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 Review by jeffster1970 
Posted: 5 years ago
member for 5.6 years, 1692 visits, last login: a few hours ago
 Kitchener,ON
 $25 per month
 about 1 days
 Bell Canada
 "Nice interface"
 "Not competative enough"
 "Still good if your hooked on AOL"
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Used both the High Speed and Dial-up. I still like their interface. In broadband, they seemed very reliable, but dial-up a bit weird at times. They need to adjust pricing. You buy the modem and are still charged full price?
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Review by dygital
Posted: 5.1 years ago
member for 5.8 years, 122 visits, last login: 3.3 years ago
Tucson,Pima,AZ
$9 per month
Qwest
"Excellent content, email spam filtering, accessibility, speed, IM/Chat features"
"Sales wants to sell you a plan you dont need/want, outsources tech support :("
"They aren't so bad anymore, quite good acutally, real smooth on broadband!"
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** Not as the actual broadband CLEC, but only as a broadband content provider **
I use AOL For Broadband service, on top of my existing ISP (pending the date- Qwest or Cox). I pay $9.95/month 1 yr. contract with them for their service.
AOL doesn't live up its bad reputation. They did change, for the better. Its best to try it again with them eith an open mind. I remember leaving AOL around AOL 6.0, but now I have AOL 9.0 Optimized, with great features...
They have a lot of useful features. To start, the BEST spam controls of any other ISP, the fastest mail system, and support attachments 16MB in email. The Instant Messaging (IM) features are great too, fully customizable. They got a plethora of content for broadband, like movies and a premium streaming audio service (192kb quality!). They also include a free McAfee Firewall, and Spyware protection tools.
I do agree with people here, that dialup for $23.90 isnt worth it - but the sales dept, informed me with a 1yr. contract, its $17.95/month for unlimited dialup, so that is something to consider asking about. Since I got aol/netzero as my backup dialup ISPs when broadband goes out, I didnt need the premium priced plan.
I wish people would quit bickering about AOL. They arent the worst company in the world, I have seen a lot worse quality in other local providers. They have explicit wording whenever you cancel, so you must listen carefully - if you can not listen, it isnt their problem - but in fact yours. Lastly, for all the people that say "AOL Sucks" or even better "AOL SUX" [haha]... it did when it was new, now its pretty cool. Unless you tried their latest service/features, dont bother commenting. Also, dont count ONE individial conflict as a representation of the whole company. Its call centers, with hundreds of people, since I was polite and 'leet' they hooked me into a special plan.
AOL For Broadband ROCKS!
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 Review by disorder
UPDATED: 5.2 years ago
member for 6.6 years, 719 visits, last login: 50 days ago
Alexandria,Fairfax,VA
$50 per month (6 month contract)
Verizon
CLEC party: Covad
"Good for internet newbies, user-friendly program."
"Almost Everything!"
"Avoid at all costs."
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.
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 Review by chntlychgr06
UPDATED: 5.2 years ago
member for 6.2 years, 158 visits, last login: 176 days ago
Chantilly,Fairfax,VA
$55 per month
"exclusive members content"
"$, software treats you like an idiot, proprietary"
"good for newbies. bad for everyone else. a total waste of $."
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Synopsis: AOL has alot of exclusive features (e.g. Clinton interview, pre-release CD streams), but at the price of $25 in addition to the DSL price offered by the provider (they don't have real DSL lines, so they offer only the bring-your-own-access plans), it is not worth it. AOL BB should not be even considered an ISP, since they offer additional content for a connection by another company (basically, they're like PressPlay but more features). I say, get the connection from the ISP and skip the AOL material.
Tech support: Better than Verizon, but the usual answer would be to reinstall AOL after talking with them for about 20 mins.
Cust Serv: Good luck. Fastest wait time for me: 45 mins. As for cancelling, I hope you have fun. The cancellation line has psuedo-negotiators on the line, begging you to continue their service for 2 more months (they throw in free). If you get past that, AOL calls you almost every other day begging you to join them again ("Now that you see what life is without AOL, we hope that you will join us again. blah blah blah blah blah blah."). If thats not bad enough, there is the usual U.S. Mail AOL CD spamming on top of it.
So annoying to cancel, no wonder its #1! DON'T sign up today!
I totally forgot about the connections! Expect to have the AOL broadband software crash, its very unstable; also not compatible with Linux.
UPDATE: btw, when you cancel, once the rep takes you off the line, be sure to wait for the automated message saying "we're sorry that you are canceling AOL. blah blah blah blah....". At the end of it, make sure you press what ever button they assign you for "i agree" (i got the star (*) button). If you don't and just hang up when your done talking to the rep, your account is still active. Thats one way to keep customers, making them angry so they hang up and therefore not present to agree to the "cancellation terms" (whoever heard of that? cancellation agreement..?).
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Review by redwolfe_98
Posted: 5.3 years ago
member for 8.4 years, 2805 visits, last login: a few hours ago
undisclosed location
$45 per month
about 2 days
"reliable connections"
"online storage leaves something to be desired"
"they are #1"
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aol has the best connections for dialup service when compared with other national companies which is why i have used them.. aol-highspeed cable works fine, but aol is not geared for giving tech support for their cable service.. still, normally one would not need cable-tech support except to check the sytem status when the service occasionally goes out temporarily, after a storm.. otherwise, aol's tech support and customer service are very good, understanding that they will only help you with aol-issues.. there is a reason why aol is #1.. the best, most reliable internet service, the best customer service, the best tech support, and the best, most problem-free software..
aol is affiliated with time/warner cable, and their customer service is very good, too..
it is a little ironic when people say "get a real isp", when aol is the number 1 isp..
the third-party contracted by time/warner to install the service was a nightmare, but that was a fluke.. the problem was not that they were not qualfied to do the job, but there were some complications..
i noticed recently that aol is now providing broadband service in england..
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 Review by wings10
Posted: 5.3 years ago
member for 5.4 years, 1774 visits, last login: 1 days ago
Elgin,Kane,IL
Contract price not specified.
"Was easy to install. Good for newbies."
"Cost to much compared to what is out there now."
"Alot cheaper/faster ISP's out there. Shop around"
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AOL was fine for me when I was new. Now with cheaper/faster ISP's out there you can find a better deal. Never had to use Tech Support. Never had a problem with connection. AOL dial-up costs a lot compared to DSL.
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Review by RyaN24
UPDATED: 5.3 years ago
member for 7.1 years, 256 visits, last login: 301 days ago
Los Angeles,Los Angeles,CA
$55 per month
about 14 days
SBC
CLEC party: SBC
"great content. high speeds (1536/256). no download/upload limits. easy email."
"newsgroups"
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Ordered online and received the dsl kit in less than one week. The line was active less than 2 weeks from the date i ordered. After tweaking my connection, I reached speeds around 160 KB/s. Since, it has been steady service with no noticeable downtime. Throughout the years, AOL has added features such as MSL, PPPoE, and improved broadband content. In addition, my upload cap was raised a while back bringing me to 1536/256 and west coast pings were fixed.
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Review by magicx12345
Posted: 5.4 years ago
member for 5.7 years, 57 visits, last login: 2 years ago
Athens,Clarke,GA
Contract price not specified. (26 month contract)
about 14 days
BellSouth
CLEC party: BellSouth
"Somewhat easy installation of DSL modem, extra features (though many I do not use at all)"
"DSL speeds did not meet promised speed as advertised, connection reliability questionable"
"Don't get AOL unless you have no other choice, but DO NOT get dial-up AOL!"
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Well, we've been with AOL ever since 1996 (the year we first got our computer, and the internet; dial-up, of course).As of 2002 however, we moved into the broadband arena with AOL's DSL service.Well, at first things were quite good.The price was lower 2 years ago with DSL, so we didn't have to pay as much as we did now.There are many bad qualities about AOL though, and its software isn't very reliable.Connection problems will probably make most people angry just to have to reconnect then get thrown off again after 5 minutes.Connection reliability is definitely an issue here.Sometimes it'll stay on as long as I want it to.Sometimes it just won't even connect due to AOL network errors.Installation of the DSL modem was fairly easy, as we chose to use the quick-setup option instead of having to pay for installation.We had it all ready to go within a few minutes or so.AOL's DSL will give everyone a dynamic IP, so everytime you log onto AOL your IP address will change.Now, DSL speed offered by AOL were advertised at 1.5mbps for connection.Well, there advertisement's a bit of an overstatement.When testing the DSL speeds, I found speeds to be 923/128 .Not exactly what they promised, was it? It seems AOL loves to take advantage of people, and their tech support DEFINITELY has annoyed us to death (especially lately).You see, it seems our computer and lightning love each other.We've had lightning hit our old PC 4 times (we have a much newer one now, at 1.7GHZ processor, Pentium 4, and a surge protector), and in the past 2 months (from April until now), we've had lightning kill 2 of our DSL modems.It didn't exactly take a rocket scientist to figure out that they were dead, yet when we called tech support, they kept wanting us to call them back for info.So we followed their instructions.A week after first calling, we find out it will be another 2 weeks until they can ship us a new DSL modem.This is the last straw! From this point, we called Charter Communications in our area and ordered a bundle package (digital cable with some premium channels and the 3mbps cable high-speed internet) then cancelled our DSL subscription with AOL.As for AOL's features, most are quite good.E-mail and IM features are great, though all of the IM features you can get for free on AIM 5.5 (which really makes no sense why I'm paying for that).Most features internet users probably won't even use (I'm just wondering, but who actually USES the AOL companion?? It's quite honestly a bad add-on).This Wednesday, I'll finally be free of this cursed AOL and have my 3mbps/256 plan with Charter Cable.I think I will be much happier than I was with AOL.I will warn all of you now: do NOT use AOL unless you honestly have no choice of any other ISP.They were horrible in tech support, and connection problems abound made it not even worth using anymore.DSL modems were very unresponsive, even before both DSL modems we once used got hit by lightning.The bottom line? Simply avoid AOL and its software at ALL COSTS.
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Review by T is Nice
UPDATED: 5.5 years ago
member for 6.7 years, 56 visits, last login: 1.5 years ago
Chicago,Cook,IL
$60 per month
about 370 days
Ameritech
"Better than a 56k, 1 month free"
"a liitte to much"
"if you have an 56k and if your thinking of getting DSL . DO IT !"
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HI I always wanted to write a review about 3 years now, anyway I had aol since 95.
I think DSL service been in my area for about 2 half years but never got it because I read so much bad stories. I don't think I will never gotten one,until AOL call us and they doing this DSL trial for certain area that it will be FREE for 1 month and the DSL MODEM,Activation,install everything. If you don't like it then send it back less than 30 days pay NOTHING . they call us 1/29 around 9:00 pm. Becasue I was thinking of dropping aol and go staight thru SBC, Since I read mostly negative review about AOL. Anyway they e-mail me back they got my order .They said my activation will be on 2/7-2/12. My dsl modem arrive on the 2/4. I have Actiontec with ethernet USB combo. I hook it up on the 2/7 I put the cd-rom in the thing tell me I need my win 98 disk to update my USB driver but I didn't have my win 98 disk at that time so I update thru the internet, okay aol cd rom said it was not connecting .So I wait until I get COMFIRM e-mail that my activation will be on I got the e-mail on the 2/9 said it was on since 2/7 . okay I try it again this time I had my win 98 disk it tell me I already had update my driver thru the internet so I don't need my win 98. okay , again with aol cd-rom now it finally connect .
My speed are 648/128 and it had not fail me yet .
I think this is really good service . I think aol dsl trial is over I think it ended 2/21.
and it was only for certain areas.
UPDATE :
A big storm came over here ,now I don't have DSL Connection . Tried to call aol but they told me calll sbc i can't call them I,m not with yet. I did finally call aol to cancel them 5/23 and still they have not release my line . So now I,m in a JAM.
AOL was great for the whole year no problem what so ever until now... so goodbye aol beisde it cost way to much.. I will update again later on.. in the coming weeks.
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Review by mikeon
Posted: 5.5 years ago
member for 7 years, 45 visits, last login: 190 days ago
San Francisco,San Francisco,CA
Contract price not specified.
"only the favorites that you can click on in the toolbar"
"system hog, shuts self down, and downloads updates by itself when i'm tyring to shut it down"
"hate it"
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My dad seems to be hooked on AOL DSL. He tried getting out of it a few years back but they sucked him right back in with a few months free service. Their ads are a bit misleading too, I remember one was for a having more than 7 sn and what it ment is that you would get another account, and that you would also have to pay full price for that account too.
Plus I leave my computer on overnight and leave aol on, some days I wake up and find aol has lost connection. And I think they have something wrong with their tracking software, one time they shut aol for my family and wouldn't let us on, they said that we were downloading and uploading copyrighted MOVIES over instant messenging. The guy said he knew because he told me that they check the files being sent over instant messenging to make sure it has no copyright stuff and that It was me who did the uploading and downloading. Now I never did that, I don't waste my bw on dling movies, I would rather just buy the dvd. And anyone who used instant messenger for sending files know how horrible it's upload speeds are, who on their right mind would actually send a movie over it.
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