Jim Gurd
Premium
join:2000-07-08
Plymouth, MI
 ·AT&T DSL Service
 ·Comcast
| reply to pnh102
Re: $25 for dialup???
said by pnh102  :There are lots of people who still rent their phones from the local telegraph company and pay for the most expensive basic long distance rates too. I am sure that AOL has no problems finding all of the suckers who don't want to make the switch and milking them for all they got. The thing is that there aren't that many of them. This is stupid on AOL's part. There are some people who can't get broadband and all this will do is drive them to switch to another cheaper dialup provider. They're slitting their own throats with this move. |
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pnh102
Reptiles Are Cuddly And Pretty
Premium
join:2002-05-02
Mount Airy, MD
·Comcast
| said by Jim Gurd :They're slitting their own throats with this move. Which isn't an entirely bad thing for the rest of us 
But seriously... you would think that when they were rolling in the dough (esp. when they spent $1 billion on advertising one year) that someone would have thought to have invested that money into building their own broadband network.
That kind of cash could have paid for a lot of rural broadband internet connections... AOL would have had a lock on that market just as the cable and telegraph companies were starting to get in on the broadband racket.
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Rove / Rumsfeld 2008! |
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djrobx
join:2000-05-31
Valencia, CA
 ·PHONE POWER
 ·AT&T U-Verse
·AT&T CallVantage
·Time Warner VOIP
·RoadRunner Cable
| reply to Jim Gurd
You seriously underestimate how much non-technical people hate change. I know soooo many people who pay for broadband plus full AOL dialup (not realizing they can pay less with BYOB). These people have complained about the high price of broadband, but have no problem dishing another $25 to AOL every month.
Besides, all these users are going to have to do is call AOL to cancel, and AOL will offer them some sort of sweetheart deal to keep them going.
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\\ROB - a part of the SCB local network |
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guitarzan
Premium
join:2004-05-04
Skytop, PA
·epix
| reply to Jim Gurd
said by Jim Gurd :The thing is that there aren't that many of them. This is stupid on AOL's part. There are some people who can't get broadband and all this will do is drive them to switch to another cheaper dialup provider. They're slitting their own throats with this move. One can only hope this price increase will finally cut the umbilical cord for good.I have heard an expression * give (insert name here) * enough rope they will hang themselves.Now it looks as if AOL not only have the rope, but they found a tall tree and are in the process of leaping from its upper branches.Nice move AOHELL enjoy the ride down.
Raising rates to push its users in a certain direction,will move people in the opposite direction.Watch their stock and profit sink now.Someone posted users will move to cheaper options and probably taking friends along with them.AOL open mouth insert foot 
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Bass....the glue of rhythm and harmony...the heartbeat of the band.! Shaking the earth with deep,sonorous vibrations.The dark ominous thunder of an approching storm. |
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Jim Gurd
Premium
join:2000-07-08
Plymouth, MI
·AT&T DSL Service
·Comcast
| said by guitarzan :AOL open mouth insert foot It's more like "Open ass, insert head".:D:D:D |
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unigamer
join:2005-06-01
Henderson, NV
|  reply to pnh102
This could be a bad thing for the Internet at large.
On the one hand, I can see why it'd be good for these people, to cut the "umbilical cord..."
...but on the other hand...
Just try to imagine the possibility of millions more potential broadband zombie PCs on the Net.
I'm willing to bet that at least in the beginning, that the chances of these people knowing what they're doing is zip. It'll be heaven for script kiddies and crackers.
"Welcome to my new 1337 P4 spam spewer! 10,000,000X! That'll be $50 (US) for ten zillion emails, Mr. Spammer."
"I'll pay you for $5,000 worth..." |
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guitarzan
Premium
join:2004-05-04
Skytop, PA
·epix
| That maybe true at first Unigamer,Ultimately I hope this has the desired effect of people taking responsibility for security of their PC and not leave it up to/or having a false sense of security that AOL offers.Those AOL users do not need to be very techie or geeky to properly secure their own PC,
Nor do they need A+ certs.However If one is really interested in properly securing a PC.Then one need look no further than DSL REPORTS.The wealth of knowledge and experience on this site, is not only all encompassing, It's in terms first time PC users can put to good use.
IMO there is no other site like this on the web and there is no close second.If one does not want to end up with an pwned and zombied PC, those AOL users should come here and learn to take baby steps, before they can walk away with meaningful knowledge of PC security.
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Bass....the glue of rhythm and harmony...the heartbeat of the band.! Shaking the earth with deep,sonorous vibrations.The dark ominous thunder of an approching storm. |
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Quint
I Need A Bigger Boat
join:2003-03-04
| reply to djrobx
said by djrobx :You seriously underestimate how much non-technical people hate change. I know soooo many people who pay for broadband plus full AOL dialup (not realizing they can pay less with BYOB). These people have complained about the high price of broadband, but have no problem dishing another $25 to AOL every month. Besides, all these users are going to have to do is call AOL to cancel, and AOL will offer them some sort of sweetheart deal to keep them going. Not much of a model for growing the business. As the world becomes ever more computer literate, the "don't want to change" group is aging and pretty much not being replaced.
AOL may be able to keep a large number of their existing non-techie base even with this rate increase but they're not going to attract many new customers.
AOL appears to be adopting a business strategy that will guarantee failure sometime in the not too distant future.
I've orchestrated the move of several older relatives from AOL to NetZero and after an hour of initial trepidation none of them even noticed the difference (except the price:))
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Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscripti catapultas habebunt! |
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unigamer
join:2005-06-01
Henderson, NV
| reply to guitarzan
This is very true... It seems like a lot of the security packages around nowadays do half the job for you. Heck, some are free.
It can't hurt to have a router between the Net and your PC though - at first, I'd recommend this even for people that have only one PC (it's somewhat [although not perfectly] fail-safe; I've seen software firewalls get turned off for many, and sometimes seemingly random, causes. This'll keep someone from becoming part of the 30sec-10min statistic).
However, I've noticed that with some people, teaching them about port forwarding is like pulling teeth - if I had a quarter for every time a friend, family member, acquainance, etc. wanted/needed computer help, I'd be sailing on some yacht somewhere...
A footnote: I learned pretty much all I knew before I ever learned about this site... but, if they came here, it could save them all the spidering around I had to do... |
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chakey
Premium
join:2004-06-14
Gladstone, NJ
clubs:
·Verizon FIOS
| reply to Quint
Sweatheart deal? It goes more like this:
AOL User: "I'd like to cancel my subscription to AOL"
5 minutes and many "no's" later....
AOL User: "I'd still like to cancel my subscription to AOL"
5 minutes later:
AOL User: "CANCEL MY SERVICE!!!!!"
5 minutes later:
AOL User: "OK! FINE! I'll take the extra free month--can I get off the phone now???" |
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Quint
I Need A Bigger Boat
join:2003-03-04
| said by chakey :Sweatheart deal? It goes more like this: AOL User: "I'd like to cancel my subscription to AOL" 5 minutes and many "no's" later.... AOL User: "I'd still like to cancel my subscription to AOL" 5 minutes later: AOL User: "CANCEL MY SERVICE!!!!!" 5 minutes later: AOL User: "OK! FINE! I'll take the extra free month--can I get off the phone now???" Only for wusses who are afraid of hurting a telemarketers feelings. If you're serious, you cut them off at the beginning of the first sales pitch and TELL them to cancel and that you also are recording the call. Then hang up.
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Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscripti catapultas habebunt! |
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