| [OOL] AOL Blocking the OOL connection? Hello All,
My neighbor asked me to come over and load an antivirus program on their PC, no big deal. I go over there and they are using OOL to connect but also have AOL, YES AOL, loaded on their machine. So fine, they use it for their mail but connect through OOL.
I go to download the AV program... I can't. I tried pinging - nothing. Streaming winamp - nothing. The browser works IN AOL, but IE does not work. I'm rather stumped that somehow AOL works fine but I can't connect to other things. Almost as if AOL has complete control over the connection.
Any ideas would be appreciated!
Thanks!! |
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| Either IE is blocked by the Firewall program or more likely I'm guessing a proxy was set up. If that's the case go (in IE) to Tools > Internet Options > Connections (Tab) > LAN settings. Uncheck anything that is checked. If "Use a Proxy Server" was selected, that would do it.
AOL itself can't stop the connection to IE. |
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Parth
join:2010-08-16
Poughkeepsie, NY | Actually I think a parental control feature in AOL can be set to not allow any browser except AOL so that nobody gets around any filtering. I don't know if they still have that feature though.. probably caused a bit of problems. |
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| Well, I had no idea that AOL ever did that. Still, I'd first look at IE or a firewall if it's not working. |
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| reply to thepasta
Why not uninstall the AOL software and just use IE to get to the Internet? Is it necessary? You can still access all AOL functions via a web browser. Doesn't AOL install it's own "network adapter" or proxy? Perhaps that's managing the connection when the software is running and causing issues for other things looking to make a direct Internet connection?
It's been years since I've seen AOL software. I didn't know it was still around!!! |
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NWOhio
join:2011-10-25
Toledo, OH | AOL installs a network adapter but not a proxy. Also you should still be able to open IE as AOL is built off IE.
You can actually now download AOL Open which is just a browser that gives one-click access to everything AOL.
As far as AOL disabling IE I never knew that either; especially as AOL NEEDS IE to open. |
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 jaaPremium,MVM
join:2000-06-13
kudos:2
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 ·Vonage
| reply to Parth
said by Parth:Actually I think a parental control feature in AOL can be set to not allow any browser except AOL so that nobody gets around any filtering. I don't know if they still have that feature though.. probably caused a bit of problems.
+1
The AOL software has this ability, and it's firewall blocks everything except AOL. This forces an AOL signon to access the internet, and then it enforces parental control rules - just like a netnanny or other program.
No idea if that is what is going on in this case, but AOL can do that.
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NOTHING justifies terrorism. We don't negotiate with terrorists. Those that support terrorists are terrorists. |
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| reply to thepasta
Uninstall Aol and have them access their aol mail through internet explorer or firefox.
I still use my aol email as my main account but have not used their actual client since the first day i was able to access my email through a browser.
(dont laugh aol email has been down less them my gmail account and has imap access). |
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| You just want to be careful before uninstalling the software that gives them their only access to the internet at the moment. If something else is causing a problem, they will (of course, temporarily) have no access after you do remove it. |
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 RARPSL
join:1999-12-08
Suffern, NY | reply to majortom1029
said by majortom1029:Uninstall Aol and have them access their aol mail through internet explorer or firefox.
I still use my aol email as my main account but have not used their actual client since the first day i was able to access my email through a browser.
(dont laugh aol email has been down less them my gmail account and has imap access).
AoL supports SMTP/POP/IMAP access so you can handle your AoL Email via a normal MUA in lieu of or in addition to a WebMail interface. Note that the InternetAoL Email Gate way is deliberately/maliciously broken in that it does not support some Email Requests such as Return Receipt Requests (so you can not see that the message has been viewed/received although this service IS supported by the AoL software for messages send from an AoL user to another AoL user) and if you send a message with more than one attachment it can get mangled or end up with the full message needing to be unMIME'ed by the AoL User. |
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| reply to frdrizzt
aols last client software installed about 10 different things. it installed a firewall, antivirus, spyware, port magic software and a whole bunch of things that do all sorts of things to your machine.
Uninstalling aol client will solve a lot of problems. |
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| reply to thepasta
I'm headed over there tomorrow to take a look. I figured AOL hooked itself in there some how. The parental controls never dawned on me, I'll check that as well.
Thanks for all of the responses!! |
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| reply to thepasta
First I should point out that he's using FIOS, not OOL - which he said he was.
I took a look at the machine. Parental Controls were not enabled, no proxy was set.
There is "local area connection", however when I sign on to aol it adds a wan miniport, when I sign off it disappears. There is no "internet connection" shown under internet gateway at all. Another odd thing I notice is that regardless of if aol is signed on or not, he can connect to his other email address through outlook express and now I CAN ping google.
So I figure, let me completely uninstall AOL... and I do. Can I still get online, no. I ran the lmhosts fix as well as the winsock fix just in case. I wonder if it's a router issue, but I can't check it because I can't even connect to that.
My next thoughts are these:
Connect my laptop to the router and see if I can get online. If I can, I'll reload the computer (DELL) from scratch and hope whatever the problem was will be fixed.
With AOL gone, I'm quite stumped as to why he can't get online. |
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