only it's fuckin hard top remove from your PC when you want to get rid of it (MS actually wrote a huge KB article about how to fully remove AOL 7 from your system), but it also uses its own Dial-up adapter and TCP/IP stack, which makes it even more comflicting with other ISP's if you ever want to change one day (which you will most probably will want).

My friendly advice: DROP AOL! And get yourself a nice local ISP that has WAY less customers. Contrairy to the popular belief, the SMALLER the ISP is, the BETTER the service! Why? They have less customers to take care of, they have a smaller but more stable network, they can fix issues faster. They might not be a lot cheaper than AOL sponser ads stuffed crap, but they will be much more reliable. Oh, and their tech support would be better too... Have you ever called AOL tech support!? It's a joke!

So please..

Same thing goes for other big names like "MSN Internet Access" (I've been working for their tech support for 9 months in Montreal, so trust me on that)... and we actually had the AOL campain in the same office.. so I got as glimpse of it... You know how we called it internally? AOHELL!

 

[Outback2k1]

Zee, take your opinions and go shove them.

I know this doesn't apply to some parts of the country, but where I am AOL is by far the most reliable and fastest dial-up ISP in the area. I have never had cronic busy signals or cutoffs...heck, I dont think either has happened in months.

But yes, I do agree that their Tech Support sucks major ass....the one guy I talked to...my Grandmother knows more about computer that he did. I only called them once as a last resort, and will never call them again.

And I personally have never had any issues with their software. It has always worked, and I have never had problems using other ISPs while have it installed. Dont get me wrong though...if there was a way to dial in without it, I would. The only thing I use it for is for email anyway....I use external programs for everything else.

 

[LPeeples]

Ditto to Outback. AOL has it's place for folks who are newbies to the net and don't want to deal with configuring an ISP. I'm the family and neighborhood tech and most of my calls are people trying to configure MSN with outlook, setting up a new dial in number for MSN or ATT and asking how to add a new email account, among other things. AOL solves all of that for folks and does a great job making it easier and educating folks.

 

[Qumahlin]

Um also Mister Zee AOL stopped using it's on stack awhile back. it's just gets all it's info from windows dial-up networking now and will use the default stack unless there is a problem. and in cases where it does have to use it's own stack it installs it separately and would cause NO conflict with any other ISP

Also your claims of AOL's network being unstable is a joke, AOL has a VERY stable network. Name the last AOL wide outage that effected the service? AOL use to have a problem with not enough modem pools for their customers, but they dumped MILLIONS in and fixed all that, most nodes are well stacked and busy signals are gone.

As for features, Alot of people like alot of the services which are easily accessible via aol off the bat, such as member directory's, bulletin boards, chat, and all the other little areas that make AOL, AOL. You might say you can find these on the net also...which is true, but you have to search for them, and they can be hard to find at times and slow to load, whereas if your looking at aol content it's cached right on the servers so loads faster then a similar page would over the net.

I don't use AOL, and i'm not gonna claim it's the best service in the world, but for some people a local ISP just doesn't offer what they are looking for and is quite truthfully not as friendly to use.

 

[Mister Zee]

Well.. First, I never did say AOL had an unstable network. Also, I know it is good for newbies, but past the stage of "how do I use windows and the internet" I think (I know, it's my opinion, but it's an opinion that MANY people share I know that for a FACT) it's a total joke. People complain about MS's monopoly and they worship AOL!? common... It's getting just as bad. Did you know AOL is trying to get its hands on Linux to develop its own OS? The MSN vs AOL war has been going on for years and I think it says enough... I just think that getting AOL cause it's free for 3 months and you get it by mail, and every newbie around your place has it is pretty lame... And I don't see how it's good for people who want to learn about the internet. Like you pointed out, AOL has everything bundled (forums, chat, news and more...). It's sure nice in the beginning... but again, you keep your users in AOL's world. How are they gonna see the real world outside of AOL with all this crap? Same goes for MSNIA and its MSN Explorer (woohoo.. butterflies!!!)...

But any techie should agree on the fact that a bundled, shelled package isn't as good as something you can customise separately and that follows standards a little more... (just like Norton SystemWorks suite vs getting separate AV and Scandisk/Defrag progs etc..).

Luckily AOL seems to get better for reliability, but I've heard otherwise from the clients who switch to the ISP I work for after beeing with AOL. Maybe it's good in some places in the US, but here in Canada... It's REKNOWN for being total bull@#$%^ And even then, I worked 9 months for MSNIA and most of the new reg we'd get were coming from AOL-sick clients (not knowing MSNIA was worse, but that's another story hehe) so the opinions seem to be really different on the subject =P

 

[Outback2k1]

Zee, just because someone uses AOL doesnt mean they're limited to it...I'm sure not. All I use AOL for is connecting to the internet and e-mail. Other than that, it just sits in my taskbar while I use other programs. Even right now, I have AIM, Windows Messenger, mIRC, and a couple IE windows going. And I am in no way a computer newb...I know more about em than all the rest of my family put together.

But, if you dont like AOL, that's your opinion...but you should be human enough to respect other peoples' opinions, and not jump down their throats when they differ from your own.

And I thnk it's kind of ironic...where you are, people ditch AOL because it's completely unreliable and switch to MSN. Down here, people are ditching ATT and MSN because they're totally unreliable (ATT has the most cronic busy signals I've ever encountered, and MSN is slower than molassess), and switching to AOL because it's both completely reliable and they have "the fastest phone lines around".

 

[LPeeples]

Funny....pop over to DSLReports.com and and read people who are slamming Comcast Broadband. No one is ever satisfied.