AOL Broadband

[Pacion]

Does anyone have it? Know of anyone who has it? Any good/how would you rate it (or not, as the case may be :wink: )?

I am thinking about getting it, but 'before I take that leap into the great unknown' :lol:

[Sagitta]

I have it at home, and it is fast. The one issue that I have with it is that when I use my work email at home I get a lot of messages bounced back. I have to use yahoo because of this. I'm considering switching to Verizon DSL as I've discovered it is cheaper.

[dr daffy]

my friend has it and she says it's excellent. fast and really good. she gets all her stuff done and the internet isn't so SLOW like other internet providers *glares at my computer* lol

[Larinda McRaven]

I'm considering switching to Verizon DSL as I've discovered it is cheaper.


eeewwww...DSL???

[Pacion]

Thanks all.

:lol: Larinda re DSL

[ShyDancer]

I have broadband. LOVE it!
I could never go back to dial-up, it would drive me mad.
I can download clips in a minute, browse through photos sites with ease, everything appears at the touch of my mouse.

[Pacion]

But is AOL your supplier though :wink:

[cocodrilo]

I'm in Japan, so I have ASDL broadband. SInce time is money, this speedy system is essential for me!

[pygmalion]

I have AOL high speed cable access, but not broadband, yet. The cable connection is SO worth the money, when compared to dial up. I haven't tried the broadband yet, because every time I attempt to install aol software, I run into trouble. It's just not worth it to rock the boat. *shrug*

[Pacion]

I was 'afraid' you would say that. :oops: Seems AOL Broadband may be still having its teething problems then, which would explain why AOL have reduced their prices here in the UK, to try and get more subscribers :(

[pygmalion]

I'm wary because I've had a few problems in the past.

Most recently, when I tried to install AOL 9.0, my internet connection capability disappeared. After days of trying to figure it out myself and multiple phones calls to the aol help desk, I gave up and took the computer to a friend who is a computer tech. He said that the aol installation software had "reset my bios," which apparently means that the installation process itself changed some of my computers' operating parameters without my knowledge. I ended up reinstalling the operating system and a bunch of other software before my computer started functioning properly.

After that, I figured I'd just stay with what worked. I decided to forget about AOL upgrades, for a while.

[Pacion]

Oh! Not good when software 'resets' stuff. No telling what else it could be doing :shock:

[Sagitta]

Okay I'm a little confused. :oops: :? I have what is internet access through the same line that serves me cable. Is this AOL broadband or cable access? What's the difference between the two?

[Larinda McRaven]

you have "aol FOR broadband". They are not selling you cable access service. In other words they are selling you the abilty to login to their homepage/content and you reach that through someone elses cables, access, and connections (your cable company).

I said eeeww to dsl for a few reasons. Dsl still goes through the phone lines so it can only get so fast before it reaches the physical limitations of the phone wires themselves. It will never be as fast as cable.

Also, the further you are from the Dsl source, the slower the connection and speed. If you are right down the street from your Verizon office, then you will get relativley high speed, but if they are a town or two away, then during heavy traffic times your speed may be only marginaly better than dial-up.

Also I love that my cable is "always on" but at one of the studio here they have Dsl. And it seems silly to me that when the computer is turned on they still have to seperately dial in to turn on the dsl.

[peachexploration]

......Also I love that my cable is "always on" but at one of the studio here they have Dsl. And it seems silly to me that when the computer is turned on they still have to seperately dial in to turn on the dsl.

Hmmm. If they have DSL, it should not require a dialin at all. Also, my DSL is just as fast in most cases as my T1 line at work. *shrug*

[peachexploration]

Okay I'm a little confused. :oops: :? I have what is internet access through the same line that serves me cable. Is this AOL broadband or cable access? What's the difference between the two?

Sagitta, If you have AOL broadband, AOL arranges for your "phone line" to be activated for broadband on your behalf. (Depending of availability in your area.) AOL Broadband is up to 10 times faster (with AOL Broadband 512k) or up to 20 times (with AOL Broadband 1Mb) than dialing up with a 56k modem. You will also have a constant connection to the Internet, so you won't have to dial up for a connection.

"Broadband" is used to describe to both DSL and Cable modem internet connections.

In reality, DSL and Cable modem are the only two broadband connection choices currently available for your home or in your small office. Both provide internet speed connections that are much faster than dial-up modem, but neither one can deliver Ethernet-like (T1) speeds you’ll have on a local network.

DSL and Broadband are really one in the same.. It’s just a matter of cable modem connection speed or DSL speed.

[cocodrilo]

I have ASDL and it is very fast. I don't have to dial into anything and I can be online the whole time.

[pygmalion]

"Broadband" is used to describe to both DSL and Cable modem internet connections.

In reality, DSL and Cable modem are the only two broadband connection choices currently available for your home or in your small office. Both provide internet speed connections that are much faster than dial-up modem, but neither one can deliver Ethernet-like (T1) speeds you’ll have on a local network.

DSL and Broadband are really one in the same.. It’s just a matter of cable modem connection speed or DSL speed.

Yes, peach. As I understand it, "broadband" is a generic term that describes the density or speed of data availability.

However, AOL has developed a new brand name/product offering that they're calling "AOL for Broadband," which somehow differs from its previous cable accessible service. I'm not sure what the differences are, because I'm not interested n upgrading anything right at the moment. I've had enough computer and in-home networking problems the last couple months to last me a while.

[pygmalion]

Ha! Puzzle solved. AOL for Broadband is a marketing term. They're selling "optimized broadband" with upgraded features you can add to any DSL or cable high speed connection... for a fee, of course. :? :lol:

w w w.aol.com/optimized/bband.adp

[Pacion]

I think I will need to give them a call :( I have dialup AOL and what I love about it is that I can travel with it, and if I am in the home account country, use a free phone number. I don't think that here in the UK we can do that with other providers, or whether we are 'tied' to our home phones? Just thinking about it now, we should be just as mobile anyway.

I selected a different company for the broadband and the engineer came this morning. I had arranged it 2 weeks ago but was thinking about going with AOL for Broadband :wink: as I would only have to pay a little bit more than what I am already paying for the AOL Dialup. Anyhow! Engineer says, load disk, call tech support and you should be online within an hour :evil: call tech support and apparently they are doing upgrades to the server this weekend and therefore new customers can't be registered until the afternoon of June 2nd :shock:

Oooohhhh I was hopping mad! I told the Customer Services person that I would like to complain as I was not told about this. I needed to get some stuff done this weekend and whilst I understand about upgrading (virus protection etc etc) if I had known about it, I could have made other arrangements. The lady helpfully says that you won't be charged for the service until 2nd June. I said, that is not the point and does not help at this stage. She then says, okay, we will charge you from today :shock: :lol:

I am going to chance it and look into AOL because I am really unhappy with the whole service I have had from this company from the very start and I can feel it in my bones already :lol: that I am not going to enjoy the minimum one year contract that I have to take out :roll:

Grrrr! I think I might even going back to envelopes and stamps :lol:

[pygmalion]

Sorry to hear about the hassles, Pacion. It's probably worth at least a call to AOL. Their service people haven't always solved my problems easily, but at least they weren't rude or stupid, like the helpful service person you spoke to. :?