For the last several days I have been dealing with the hell that is AOL. Clear out of the blue I was unable to access the internet. When I could sign on my connection was real slow 31200bps. I tried a few things to fix it my self but, to no avail. Then I called the AOL tech support and that is where the real fun began. Their support people just would not listen to me. They insisted that I do things to my computer which I knew were not the problem! They just don’t want to admit that very often their program is the problem! Well I just need to vent a bit but to sum up AOL is evil, evil, evil! 
AOL is evil and always is! Why did you get it anyways? 
No offenses! lol Getting AOL is like asking for an experience in hell!
Ive begged my parents to switch to something else, and they wont.
they hardly even go on, and yet they wont switch AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
I hate AOL witha passion, oh and its not hell, its Satan burning in teh lake of sulfur x 100000000000000000000000000
We first got it because AOL was the only isp to offer unlimited use at a monthly fee. Other ISP’s were still charging by the hour. Then noone wanted to change. They got used to it . Hopefully now I will convince every one it is time for a change.
… Oh I see… 
Does anyone have a suggestions for a good ISP? I definitely don’t want MSN as I have heard that MSN is just AOL by a different name. I was thinking of net zero. Anyone have any experiences with net zero?
i suggest NetZero if your gonna get dial up, its 9.99 a month and supposedly faster. If your parents can afford it, I would get cable, ours is 30.00 a month, the computer its directly hooked up to gets 100Mbps which i think is about 104,857,600 bps, and My Wireless network card gets it at 11Mbps which I think is 11,534,336 bps
We all thought about going with cable but, I am a little concerned about safety with cable or other always on connections. I worry that it leaves you more open to hackers and such.
Net zero sounds like the best choice for dial up. Thanks for your help.
I had AOL, and all I can say to aol is : YOU STUPID MOTHER ******* BS! F* C*** S****** A******* S*** F***** MOTHER *******!!! Now we have Bellsouth DSL, and I have yet to have any problems. When you finnally leave AOL, it almost feels like getting saved by Christ. 
You are worried about hackers? Although it seems like a lot of hackers are kind of juvinile, I don’t think it is very risky to own a cable modem. What would hacker want with a family computer? Has nothing to offer them. I have had cable modem for around five years and I have not gotten any viruses or been bothered by any hackers to my knowledge. And even if a hacker has gotten into my system, they havn’t done anything to it.
Well… I suppose if you do things like internet banking, they can trace your key strokes and get into your bank accounts… they can go through your files to then get personal information and steal your identity.
I have only just heard that cable type connections are more of a ‘risk’… but I think it is because you are connected all the time… the same risk is there with dial up, just the hackers have a smaller time frame to use.
Also - don’t use IE!!! There are other browsers out there that provide safer browsing… I use and endorse Mozilla’s FireFox. No popups… no spyware.
No not just hackers but also viruses, worms etc.
Perhaps I will give cable a try.
I definitely have to get rid of AOL that is for sure.
They just sent me a survey asking about the quality or their tech support and boy I let them have it. 
I remember back in about 1997 when I called their tech support. It was just silly. My connection kept getting blocked somehow and the guy told me to make sure the phone cord was plugged into the modem. Then he told me to make sure the modem is connected to the computer.
The funny part is, that the guy was reading these instructions from a tech support book.
That is exactly what my experience was like. I felt more like I was talking to a telemarketer than a technician. I got no sense that he understood what was going on with my connection or even knew anything about computers at all.
Yeah… and you were probably talking to some chap in India who is getting paid $2 an hour!!!
My dad got a call from a telemarketter in India.
“Good evening-- er-- good morning, sir!”
Use a good firewall if you’re worried about hackers (you should do it on dial-up too anyway). You can also just unplug the cable when you aren’t using the net.
I like to mess around with telemarketers, you know, act psychotic and stuff.
Yes. If you’re really paranoid and knowledgeable, you could also opt out of the Windows platform altogether and install a Linux or BSD Distribution. (That’s redundant, the D in BSD = Distribution)
I do indeed have a firewall, anti-virus, and spybot so I hope I am pretty well covered in that area.
I might just try a cable hookup in the future. Right now it just seems grossly expensive like $50.00 per month just to connect to the internet. It is not that I cannot afford it, I just think it is an obscene price to pay for internet service.
I will likely go with net zero for the time being. People I have talked to said it was very good and their software does not takeover your computer the way AOL software does. Also,people said that net zero was just as fast as AOL.