America Online X128

AOL is a blatant ripoff to any competent consumer, I urge you to cancel your account immediately and get a real browser such as IE or Netscape. These browsers do not require any monthly fee, and are far more flexible.

Hmmm. 10.3.7 was the last version of AOL. Cheshire seems to be the verion. Which browers does it use? Safari, or Explorer? Is there a version for 10.3,9 Panther?

Best Asset...Fast. Still a beta so I reserve any more comment at this time.

What's with half of the chat profiles showing html tags? Clicking the picture tab in profiles often makes the AOL logo in the upper right ripple like something is happening (cool effect, but its too far from what you're doing to be useful). When no pictures load, the rippling continues, even when clicking back to the main part of the profile it continues. It seems like some sort of error should be sensed and a message displayed (No pictures, server farted, whatever).

The client is loaded with half-baked features. For instance if you select someone in a buddy list and do Buddy Info you can Send Mail, Send Instant Message, Add to Address Book, View Profile, View Web Page, and Locate Buddy. But if you select someone in a chat room there's just an ignore checkbox, Send Message and Buddy Info. Buddy Info doesn't do what the other Buddy Info did, it brings up a profile. It makes sense not to have the Locate Buddy feature there (since you see him in the chat room), but the others ought to be there. Double-clicking should bring up an IM window. Other SMALL buttons below the list of people in a room could bring up the other features (or one button bring popup choices), also control-clicking or right-clicking (for those with multibutton mice) should be able to bring up the choices directly from the screen name. Considering how long AOL has been around they've still got a long way to go with polished features and the user interface. These guys ought to try the open source chat clients and use some other Mac software (like iTunes) to get an idea of what good software feels like. There's more to it than just having a list of features and not crashing.

While I'd never pay for AOL, a family member has it and sharing it with a bunch of people works well as a backup ISP. Multiple screen names can be logged on at once when it's through another ISP (not using AOL dialup). It was very late in coming compared with the Windows version, but I am glad they added support for using an existing LAN (cable/DSL/wireless) connection. Many things are still incredibly lame... obvious sloppy things like not sorting lists of chat rooms alphabetically. And its a joke that AOLs own news links aren't compatible with the browser much of the time. Other instant messaging clients provide more control and some features Adium X on Mac OS X and GAIM on Windows provide file transfers, support for multiple systems (AIM, Yahoo, MSN etc), encryption, No video in those yet, but it'll be added when other open-source projects evolve. This Mac AOL client doesn't do video yet either, but iChat users with a iSight camera can conference with users of the Windows AIM client. The Windows AIM client is very annoying being full of ads and confusing buttons related to other services, so it should be avoided in favor of GAIM unless one needs the video feature. I'd like to see the AOL clients redesigned to allow a totally ad-free interface to paid users, with ads only appearing in the free AIM client (and in a free chat-room client that I think they should release) At least the Mac OS X client is being improved. It's been pretty stable for me, although things like accessing photos in chat profiles seem quirky. They really ought to have that done in a browser friendly way so users of ancient clients (OS 9 or old Windows) have access, and so AIM users can link to pix. It's be another place for them to sell ads.

Ok guys enough already! AOL is not all bad, I've been a member since late '96. I still have the floppy for version 3, lol. Now as for 10.3.7, it seems stable on my Mac, I run a G3 B&W, running Jaguar 10.2.8 so far so good. It is to bad AOL didn't change its look alittle, or to add something different. The only other con I can see is that it creates a 2nd folder as in the OS 8&9 days, but no big deal, just remember the use the new icon in the Dock etc. Now to you Eggheads out there, first get a life, and second, repair your Hard Drives before installing AOL For the issue of piggy backing, I say go for it! I've been doing it since '97, I go by the theory that if AOL goes down for any reason ( or nonpayment ) you still have your local ISP to get online. I have more then one browser if one acts up, and I also use AIM, for when I don't want to log onto AOL. I hope this puts the matter to rest. Relax and have fun out there guys. Ray

Very unreliable, crashes all the time, firefox or safari.. even Internet Explorer are all better

The software is coming along. I don't use it but I troubleshoot a lot of systems that do. So it has a purpose for a pretty large niche of users. Most of whom are piggy backing their AOL onto their DSL or Broadband connection. How's that for dedication? And their all Mac users that I deal with. Kinda reminds me of that small group of dedicated Macheads that'll never switch to PC (Me included).

THIS IS SO SO SO SO BAD...HATE AOL!!!!! FORGET THIS...BAHHHHHH

AOHell... Bah! It's the worst excuse for an ISP that exists. For about the same price you can get DSL or Cable that includes email accounts and is much faster. Mac software and support from AOHell is pathetic, underdeveloped and not mac-savvy at all. After being with AOHell for 6 years I finally made the switch and I'll never look back - what a fool I was for not doing it sooner. AOHell doesn't make it easy to cancel though - you have to call during business hours and talk to a rep who tries really hard to talk you out of it. They challenge your reasons for wanting to leave. Good riddance - burn in AOHell.

yeah yeah... AOL is evil. I still have a connection via an old roommate's account which she still pays for so it's free. I only use it as a back up in case I need dial-up somewhere. This beta 4 version works fine.

AOL connect works well with 10.3.9 (now 10.4.2); I'll never look back.

i have have been an AOL user since OS 9 and have seen no improvement since 5.0 for OS 9 to this update. So finally today i removed it and only use AOL Connect http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/internet_utilities/aolconnect.html which just connects you to the internet and you can use Safari, Mail & iChat instead of AOL itself.

Installing AOL's software is just a bad idea. Sure if you need an isp AOL's a viable choice, but the software they give you to access many of their services is either buggy or "intrusive". AOL user or not, I'd never suggest using their actual software to access their services.

The following below is NOT about bashing AOL, and neither is this about negating the ability of current and satisfied AOL users to assess their web needs and to make apropriate decisions for themselves. I myself have used AOL back in OS9 days for many years, and it certainly did meet my home internet access needs. But now I am going to state a word of caution to anybody who continues to use AOL after migrating to OS-X, or is considering to do so. First, for me AOL on OS-X stopped working after a couple of weeks use. No matter what I tried and what AOL support suggested, it would rather crash than ever again connect to the web. Similar behaviour has been reported many times; nothing new here. So I went to find other ways and services for my home web access needs, and now I am just as happy as before. Yet sure, changing services did cost time and effort, and I understand people trying to avoid that; I wouldn't have done it myself without AOL telling me either keep going under OS9 or Goodbye. The interesting part starts here, months later. I couldn't establish a PPP connect to the web. When checking the console/system logs, I've found that OS-X missed some AOL ppp plugin. True enough, I had run the AOL deinstaller when I deccided to give up on AOL, and I remembered the AOL deinstaller upon finishing told me that he had removed all files execpt some items installed into the system. Nice, eh? Wait, there's more: Afterwards I found that the deinstallaion routine had done absolutely nothing expect for writing a big deinstall log. So, I killed AOL manually incl the AOL ppp plugin, by searching for all files with names containing "AOL". Obviously, some reference to it was still lurking around in the system. Searching the web, I've found that I also needed to remove a file called "postoptions" which AOL installer had placed somewhere deeper inside the system. After sending it to digital heaven and restart, the PPP connect I had been not been able to make despite all trying worked in an instant. When I turned back to my work though, I notice that hundreds of files and folders in my Documents folder had their creation and modification dates reset to July 4, 2004. I remember vaguely that the "postoption" file had similar date stamps. Bad coincidence? Maybe. You may want to backup everything right before deinstalling this software.

As usual, AOL does not really listen to the beta testers: This is a acqua-fied version of the old AOL 5.0 for OS9 software; with the added benefit of many bugs. In particular it does not support a multi-user OS (like OSX) which means if you set it up all users on this Mac can read the mail in all AOL accounts setup on this Mac.

AOL is useful if you can't access DSL but the software is very buggy. Lots of crash, the only unstable application I have on my Mac. I use it because I must access internet but it is bad.

Another great example of a company who only develops good software for the mainstream consumer. This is a very poor piece of software. After all of the buggy mac versions of AOL that have been released, I was hoping that AOL 10.3 would breathe new life into AOL for Mac OS X. Too bad for me. This is extremely buggy, crashing if you leave it alone for too long, offers very few features (many of the AOL for Windows features, including Live Tech Support, are missing), and is lacking in real improvements. Buggy, crashing software? Poor features, no tabbed browsing (cmon AOL, get with the program), extremely poor tech support (both online and on the telephone) and lack of motivation to produce a stable and engaging version of AOL for the Mac OS X operating system would have sent me packing to Earthlink or Netzero if it weren't for the rest of my family being windows lovers who can't take not having their browser, buddy list, and e-mail all incorporated into the same program (regardless of how crappy it is). Stay away from AOL!

I've been on AOL forever, too lazy to switch and besides my e-mail address isn't portable. With my new Mac G5 I updated to AOL 10.3 rev 4163.207. It works fair. Crashes frequently on the web and even freezes occasionaly on the AOL service. I use the "Force Quit" function on the G5 a lot. If you don't when logging off there's an annoying wheel that spins for 30 or 40 seconds - and this on a dam fast computer. Now for the good part. I got a notice from AOL that they had an upgrade. Nowhere did it list a version or rev number so I wasn't really sure if it was a later version or an improvement. Being on a modem, I started the download (which would take 55 minutes or so) and went to bed. The next morning - no upgrade. The AOL timer had disconnected the service while downloading their own software! I'm beginning to suspect the people who think 'AOL Sucks' have a point!

AOL 10.3 crashes a lot and the system is unresponsive during times of high traffic. Many times connections are not "full", resulting in the browser not working. It's ok for what it is - but it needs to be more stable.

This is the only AOL release I have ever used but it looks good, seems pretty stable, and is quite feature-rich. It's not the cheapest option, but if you want an easy-to-use ISP with a lot of features then AOL looks like a good choice. Power users and intermediate users may prefer an ISP that allows a choice of software, but AOL makes the internet easy for beginners to learn.

AOL bashers make me laugh. The company's policy may be bad, the software and the service is good. AOL X is stable and it works everywhere. I mean in America, Canada, Europe. It is great if you travel a lot or if you live far from an ADSL line. ADSL is better but it is not the same use.

I can't see why some people complain just because it's AOL. In my opinion, it's great for the beginner, but after you learn the stuff of the web, you don't need all the features and junk they use. It looks good, that's for sure. Very... pretty. I just think the service has a little problem in the value area. For only $15 USD or more, I can get DSL with someone else and not have to deal with dial-up at all. Up to very recently, I still used AOL through DSL to check my mails and such and it wasn't so bad... it does have a problem about keeping the spinning beachball up way too much though... causing me to usually wait or force quit. Good stuff here - but I'd like to see a price drop and a fix of stability issues.

aol is a all in one package that suffers any product that is has several products wrapped in one. Honestly, if grandma wanted to connect to the net with ftp, www, newsgroops and email and you were to teach her. Aol would be the fastest and easient. By the way email address have come and gone but my aol address is still my original. Time is the only reliable source for reputation.

I finally got tired of any ISP that sold me services which were less than those on the PC side. I waited, rather stupidly I admit, for years waiting ... Then it was on to Earthlink, which did the same thing with Popup Stopper. I asked when will you have it for MAC? In December it was " Sometime next year ... Two weeks later they advised they implemented it .. Sorry, too late. ... Initially they said they had it, only to send me a link to a paysite ... I'm with Ricochet Wireless. It's Wonderful, I hope they can implement it CountryWide .. As for AOL, what a ripoff.

We all know AOL sucks. To those that don't, now you do. Any other mainstream ISP is better by far. And yeah, I did rate it unfairly, only because "Value" greatly outweighs all other categories in this case.

I used this some months ago, and lately reinstalled it due to the unreliability of other ISP's that I have. I live in the mountains, and currently only have dialup. Both Earthlink and Mac Dialup have been very spotty lately, maybe due to the rain. And sometimes Docknet doesn't have working domain name servers. The others have done that occasionally as well. My conncection often starts out at 52,000 kbps, but soon drops in speed! At least this has not yet happened with the AOL ISP/Software. If nothing else, they seem to have the most reliable ISP service for dialup. The software works, but here is a suggestion. If you need to use AOL for dialup, you can simply pull down the menu "Hide AOL" ane then launch whatever browser you would like to use on top of it. You can probably also pull the dialup #'s from your AOL preferences and then create your own TCP/IP location within yourNetwork preferences. You can dialup through aol using Internet Connect or whatever, and not even use their software. But for me if I need to dialup through aol, I just use this software and then launch my browser on top of it. By the way, this is free software. If you are not an aol user there is no reason to download it whatsoever. Consider this though. The reason I ever used AOL in the first place is that my other ISP was down one day and I had one of those free AOL CD ROMS that they give away in the grocery store. I used it and got online. If you find yourself in the same predicament, in might just be handy to have that AOL software.

Historically, AOL has developed the most bug-ridden, crash-happy, pathetic excuse for a alpha-level programs that I've ever used in my entire 20 years of using computers. I have little hope that this software is any different. I'm to the point where you'd literally have to point a gun to my head before I'd install any more AOHell crap. It's just not worth it.

What's that smell? It's AOHell. ISP for grannies.

too bad AOL doesn't support a cable connection NATIVELY. It only supports calbe via TCP/IP. THis is the best version of AOL I have seen to date.

Kestrel... you obviously dont have enough expierence with AOL to even comment on it. First of all... AOL is a ISP, on top of being a browser; which is indeed an AOL rendition of IE. IE and Netscape are simply browsers. You do not have to pay anything for them becaue they are not providing you with internet access. I'm no fan of AOL, but unfortunatly for me I am stuck with it because of their crazy amount of access numbers in my area and lack of other decent ISPs. Fortunatly enough, AOL is attempting to do their part in keeping up with Mac OS X, which is better then what netscape has been doing. Thier beta updates are quite frequent, and fix and improve on many things that we, the beta testers, recommend or acknowldege as something that needs attention ie. bugs, GUI problems, etc. They are doing a good job doing what they do... and for AOL that isnt all too much to be braggin about. Regardless, don't bother giving your two cents if it is worthless and inaccurate.

Version tested (10.2 14D): The interface is alien to me, however I was able to install it on my computer for a friend who picks up his e-mail through AOL. This is useful because the web-based AOL e-mail client seems to not work in IE for some attachments. It seemed easy enough to configure to access AOL through network. Strangely, it seems to store it's folder cache in a globally accessible manner (in /Users/Shared) which is probably not a good idea. Maybe just an accident of a hurried installation. I don't use AOL, so I can't comment on features or value. (I gave it those ratings because MacUpdate requires I rate all fields.)

AOL is a blatant ripoff to any competent consumer, I urge you to cancel your account immediately and get a real browser such as IE or Netscape. These browsers do not require any monthly fee, and are far more flexible.