Up til last summer I used the freebie K Mart internet service as a backup to my regular web provider.  When K Mart got out of the free internet business, I took advantage of one of the myriad of offers we all constantly get from AOL to get a month free; figuring that in that month I could find a permenent freebie service to use as backup.  Well, 9/11 happened and as a federal security officer/ armorer 60 hour weeks became normal so I didn't have any time to look around.  I did, however, cancel out the AOL before they started charging;  at which point I stopped being able to log onto ANY INTERNET PROVIDER. Initially thought my modem had gone bad, bought another, but the problem persisted.

When I called AOL about the problem, they totally denied that it could have been caused by their program, and told me to take my unit in for repair.  I finally got it in last week,  and sure enough, my software was totally screwed up.  So, the question is---has anyone else had software problems after cancelling AOL service and removing the AOL program from their unit? I've had some second and third hand reports of folks that have had this happen, but I'd like to hear from people it actually happened to.

Crazy,
Over the rainbow, I am crazy,
Bars in the window.
There must have been a door there in the wall
When I came in.
Crazy, over the rainbow, he is crazy.

LOL,

Yeah, that AOL crap can really do a number on a perfectly good PC. Just TRY getting rid of it.

If you want a real treat, try cleaning up a networked PC that some joker installs AOL on!!

Die AOL!!

-

Its the TCPIP stack and its a known issue,

You see my friend, "AO HELL" has written their s/w to take over the network stack -- even if you uninstall the crap, it comes back like a bad dream...over and over...there is a reg hack out there....do a search on google.

That was a bold lie on their part. Your problem WAS caused by the AOL software, and they DO know about it.

I wouldn't bother screwing around, and re-install the operating system from scratch, ie. onto a freshly formatted harddrive.

Right click on network neighborhood and left ckick properties...


Now youre in the network stack.

Normally you need three things in there to connect to the internet.

1. Dial up adaptor.

2. Tcp/ip-->dial up adaptor.

3. Client for Microsoft networks.


If you see anything that says AOL (especially after rebooting)  then youse got a problem.

Go try the new NRA ISP. NO BS with them !

Not sure it's quite the same on the Windows side as with my Mac, but AOL uses a different connection protocol than other internet service providers. You have to restore your computer to the original non-AOL protocol before you can use other internet services.

Clicking on the PREFERENCES selection in the MY AOL drop-down menu will give you the option to scroll down to the AOL Link dialog box, where you can RESTORE to your previous internet connnection configuration.

When doing this, MAKE SURE YOU REMOVE EVERYTHING in the network properties, reboot (several times), sacrifice a chicken on the keyboard during a full moon, while dancing around your computer without any clothes on and you slice your body with sticks of 256K RAM, and letting you blood drip into the innards of your computer system.

For you need to do the AO-HELL dance to fully rid your system of evil deamons that have plauged your system.

After you have done all of this, then you can format you hard drive, reinstall your O/S and take 1000 lashes for being dumb enough to put an AOL CD in your computer.

WHEN WILL THE MASSES EVER LEARN!?!?!?!?!?!

AOL = Satan!!

I have a standing policy when working on anyones computer. If I ever see any reminates of AOL on their computer, I will take my minimum consulting fee ($50/hr, minimum 2 hours) and walk out the door. (This is no joke, I have truely done this, and man were they pissed).

What guzzler said, except he left out the part about possibly requiring your original Windows setup disk.  You might want to dig that out first.  Shiny side down, don't put it in unless prompted. :)

If that resolution doesn't work, try deinstalling and reinstalling dialup networking, THEN configuring the network control panel as outlined.  You'll usually also need to configure the tcp/ip properties by going to the network control panel, selecting tcp/ip or tcp/ip dua, then clicking properties and sacrificing a chicken in the precise manner approved by your ISP.

You want problems? Try using Norton Personal Firewall 2002 after uninstalling Zonealarm.  I kept getting this stupid vsnetutils.dll is missing error so I put a copy in the win/system directory. It caused norton to completely lock out all incoming data. Took me 3 hours to track it down to that stupid dll. I have to live with that stupid missing .dll error every time I start up, even after following the manual uninstall directions from ZA.

Well as a computer tech I can tell you that the fix is a complete system reload , AOHell totally screws up windows tcpip networking file versions , you might be able to get in on the class action suit now ongoing against AOL for this very reason .

You mean you Windows guys have to reinstall the system software everytime you run across a remnant of an old AOL program? On a Mac, all it takes is a couple of mouse clicks to swap back and forth between AOL and other ISPs —

Gee, that's too bad....[}:D]

Actually I prefer Linux but oh well most people are too intimidated by it .

See, it's really the pukes at AOL that want to control your computer!  Not Microsoft.  And FCK those nineteen states that are just trying to extort Microsoft for $$$$ like the cig companies.  This is complete and utter BS!

What the hell ever happened to [b]alt.aol-sucks[/b]?  That was the coolest newsgroup back in the day.

You guys are all crazy, I love AOHELL! They keep sending me all those neat CDs for free service. When I got to about 30 cds, I threw them all away except for the 1 I'm currently using.........................for a coaster under my coffee cup.[:)]

Fred

There's no way I'd stick one of those in my computer!

AOL cd's make excellent targets...drive a drywall screw into your target board & hang the cd's from the center hole.

-hanko

Many thanks for all the responses.  Obviously I touched some very raw nerves with my original inquiry.  Wish I'd had access to a working internet hookup to ask about this before I paid $50 to have the problem fixed.  Yes, I am going to see about hooking into the class action suit.  The way I figure it, I'm out about $100 between the service fee and the modem I bought when I thought the problem was a bad modem, and I want another $100 for aggravation and loss of internet access for 6 months.  

Don't expect to get a penny, but what the hell, might as well try.[:D]

I used to work for a wireless internet company....first question we'd ask when there was a trouble call was..."OK, who installed the AOL disk?"

AOL is the SW from hell.  Save your stuff and do a complete OS reload to exorcise the AOL demons......

Good luck....

I see you're getting all the same old tired advice.  Best thing to do is the following:

(1) Take computer, your AR, and a fully loaded 30-round mag to the range.

(2) From 10 yards, dispatch the computer to the Pearly Gates (or is that the Billy Gates?).

(3) Buy a new computer.

Wife and I recently decided to switch to cable hookup for computer, and shitcan AOL,computer wouldn't accept cable hookup, had to take it to local computer repair guy, and basically have the memory wiped clean, just like it was when it was new, computer guy told us that AOl's programs will, over time, take over your computer and will not accecpt anything that's not AOl!! He had to do the same thing to his own computers when he went to cable, After I found this little tidbit out, I'll NEVER have anything AOL again! They know excactly what their programs are doing, trouble is millions, of people out there don't, until they switch to something else that isn't supported by AOL then they get stung one last time by having to pay for getting their computer wiped clean to get rid of AOl once and for all....What a bunch of Bastards!!!

If you have a dial-up... go with MSN I have been on it for 4 years... NEVER had to call for tech support.

I don't know who the big guy is with cable or dsl.. but anybody but AOL is better. I have several friends with AOL and all I hear is horror stories.

This is a well-known problem with AOL software, starting back in 1999 with AOL 5.0.  So if the AOL Wonk on the phone said they never heard of it, they were just flat out lying!!!

Basically, AOL software replaces several critical Microsoft system files with their own, and from then on the only network you can access is AOL's. (It even screws up your LAN access, if you have one.)  The remedy is to reinstall/reconfigure all your network and dial-up properties.  Sometimes you have to format and reinstall Windoze from scratch.

From Internet News - "Technicians of independent ISPs have been swamped by callers asking for help to return their personal computers to regular programming throughout the U.S. In order to repair a computer's dial-up properties after installing the AOL 5.0 upgrade, users must re-program their device manager settings."

Several class action lawsuits have been working their way through the courts for the last three years.  In fact, these stories are so old that none of the links I had bookmarked about it were good any more.  But here's a few I've found that are still working -

[url=www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,34063,00.html]Wired Magazine[/url]
[url=www.internetnews.com/isp-news/article/0,,8_315391,00.html]Internet News[/url]
[url=www.internetnews.com/isp-news/article/0,,8_216641,00.html]Internet News[/url]
[url=www.internetnews.com/isp-news/article/0,,8_310561,00.html]Internet News[/url]
[url=www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,38609,00.html]Time Magazine[/url]

Consider this a learning experience about AOL.

One thing that everyone should keep in mind is that you don't need any "special software" or the ISP's CD-ROM full of pre-branded and configured, spyware-laden bloatware to access the internet with a Windoze box.  I've set up many "naked" systems.  After a call to the ISP to sign up, get a userid/password, the name of their mail servers(s), and a local phone number, I merely create a Dial-Up Networking connectoid, then fire up Internet Explorer so I can start downloading Netscape and Eudora.

This isn't Rocket Science.  I hate to say it, but I am in no way a "computer genius," just someone who has been burned a few timed and learned by my mistakes.

Kind of like shamayim here - ya learn, ya fix it, and move on.

nonono, its even easier. C4 and Dynamite, problem solved my force of removal.

can you honestly tell me this thought has never occured to you? it has to me several times, and ive been playing with these things since 1st grade.