[Hippo]

I'm starting to get spam emails with my full name, and 1 with my address. A ****ing spam company shouldn't be able to aquire that from an email address... AOL's contract clearly states that they will not sell personal information to other companies, nor will it supply it to other people without your permission... I checked the permissions, and it isn't set to broadcast any of that...

I havent tried to hide any of this, but I know for a FACT that i have NEVER given out my address online, except to a friend who needed directions...

I was already bad enough, but it just got to the point of being a safety hazzard...

[MatthewPapa]

Dude, same thing happened to me, so i left AOL. AOL sucks majorly....

[Hippo]

yeah, but my mom is being an ass and keeps saying, "Oh, we don't need to get broadband again, AOL is just fine."...

So now when she wants to set op MS Outlook to check her work email at home (along with **** up my laptop for installing it), she can't because i've made sure to make the point known that with aol, it isn't possible... along with fintering spam... (disabled it on my parents, and enabled filtering on my screenname, and we get about the same amount anyway due to me usually finding 20 forum reply emails a day... )

Not to mention, that its not going to work having AOL for much longer, as she downloaded some 40 or 50 viruses (sot at once ) onto my old computer... And since we can only have one computer online, and her computer won't RUN aol, so she wants to use my laptop, wich is NOT GOING TO HAPPEN...

[MatthewPapa]

LOL. I know exaclty how you feel. Our transition from AOL took a while. moms never want to switch email addresses because theyre afraid that people wont know (even though i offered to help her send out a few blanket letters notifying friends of her email change.) I also know what you mean by the viruses. GOD, I recall having to reformat at least 3 times to kill all of the viruses she kept downloading. Big pain. But just remember this, its not more trouble than its worth. Some of my worst memories on the computer are from AOL...

[Turnsky]

heheh, i managed to get broadband after a modem dailer scare here...

[Hippo]

hm... maybe if i break the modem, so it only dials her cellphone...

[MatthewPapa]

I tried stuff like that. Ultimately what I had to do was to unplug our second phoneline at the box (look for the green box.) That worked sweety. My parents paniced because they couldnt check their mail without tying up our primary phoneline and finally switched to Roadrunner. We have been happy with the reliability our internet ever since. Just try unplugging it at the box. Be sure to unscrew the correct panel because if you dont you might get shocked.

[Hippo]

Thought of that... Problem is, thats one of the first things my parents would check should it stop working... One week during an ice storm, our 1st and second lines got fused together somehow, and they checked then... Then another time, a bat landed on one of the exposed wires, and diconnected just line 2, and they knew to look there first...

[MatthewPapa]

Oh, that stinks. If your parents know about the green box there isnt much you could do that I can think of. The last place my parents would have checked was the green box. Practically everyone in my family is ignorant to those type of things.

[Hippo]

Heh... mines grey... my dad set up the second and third lines' wiring, so thats why he knows to look there... :9

[Flipside]

Originally posted by Hippo
... Then another time, a bat landed on one of the exposed wires, and diconnected lust line 2, and they knew to look there first...

You know, I won't even ask

[karajorma]

Yeah. I spotted that one. Does AOL stand for Adult's Only Line?

[JR2000Z]

When I was young, I was browsing trough their teens section and found stuff about sex ed....which later my parent's found out and I got in trouble for.

**** you AOL 4.0!!!!

[karajorma]

Originally posted by JR2000Z
**** you AOL 4.0!!!!

I think you need to re-read that page. I'm sure that wasn't what they were teaching

[Hippo]

Typo fix0red...

[Kosh]

AOL will sell your personal information to advertisers.

[Liberator]

Ladies and Gentlemen, there are reasons beyond counting why it is called AOhelL.  Explain to your parents that they can get rid of 90% of the problems with their computers by switching from AOL to anything.  You might also mention that broadband is only about $10.00 more per month for a minimum 5x speed increase(56k modem on AOL is ~$24, in my area I can(will) get Charter High Speed for $34 and change for a 256kbit connection.  That's minimum guaranteed transfer rate, it's usually going to be faster, I used to get 2mbit on a regular basis.  This is their slowest speed, they have faster ones, including 3mbit connection.)

[Hippo]

aol is 25 for us here, but Comcast owns a monopoly here... Verizon has dsl here too, but my phone lines are too old for them... :sign: ... Comcast here is $50 a month, not to factor in the modem and wireless routers... My dad is with me and wants it, but my mom is being an ass...

[Liberator]

What's the speed of that Concast connection?

*hugs Charter for realizing you attract more customers with low prices and thus make more money in the long run*

[Hippo]

3 Megabit I belive...