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 Review by Moropo 
member for 10.9 years, 4469 visits, last login: a few hours ago
updated 86 days ago
 Hialeah,Miami-Dade,FL
 $21 per month- (36 month contract)
 about 1 days
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What can you say... It sucked but that's irrelevant now.
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Review by RandyH
member for 136 days, 60 visits, last login: 5 days ago
lodged 135 days ago
- Decorah,Winneshiek,IA
- $9 per month
- about 1 days
 Qwest "Its better than nothing" "Customer service is awful" "Use it for a dial up backup connection"
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They suck.
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Review by NYGiants
member for 292 days, 96 visits, last login: 66 days ago
updated 292 days ago
- Bowling Green,Caroline,VA
- $20 per month
- (24 month contract)
- "Fast for dial-up 43k"
- "Latencey, disconnects every hour, should be worth 5$ not 20, Spyware for WIN Vista"
- "Horrible Dialup, America needs to get OFF LINE"
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Horrible latencey. 43k speeds, spyware in browser. DONT GET IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Go with stupid Hughes.net instead
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 Review by OldschoolDSL
member for 7.3 years, 1459 visits, last login: 6 days ago
updated 2.6 years ago
- Holyoke,Hampden,MA
- Contract price not specified.
- about 1 days
- Verizon
- "They do release their content to paying customer 1st"
- "Everything you pay for, you can get free"
- "AOL is not needed, unless you are 100% new to the internet"
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************************************************************************************************************
PLEASE BE ADVISED: I keep a full detail record. What this means is while most people when updating their review, often will replace their experience with the most current experience. I on the other hand continue to ADD onto my experiences. ~~ Thank you! ~~
*************************************************************************************************************
My review is on "The bring your own access plan".
America Online (AOL), currently own by Time Warner was the first widely known and recognized Internet service provides (ISP) in the country (USA) and although its still in the lead with the highest volume of home based users, it is quickly falling back as more user friendly and cheaper ISP's become more widely known and available. Currently America Online offers both Dial up Internet (directly through AOL) and Bring your own access, for people who already have Internet access, but may still wish to use AOL.
AOL (America Online) may still have some purpose for those users who are 100% new to the Internet and it does make for a quick learning for those who maybe normally clueless to online life or computers in general. But long term it just is not practical. Party because there are many other cheaper ISP's who now offer the same things as AOL does, but for less and what they may lack, you can also get for free either else where or even through AOL.com itself, such as AIM (America Online Instant Messenger).
Also on a whole, AOL's software has been known to be very buggy and sometime has been known to cause more problems then it is worth having installed. But one can not use AOL, without having their software installed and if you have dial up with them, it must be open at all times to be connected. Which brings up AOL's level of technical support...
At this time I do not know if AOL out sources their tech support or not, but one things is for sure. Most of their tech staff do not seem to know much about the workings of a computer, let a lone their own software. Many times it seems that they are reading off of a pre-written script, which was made to answer general questions and even then, you maybe surprised to be left on hold for 30+ minutes, only to find out that the tech does not have the answer either, to solve the problem at hand. A more advanced user could call up support and begin to supply them with answers more filling then their own staff (believe me, I'd done it).
As a free service and AOL seems to be ever so adding to their free services, AOL has yet still somethings to offer. But as a paid membership, they are highly over priced and lacking support or need for the growing information age. I should add that I was lucky enough to keep the old price, while currently BYOA is now gone up in price, while their support remains the same and so does their level of services.
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~~ 08 - 08 - 2006 ~~ UPDATE
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AOL High Speed is now FREE. However, they still want some kind of billing information on file to activate or re-activate an account. One can only hope that AOL does not bill people for their "free service". As a free service, AOL is not bad. It maybe not needed either for those who have grown past it, but it still can be used for the noob at heart.
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~~ 09 - 14 - 2006 ~~ UPDATE
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AOL's free service, seems to charge you 1 cent ($0.01) for the monthly service. Which seems not so bad for what they normally would charge, but still not 100% free.
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~~ 09 - 17 - 2076 ~~ UPDATE
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AOL is still FREE and no longer charges 1 cent (0.01). They seem to have added more ads, but that is to be expected. At this time, there is no spyware. Don't use it much, but it still a little fun to play with and its free.
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~~ 02 - 24 - 2010 ~~ UPDATE
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Still FREE and use AOL for friends or family who come over. Have been able to ignore their ads by updating HOST File (see security forum). Search is powered by my best search site, Google and Netscape has been discontinued.
A friend of mine uses them for dial-up still and only pays $10.00. Maybe because there are few people using their Dail-up network, but the speed was not as bad as I remembered (86k on a 56k modem).
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~~ 10 - 16 - 2010 ~~ UPDATE
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Been using AOL 9.6 beta and have found it to be stable & uses a little less memory then 9.5 or previous builds. Also improved load time, the option NOT to have AOL start up with your computer, and no running services except for the "AOL Connector" (needed to connect to AOL).
I would very much call this an improvement over what was previously available.
General services & usage of AOL remains the same (Free, unless using dail-up, using them as a re-sold dsl server, or wanting to have advance customer support).
Will update again upon final build of AOL 9.6 (RTM)
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Review by radojevic
member for 12.5 years, 2597 visits, last login: 47 days ago
updated 2.6 years ago
- San Jose,Santa Clara,CA
- $21 per month
- (month by month)
- about 1 days
- "None"
- "Slow speed, buggy software, horrible customer service, unfair charges"
- "Use the US Postal Service instead. It will be more dependable and faster."
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After suffering with AOL dial-up for over 4 years, we finally became eligible to get a good deal on SBC Yahoo! DSL. For $26.95 we get 384-1500kbps download with 128kbps upload. AOL charged us $21.95 for unlimited dial-up.
On November 15, 2003, canceling our AOL account was not easy. I had to repeat my reasons for cancelling the account over 10 times, and still was pressured to keep it. AOL finally agreed to give us 3 free months of service. "I do not want 3 free months of service", I said, "I want to cancel the account completely." They finally agreed to cancel it, but it would not take effect until November 23, 2003. I wasn't happy with this, but I agreed.
On November 24, 2003, I verified our AOL account was canceled by trying to log in. My login was rejected, because the account was deactivated. This was a good sign.
I get no bill from AOL for the next month. Then... my January credit card bill comes in. I see a monthly charged for AOL on it. I call AOL. They say my account was reactivated on December 6, 2003, and was used for about 4 minutes during December.
I tell them I did not reactivate the account, I do not have AOL software on my computer, and to please remove the charge from my credit card. They refuse to remove the complete $21.95 charge, but agree to discount it to half, because only a few minutes were used. This is better than nothing, but I am not happy.
I call AOL's billing department, again. They will not budge. They keep telling me the only way to reactivate the account is from the main screen name with the correct password, and that it was done on December 6, 2003, and that it must have been me doing it. I, again, tell them I did not activate it, and no one else knows my password. Now, I'm really unhappy, because I feel they are calling me a liar. They just repeat themselves, and refuse to let me speak to any one else regarding the matter. I ask them to forward me to the cancellation department, but they refuse saying it won't make a difference. Unbelievable.
I call AOL's cancellation department, again. They also will not budge, and are a bit confused about why I'm calling them, because they already cancelled my account. They also would not let me speak to any one else regarding the matter. I tell them I will definitely make sure I do not recommend AOL to my friends and family. They laugh and say they have heard that a lot lately. I said I was not surprised.
Finally, I dispute the charge on my credit card, which my credit card company is most helpful in processing.
AOL seems to want to do whatever it takes to keep whatever money they collect whether it's a bogus charge or not.
Oh, and did I mention that they offered 3 months free service when we canceled the first time with them? Why would they start charging only days into the 3 month free service period even if we did reactivate it. We didn't reactivate it, by the way.
I highly recommend a EarthLink dial-up and SBC Yahoo! DSL, by the way. In comparison, they are both extremely helpful in resolving technical as well as billing problems.
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 stridr69
join:2003-05-19
San Luis Obispo, CA | Retro-review.... from 2007? Jeeze!
"After suffering with AOL dial-up for over 4 years, we finally became eligible to get a good deal on SBC Yahoo! DSL. For $26.95 we get 384-1500kbps download with 128kbps upload. AOL charged us $21.95 for unlimited dial-up."
For $25 a month I get 6/768 from ATT DSL.
Is this a joke?
Not even April. This entire review smells of a bad Twilight Zone episode! | |
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Review by DJM1983DJM
member for 3.3 years, 30 visits, last login: 162 days ago
updated 3.2 years ago
- Brampton,ON
- $36 per month
- Bell Canada
- "Great price, unlimited use/downloads"
- "It's through Bell Canada"
- "Its Bell highspeed, yet through AOL Canada"
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You will not find a better DSL provider than AOL Canada. $36 a month for unlimited downloads, great speed (3.0Mbps - 4.0Mbps), any problems you have are taken care of very quickly. Through µTorrent alone, I have downloaded about 500GB in the past year. I recommend AOL Canada.
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Review by projectx
member for 9.1 years, 1430 visits, last login: 295 days ago
updated 3.9 years ago
- Toronto,ON
- $37 per month
- (month by month)
- about 3 days
- Bell Canada
- "no caps, using bell lines, cheapish..."
- "support has gone to hell, speed is kinda slow compared to others..."
- "oh gawd, run... as fast as you can... to someone else... other then bell"
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well im getting close to advertised speeds on aol and for the price of 44.95 before tax. im actually going faster then all my friends who r on roger and bell sympatico, so it amazing. itstallation was easy, just plug some things in and ur done, software installs it self, takes a while but gets done. modem took bout 2 days to get to me, and my phone line was set up in a day, even though bell screwed up and put me in dslam (no dial tone for bout 5 hours). aol provides a dsl modem, network cable, usb cable, and anything else i need to get online. the modem they give their customer doubles as a hub, so i save myself money not having to by a new hub. the ips that aol gave me were dynamic ips, so it great, keeps me form being hacked, expecially when aol gave me a free firewall too (mcafee firewall express)
in canada, aol broadband is fast and reliable. espercially in my area, where aol is the 2nd fastest internet provider, if ur useing a diff meathode to connect to aol (in xp its internet connection wizard), its all round great, other then the little problems they have wit bell canada over the phone lines.
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UPDATE
well still going good, infact speed increased since last update, now im going 2.5mbits, which is close to the advertised 3mbits, but w/e i did hit 3mbits onces, but that was downloading bit for bit [the way linux dls]
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UPDATE 2
since the last update, which was a long time ago, everything has gone down the crapper, yes the speed increased to a measly 4mbps (which i have to fight with aol support for, apparently the max is 5, but my line is crap) the costs have gone down, a tiny bit, but when problem arise (real ones that need thier/bell's attention, takes days to complete, and apperently its not bell's fault (recently having problems with modem, and profile switching, aol submits support ticket to bell, almostly instantly bell calls me regarding my problem, while telling me that he forwarded the request for a new modem for me, but aol is always an answering machine for him, which is where the 3-5 business day delay comes in, at least thats what im assuming)
if my mother wasnt so dependent on her aol account, id switch to acanac.. wayyyy cheaper, better speeds (dont think my line could handle it though) and they have better methods of getting around bell's specialness. managing to slowly weed aol out of my mother system, so taht i can switch over, and not have to deal with aol any more... thier support is close to non existent now. only benefit, getting a US ip while in CANADA, which means i can watch all those US only content on websites.
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 Review by Metatron2008
member for 4.7 years, 2625 visits, last login: a few hours ago
lodged 4.5 years ago
- Stockbridge,Henry,GA
- Contract price not specified.
- AT&T
- "It was THE way to use the internet when it began."
- "Everything after."
- "Dead service."
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I'm coming out of the closet, so to speak, about how good AOL used to be and I hope the mods keep this here.
I used AOL a LONG time ago. I remember signing onto AOL with a 486 100 mhz color laptop in 1997. My friends, and anyone using AOL, were the first ones to experience Instant Messenging, which at the time was integrated into AOL, not a seperate program.
For a long while, you never had to leave AOL. There were so many programs you could use, the chat rooms and newsgroups were excellent, people were actually NICE!
Yes, in 1997 people on the internet were nice!!
At the time, if you downloaded something on Internet Explorer, it downloaded on the page itself. if you closed the page, the download stopped. Another thing AOL had better, as you could download and then use another part of AOL.
But that was then. As the internet grew, AOL didn't. Stayed the same, even the price.
And the customer service became complete crap.
The service is now a sham. I stopped using it in 2002 and back then it had become a sham.
But I'll never forget what brought me to the internet.
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Review by wakka092
member for 5.1 years, 29 visits, last login: 4.2 years ago
lodged 4.9 years ago
- Ripley,Lauderdale,TN
- $29 per month
- "100% reliable. Good call alert service."
- "Bloatware. Still dialup. Call alert service, $5/mo."
- "Just average."
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We've been AOL members since '97. Now, 11 years later, the AOL software is complete bloatware and slows the computer it's on. However, a pro, the AOL Call Alert service is pretty good - you can choose to answer the call on the computer (pretty choppy audio) or forward it to another phone. But now that AT&T has laid out sweet, sweet fiber and our DSL modem's on its way.
AOL is quite a good dialup ISP.
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 Review by Littlem129
member for 6.1 years, 1958 visits, last login: a few hours ago
lodged 4.9 years ago
- White Pine,Jefferson,TN
- $11 per month
- "Really does have unlimited dialup access."
- "The bloated software."
- "The most reliable dialup that I have used."
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I am a satisfied AOL dialup user and have been for 4 years. AOL has the fastest connection speed of any dialup ISP that I have tried, and I tried several before AOL. With AOL I connect at 49000kbs with a V92 59K modem.
AOL really does have unlimited dialup, you can stay online 1 hour or 10 hours and you do not get bumped offline. There is not any monthly usage restriction as most dialup ISP's have these days. This is the main reason that I keep using AOL for my dialup ISP.
AOL has just recently increased there monthly fee from $9.95 to $11.95 a month, but I still consider that a fair price for true unlimited usage.
The technical support is great whether you are calling the 800 number or using the online chat or emailing for technical support. I have only had to ask for technical support a couple of times in the 4 years that I have had AOL dialup and both times my issues were resolved immediately and I received follow up emails asking if I needed further assistance.
The AOL software is bloated, but you can always uninstall anything that you don't need or want to use like AIM, AOL toolbar and things like that. So there is a work around for the bloated software if you take the time to find out what part of the software is really needed and what part is not.
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