Another AOL SNAFU!

[jukespin]

I just had to uninstall the Sunbelt Kerio Personal Firewall (http://www.sunbelt-software.com/Kerio.cfm) I had downloaded and installed because of my AOL bloatware.:mad:

However, good avice from Computers savey people got me through!

(j c, if you're lurking out there; take a note.:D)

[teyrn]

clarify?

[jukespin]

clarify?

AOL wouldn't/couldn't connect me and told me to reconfigure my firewall settings.

The Sunbelt Kerio Firewall didn't allow additions to the cleared internet connections. It listed two of the four settings AOL said had to be allowed. So all I could do was uninstall the Kerio firewall.

[teyrn]

Try another firewall? Tiny firewall is a decent firewall as is sygate ver 5.0 before it was snapped up by symantec. Some here frown on zonealarm but it is a very good firewall if you take the time to go through the settings and work with it for the first couple days of running it to get it setup properly to allow and dissallow things properly. You could also turn on the windows firewall but I don't know if you can configure it very much from what it is already set by default from microsoft. I don't use it and hate it but it is better then nothing...kinda. As much as I hate AOL they do offer a security suite you might want to try. You don't know how hard it was to write that last sentence.

[jukespin]

Try another firewall? Tiny firewall is a decent firewall as is sygate ver 5.0 before it was snapped up by symantec. Some here frown on zonealarm but it is a very good firewall if you take the time to go through the settings and work with it for the first couple days of running it to get it setup properly to allow and dissallow things properly. You could also turn on the windows firewall but I don't know if you can configure it very much from what it is already set by default from microsoft. I don't use it and hate it but it is better then nothing...kinda. As much as I hate AOL they do offer a security suite you might want to try. You don't know how hard it was to write that last sentence.

You might just be surprised.

Thanks, I'll try the Zonealarm; it failed last time but I've got a mimimalist setup now with no browsers other than Firefox so maybe, if I'm patient, I can get it to work.

[bob clark]

Hi Jukespin,

I had AOL when they were the only ISP available and were charging $2.99 per hour at up to 14 or 14,000kbps. SLOW dialup. I had bills over $300 a month..... that's only 100 hours per month or 3.3 hours a day and at that slow speed I wasn't really getting much content. I was on an internet egolf team and with all the connection problems the internet and AOL and the few other ISPs around the country had way back then it was very easy to have 18 holes of egolf last several long agonizing hours. :) Downloading graphics was a horror!

So I'm still pissed at AOL for charging me so much for so little!

I recently went down to my neighbor's house to fix his computer. He has AOL...version 10 if I recall correctly. What a pain in the ass AOL STILL is. Talk about SPAM.... It took about 5 minutes of closing AOL's own pop-up windows for this and for that before I could just get to see my neighbor's homepage. And most of "accessories" on the homepage were in effect a bunch of crap advertisments. It's wayyy too commercialized for my liking.

I know you live in a small town but aren't there any other ISPs to choose from? I had Worldnet dialup (before I was finally able to get broadband here) and it was the best and fastest of the ISPs I've tried. And I've tried quite a few. You may want to give Worldnet or EarthLink a try if you can. They are "normal" ISPs unlike AOL which is a bloated creation straight from Madison Avenue aimed at newbie suckers who don't know any better.

And unlike AOL and even MSN, Worldnet and EarthLink (and many other ISPs) offer you uncensored newsgroups for free where you can download without hassle all the mp3s and porno and other stuff of interest that you may want. Screw Napster, MusicNow and Rhapsody and the other mp3 download "pay for" websites. Get your music from the alt. binary newsgroups. It may not be quite as organized as those websites but after you learn a little bit about them they're easy to use.... and they're free. I'm not sure but I believe all of the mp3s from those "pay for" websites record their mp3s at 128kbps whereas at the newsgroups they're recorded at as high as 256kbps... better quality recordings or "conversions". On average they're recorded at 190kbps... it's dependent upon who does the recording/converting and posting. And no pop-ups! I think Worldnet and EarthLink are a couple bucks cheaper than AOL each month too.

And you shouldn't have the problems using third party firewalls and antivirus programs with Worldnet and EarthLink etc that you have with AOL. And I imagine that Worldnet and EarthLink offer free firewalls and AV programs anyway. I'm on Comcast broadband and they offer McAfee's firewall and antivirus software for free. I really like the McAfee firewall because it can graphically trace on a map of the world every "ping" or connection that tries to "invade" your computer. Some connections are really weird.... many from China and Russia and even places like Albania!

I used to use ZoneAlarm (the free version) but that could be some pretty screwy software at times. Especially when you TRY to uninstall it! And before McAfee I used Grisoft's free AVG 7.0 which was/is very good antivirus software.

Best of luck.

[jukespin]

Thanks, Bob.

For reasons I won't go into I droped Earthlink even though they are ten times (or should I say "a tenth") the isp that AOL is.

I will give Worldnet a go.

[jukespin]

Try another firewall?

I've actually got Zonealarm Pro in and working fine! When the time is up, I'll try downloading and running the free version and hope all goes as smoothly as this version has so far.

I was getting real nervous surfing w/o any firewall or antivirus program.

I'm still going to try dumping AOL for Worldnet, though.

Thanks teyrn and bob!:)

[Patonb]

Try another firewall? Tiny firewall is a decent firewall as is sygate ver 5.0 before it was snapped up by symantec. Some here frown on zonealarm but it is a very good firewall if you take the time to go through the settings and work with it for the first couple days of running it to get it setup properly to allow and dissallow things properly. You could also turn on the windows firewall but I don't know if you can configure it very much from what it is already set by default from microsoft. I don't use it and hate it but it is better then nothing...kinda. As much as I hate AOL they do offer a security suite you might want to try. You don't know how hard it was to write that last sentence.

Actually...... I don't think anyone on here has said Zone Alarms bad..... It's the fact that its SO good that it causes the problems.....

Its funny.. Being aware of what you download, and where you surf is just as easy as all the fancy software.. I've had no issues and all i run is my router firewall. The comp i'm on right now, is running a outdated norton AV and thats it.

Oh and AOL...........ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww ;)

[PN]

and OLE Its funny.. Being aware of what you download, and where you surf is just as easy as all the fancy software.. I've had no issues and all i run is my router firewall. The comp i'm on right now, is running a outdated norton AV and thats it.
Oh and AOL...........ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww ;)
Which version of AOL are you using? A sophisticated user or security expert can run Windows without an AV because he or she knows not to download or open attachments, click onto links, and stay off the dark side of the net!