WANT A FREE DATE WITH MY MATE CONNIE...... (AOL Flat Rate)

Member Name: broksababe

Product:	AOL Flat Rate
Date:	17/03/02 (566 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Free Trial,No cut off period,, Fast, Stable,Unlimited 24/7

Disadvantages: Runs in it's own browser

Finding a reliable ISP nowadays is rather a daunting task, you either find that you are never able to connect to them at peak times or that the lesser known ISP’s disappear without a trace.

I have had several but the only one that I would recommend is AOL.

AOL is very different to your average ISP, due to the fact that it runs everything under it’s own browser, this means that you can receive and send mail, chat and lots more without having to open any other programme if you wish.

There are many excellent features available in the latest version AOL 7.0, some of which I will tell you about in this review.


INSTALLATION
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Nearly everyone will at some point receive one or more, (usually more!!), AOL trial CD’s through their letterbox, and if you are thinking of trying it you really need the CD, you can download it from www.aol.com but it is a whopping file and would take a huge amount of time to download, alternatively by visiting this page you can request a CD or phone call to order one or register with AOL.

Once you have the CD you simply install the software, once completed you can choose a user name (screen name) and password, the user name will also be your Aol email address.

The free trial lasts 1 month, although it does say that you will receive 100 hours free, this is not the case in fact Aol will not now charge you a penny for a whole month even if you use 1000 hours, this means that you can stay online 24/7 if your that keen!.

After a month you will then be charged £14.99 this again is for totally unlimited use, with no hidden charges whatsoever.

FEATURES
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AOL BROWSER
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Once you connect to AOL, you will get the welcome screen and if a first time user the talking computer companion Connie, she is there to help you settle in to AOL
and guide you around.

Everything else is dotted around the screen and toolbar in order to make your AOL surfing experience a doddle….

EMAIL
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The built in email allows you to register up to 7 email addresses for each account, this also means that you can have up to 7 different users on one computer each with their own individual AOL window.

The plus feature here is for anyone with young children you can set a screen name as a minor and all they will get upon connecting is the children’s AOL, this is similar to the adults of course but all the welcome and menu’s are children’s of course, this comes complete with homework help, children’s modified chat, competitions and lots more.

This ensures that your child can surf the web safely and cannot load any other pages other than the AOL children’s pages etc.

At the top left of the browser are the email icons, read and write mail, as soon as any new emails arrive you are told “ you have email” and the read icon turns red to remind you.

PEOPLE
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Two choices here, the built in AOL messenger also knows as AIM, this is very similar to most instant messengers feature wise allowing you to instant message people, add them to your buddy list and have chats in small groups.

You do not need to be an AOL member in order to use this messenger as anyone can download it from the AOL site.

Chat And Communications
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Various chat community’s available here and hosted chats, you can even make your own chat room for others to join, from time to time there are celebrity chats and special topical chats, these are always advertised on your welcome screen.

SERVICES
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Lots to browse here from shopping, to horoscopes, weather maps, calendars and more, you can also alter the parental controls from this section too.

CUSTOMISE
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From here you can customise your AOL preferences, the following are available under this heading:

1.Change your password
2.Set up controls
3.Set up your buddy list
4.Save your favourite web pages
5.Manage your personal filing cabinet
6.Change your view preferences
7.Set up a calendar and reminders
8.Set up online groups

For anyone wondering the filing cabinet is the place where you can store pictures or pages etc, for later viewing.

INTERNET
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This takes you to the online AOL pages, search, help, news groups, FTP, also at the left of the browser is a menu bar with 21 channels of pages to choose from most exclusive to AOL.


KEYWORDS
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A very useful and innovative idea, you can access various pages and sections merely by typing in one word in the keyword box.

All the keywords are listed incidentally in case you get stuck, but it really speaks for itself, for instance typing in “Dictionary”, will bring up an online dictionary of course, type “ billing” and you get various choices such as view your bill, next payment date and modify price plan etc.

Apart from all the features you can use it simply as a browser and just type in the required web address in the top address bar.

CONNECTION
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When you first set your AOL up, you are given a list of numbers to connect to these are based on your home telephone number and ideally the ones most suited for your likelihood of getting connected.

You can select up to 9 of these and
if the first is engaged it will work through them until it connects.

Most of these numbers are 0808 with the exception of the 0800 numbers for non BT users only.


VERDICT
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AOL is by far the best ISP I have used, I have never had any problems connecting even in peak times, it is a lot faster than most others too.
Connection is another factor as with AOL there is no cut off time, you can remain on for 24 hours a day if you so wish, this is excellent for downloading games or MP3’s as you can guarantee a big download always gets lost if you only have several hours before you need to reconnect.

Technical advice is available free via an 0800 number, so no costly calls here, but if you prefer you can even get this actually online, various chats connect you to a one to one advisor who will solve your query in the chat box, another super idea.

Now for anyone who likes do use other things AOL will happily run along side with other browsers and also email programmes, any pop3 mail can be collected with no problem whilst on AOL.

This is perfect for anyone who wants to use AOL sometimes but likes their old browser better, simply minimize AOL and that’s it, you wont even know it’s there!

Help to is always at hand and any beginner would find AOL extremely useful, dear old Connie (who you may have seen on TV advertising AOL), becomes a cartoon helper and will guide you around show you how to do things and even try and talk to you, once you have had enough of Connie and believe me that wont be long, simply click no thank you when she loads up and she’s gone forever…


So you must be thinking what are the disadvantages of AOL?

Well not a lot really from my point of view, the only gripe I have is that if you do use AOL as your browser you can only use one window at a time, each has to be put to the bottom before you can access another so you cannot vie
w 2 at once.

The only other is that it does take a while to load AOL up before you can connect compared to normal ISP’s but this is hardly worth worrying about.

I certainly would recommend them to anyone looking for a reliable ISP, and with a whole month free what have you got to lose, give it a try.

Summary: