AOL hacking into end user computers.

[Ed_P]

If I "for you own good" just hacked my way into your system and changed things you could have me arrested.

Yes, but then I'm not paying you $25/mo to provide me with good, reliable, carefree service which is what the AOL user is doing.Those of us who do not like or want something changing our systems without our knowledge aren't AOL users. People who want to access the 'net, send and receive email and not be bothered with a lot of goobly gook use AOL. They don't care what the service does to their system so long as it works and they can continue doing what they have been doing. They granted AOL permission to do this when they signed up for the service.In that AOL is in bed with MS (law suit dropped, free use of IE for 7 yrs) they knew that MS was going to deactivate Messenger in SP2 and they also knew that their client base would probably not know what SP2 is or what to do with it so they did the turn off themselves. You don't see any headlines about MS being upset that their OS is being hacked do you. There are also probably $$ reasons; reduced customer service calls from people annoyed by the popup ads, fewer people quiting the service due to the ads, less complaints from the companies that pay AOL for displaying their ads, etc.

The whole point of this thread is point out what AOL does so you can make that choice.

Highly unlikely anyone coming to this site is planning on dropping his/her ISP service and switching to AOL. Equally unlikely is anyone coming to this site being surprised that AOL is planning on changing a client's machine. Thus this thread is preaching to the choir.

[Stonegiant]

Of course you do.  But did you know that they would "help" you two years when you signed up?  If I sign up TODAY do they tell you that?  If I "for you own good"  just hacked my way into your system and changed things you could have me arrested.The whole point of this thread is point out what AOL does so you can make that choice.

Did you know that every law in existence (in theory anyways ) is there "for your own good"?

[Poincare]

bfj123,

I've only got 3 hours of AOL access each month.

Is this a special deal that you got or is it a current offering?It might be worth it to me for the people that have AOL problems and ask me for help. Ed

AOL has several plans that you can use for inexpensive and/or limited use.For about $5 / month you can have Dial up access of a few hours ( I think it's 3 or 5 hours) per month.You can also have a plan that is called BYOA = Bring Your Own Access. This means you log on to the internet using some ISP other than AOL. Then you connect to AOL. You do not* dial in using AOL's phone lines.The BYOA plan has several variations. One is for $14.95 - you have the BYOA plan plus you get 5 hours of dial up included each month. Another is for $7.95 per month- you have the BYOA plan and NO included dialup hours per month.In each case, if you exceed the included dial up hours, you pay for each additional hour.If you want to reduce your monthly cost, regardless of your price plan, you can do a survey at AOL's Opinion Place. If you qualify for and complete a survey, you are credited with a nominal amount, which essentially reduces your monthy AOL cost.

[Guest LilBambi]

I have moved the Access4Free postings to a new Topic: Access4Free and other Low cost and/or free ISPs, Discuss low cost/ free ISP alternatives.It is definitely a great subject and deserves a home of its own here in Security and Networking, which is probably the best place to discuss methods of connecting to a network such as the Internet.