Anti-AOL

So far readers have thanked me for helping them get back over $1,200 from AOL. This is not chump change.

Reading my blog helped Sarah discover that even though AOL was still charging her every month for an account she canceled almost a year and a half ago, there was still hope she could get back the $400 AOL had taken from her bank account without her permission by the time she wrote to me. In Sarah's own words:

I bought a computer in February 2008. The computer came with a free trial offer to AOL. I signed up for the offer on a Friday. I decided to choose a different internet provider and canceled my account the same weekend. I never received a letter, email, or phone call from AOL until June of 2009, when my card expired and AOL could not process my payment. I had no idea they were even charging my account until I received the letter. I tried calling and after about 15 minutes of prompts finally got someone who's English was obviously his second language.

When I tried explaining my situation it was like he wasn't even listening to me and was continually trying to sign me up for more services. He got me so upset I ended up hanging up on him. My husband called back demanding to speak with a manager. We ended up speaking with a another non-English speaking person who informed me that I could write a letter explaining what I wanted them to do along with copies of my bank statement showing what I had been charged. I did this, sent the letter, and never heard anything back.

In July I got a bill from AOL saying that I owed $51.80. I sent another letter explaining the situation again, and both letters have included my work and cell numbers where I can be reached. I have yet to hear from them. Now today I received another letter saying that it is now going to collections. AOL owes me between $300-400 dollars. I have accepted the fact that I will probably never see a cent of this money, however now I have something that I don't even owe going on my credit report. What advice can you give me?

I explained to Sarah that she should file a complaint against AOL with the BBB and told her how doing so helped another reader get back over $800 from AOL. I also suggested she file complaints with the FL Attorney General (she lives in Florida and has given me permission to use her name) and with the FTC. I also suggested she file a complaint with the Internet Crime Complaint Bureau. When AOL deducts money from your debit, credit card, or bank account without your permission, that's online fraud - and that's a crime in all 50 states.

That was in mid-September. She wrote me again a few days ago with the good news:

Thank you so much for your help with this matter. I wanted to let you know that AOL paid me back the $414.40 they owed me. I was really set to the idea of never seeing the money again. I was very surprised but when I filed a report with the BBB, within a month the money was back in my account. Thank you.

I want to keep publishing these emails to show my readers that if AOL won't let you cancel, or if they won't let you cancel without slapping you with erroneous, outrageous fees, or if they simply won't stop billing you once your AOL account is canceled, the BBB is on your side.

It seems like once you contact the BBB, AOL will almost instantly bend over backwards to resolve your issue (you can scroll down this page on the BBB to see just how many cases AOL has either resolved or "tried to resolve" - that's all of them).

The BBB even "tried to resolve" my issue with AOL years ago, which did not stop me from starting this blog.

It's not the fastest or easiest way to get your money back - but it works. I encourage you, if you're getting taken advantage of by AOL, to file an online complaint with the BBB.

Here's a comment left by a visitor on my AOL Customer Service Phone Numbers and Contact Info page, who writes that by calling 703-265-1000 and leaving a voice mail message, he or she was "miraculously" able to cancel AOL:

After reading this web site I was finally able to cancel AOL and get them to cancel the continued billing for AOL. I'd had AOL for years but when my bank account was compromised and I got a new Visa number I was unwilling to give the number to a person in Romania who barely spoke English.

When I offered to give the number to someone in the US they refused. At that time I tried to cancel AOL. I was being billed monthly service fees but blocked from using AOL. As the monthly charges continued to increase the "total due", I was unable to cancel and convince them I had not been using AOL since they had blocked my usage.

Finally thru this site I called ....703-265-1000 and left a message on a voice mail. Miraculously I received a letter canceling all charges and finally terminating AOL.

Never give your full credit or debit card number to an AOL call rep.

You can change the way you pay for your AOL account online; visit this page for instructions. It's better to keep your credit or debit card number to yourself, especially if you don't feel "safe" passing it along to a rep in the first place.

All the same, the US rep should have at least asked for the last four digits on the customer's debit card to confirm the billing method for the account, and from there should have canceled the account when asked to.

This customer was also blocked from using AOL. My take on it is the last call rep knew that the billing was in question and decided the account may have been compromised, too, so the customer got TOSed simply to protect the account.

Since the customer was still being billed monthly for a locked-down, unusable account, there was no choice except to contact someone higher-up at AOL; in this case, that meant calling AOL Corporate (the Corporate headquarters have moved from Virginia to New York in the last year; I assume calls are being re-routed to the new Corporate office).

I'm glad this story had a happy ending - but if you're having your own problems canceling AOL, please let me know.

That's right, hackers, this is a no-strings-attached free gift from AOL to you, their nifty hackers - hack into as many free AOL accounts as you want and some of them will be yours to keep, free-of-charge, FOREVER. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity - get'm NOW before other hackers lift all the free AOL accounts for you!

The only catch? Once AOL learns a free AOL account is compromised, it will be "blocked" for about the same length of time: forever. I imagine AOL might delete it.

But hackers: Don't let AOL's silly account deletion stop you!

Even if you must stop using a hacked AOL account after a while, just think - the original account owner can never have it back, either. As in NEVER!

Not even if it was a paid account from, say, 1991, with tons of personal information and thousands of emails that got converted into a supposedly more headache-free free AOL account.

Not even if the owner of the hacked account gives every proof of payment and identity possible to AOL. You can't lose!

To ensure my accuracy, here's Randolph:

How to Make Hacked Free AOL Accounts Your Own

OK. So a month ago (around July 20-30) I was signed offline on my AOL account on AIM. I couldn't get back on. Tryed to reset my password and its telling me all my security answers and information is invalid. I phone AOL's Customer Service line. They transfer me to AOL's Fraud Department. I tell them the story, they "block" the account from anyone accessing it. They asked me to send in 2 forms of documentation stating I am the original owner of the account. A drivers license and a bank statement showing when I was last billed for AOL, on it.

Now. Keep in mind. This is a Free AOL account. It was converted into a Free AOL from a Paying AOL in 2006-2007 when the Free AOL Program launched.

So we phone (also went to) the bank and ask them to look up the account that's tied to the AOL account. It's a checkings account that has been closed for several years now. They want to charge us $6 per page to go back in time because a agency has to go through the account or something like that. So $20 total, they get the statement in a matter of 1-2 weeks and ask us to come pick it up at our local bank (branch). We go to Staples, made a copy of the drivers license and a copy of the bank statement, faxed it in.

Next day. We call up AOL's Fraud Department and speak to a Customer Representative who can barely speak any English what so ever. Make a long story short: they are telling us they need the Debit card, that was attached to the checkings accounts, number [so now we need to] fax in a document written by the bank, signed by the bank, with the debit card scanned or typed out on the paper. This was when I knew AOL really has lost it.

We aren't able to obtain that AT ALL. The card was shredded YEARS ago and when we went to the bank, they all looked at us funny and even the customers on line behind us said "no that can't be possible".....like we were crazy! The bank even said the 2 forms of ID we previously sent should be ENOUGH. MORE THEN ENOUGH.

Fast forward to today actually just now: I call AOL's Fraud Department. I get an American Customer Representative. She tells me straight up answers.

---

Quote - AOL Fraud Telephone Conversation

Me: What am I suppose to do if I can't get that debit cards information?
Her: I don't know what to tell you. It's a standard procedure to protect the owner of this account. (me obviously)

Me: So let me ask you this. If someone makes a Free AOL account at http://aol.com, how do they get their account back if its compromised?
Her: They can't, they have to sign up for a new one.

---

My jaw dropped. I couldn't believe what I just heard. That's when I just said OK and hung up.

I am BEYOND disgusted with AOL.

I filed a Internet Crime Complaint @ ic3.gov in an attempt hoping to get somewhere.

Please post any ideas/suggestions/comments relating to this. Thank you for reading.

Thanks to Craigs List (my reader's handle, not the website) Randolph (see comment below) for the heads-up.

Before you read this, it's important to know that you don't need AOL software anymore to read your AOL email. If you cancel AOL and remove the AOL program from your computer, you can just sign in at AOL.com to check your email online.

The online version of AOL email does everything that the offline version does: it saves hard copies of email to your PC, it allows you to read and reply to email using rich or plain text formats, and it stores an unlimited amount of your email.

If you would like to use the AOL program on your computer despite this warning, read on.

A Sample of My Recent Email

    From: [redacted]@aol.com <[redacted]@aol.com>
    Subject: Thank you for your web site... a few questions, please
    To: [me]@rocketmail.com
    Date: Thursday, April 23, 2009, 3:23 AM

    You have done a wonderful service with your Anti AOL web site. I hope you'll be patient with my questions. I have a high speed ISP (AT&T) and they tell me that my free AOL account is just slowing everything down, etc. I've disliked AOL for years but my wife is very concerned about what might happen to our important files, saved emails, pictures, etc., if we remove all traces of AOL from our computer and just go with the ATT service. Also, she's an avid user of instant messaging and ATT does not offer this feature. Do you know how we can be sure not to lose our files, saved emails, email address books, favorite places, etc. when removing AOL? Can all of this simply be transferred over to our AT&T account? We want to retain our AOL email addresses. So, in order to check our email (once AOL has been removed from our computer), would we have to type aol.com into the browser bar to get to the aol page to access our email?

    Thanks,
    Elliott K.

My Response

Hi Elliott,

Sorry for taking a while to respond but I needed time to get my thoughts together to give you the best answers possible.

If you're on a computer with less than 1GB of RAM and less than 2GHz of processor power you may encounter problems with AOL slowing down your computer and Web browsing.

Browsing the Web with an AOL desktop client will be slower than browsing with IE, or Firefox, or Safari for Windows, or Opera, no matter how powerful your computer is - in my experience, anyway. Your mileage may vary.

I would suggest what AT&T suggested - backing up your needed AOL data, removing AOL from your computer, and moving on to a faster browser that will not tie up your computer with so much RAM and CPU usage. I wrote about why here.

Before you ditch AOL altogether, I should probably point you to this...if your computer has at least 1GB of RAM and at least 1.80 GHz of processor power, you may want to switch to AOL 9.5 Classic. I panned it in my first review, when I was running the Beta version, but my opinion of it improved somewhat with the final release. Read the second half of the post, which is sub-titled "Update: AOL 9.5 Is Out".

I tested AOL Classic on my own computer, and the final version worked pretty well, not tying up the computer much at all. Your web browsing may be much slower than it would be in a traditional (non-AOL) browser...that is my only caveat.

[This didn't make it into my original reply: Once you back up your AOL email by following the steps here you can import your email from one version of AOL into another by following the steps here. It's also worth mentioning that AOL offers online file backup but it's incredibly expensive.]

If you're still determined to remove AOL completely, importing your AOL email and AOL Address Book into Outlook is explained here.

Pop Peeper, a free email notification tool with limited reply and email formatting capabilities, can import AOL email that still resides on AOL's servers and lets you send and receive current email from your AOL account. How to set it up to work with AOL is explained here.

If Pop Peeper is not for you, you can try a program called ePreserver. It costs $24.95, and it's specially designed to import your AOL email, your AOL Address Book, and your AOL Favorites into it's own viewer, and/or into Outlook, GMail, or Windows Mail. ePreserver's download and purchase page is here. A tutorial on how to use their program to import data from your AOL account(s) is here.

[This also didn't make it into my original reply: If none of those options are for you, About.com has an almost endless list of tutorials for importing your AOL email into any number of email programs, including IncrediMail, Outlook Express, and Mozilla Thunderbird. You can also try TrueSwitch, which costs $19.95, but is free of charge for existing Comcast and Yahoo! members.]

Once you've imported all of your data from AOL's software, my suggestion is to start here [How to Remove AOL with CCleaner] if you just want to remove AOL quickly and pretty thoroughly, or here [How to Remove AOL with jv16 PowerTools], if you want to be remove it more thoroughly.

To answer your question, I'm not sure what you mean by backing up "pictures" since AOL Pictures and BlueString closed down months ago. I wrote about the closings here.

To answer your other question, you cannot simply transfer your AOL data to AT&T. If you could AT&T would be one hot property, since everyone wants an ISP that automatically imports AOL's data for them. :)

As to how to check your email from now on, if you do go with AOL 9.5 Classic, you'll be able to check your email directly from the AOL desktop client, just as you always have, but if you remove AOL completely, you'll need to sign in at aol.com to check your email online from now on.

As to your wife's desire to use instant messaging outside of the AIM client, there are many options to choose from.

If you want to remove AIM from your computer, I have several tutorials for that (scroll down to the one you need, or let me know if you need a tutorial on it that I don't yet have).

Good replacements for AIM that allow you to use your AOL screen name to sign in and chat are:

• Digsby
• Pidgeon
• Trillian
• Miranda

If you don't mind, I may republish your email and my reply to you (slightly edited) on my blog in the near future to further educate others. One of the biggest complaints I get is that I don't write nearly enough about how to export and import AOL's email, Address Books, and Favorites; the amount of email I get on those topics reflects that.

Thanks for writing to me and for visiting my blog, and good luck getting your computer back in shape.

Sincerely,
Marah Marie
http://anti-aol.livejournal.com

---

Elliott soon wrote me back to say:

Dear Marah Marie,

    First of all, you are amazing. Not only did you answer all my questions (though I obviously have a lot of learning to do about all this)... you actually apologized for taking a few days to get back to me. I had to call my wife into the room because we don't run across folks like you very often. It's a pleasure.

    One thing I noticed from your email is that my system may not even be worth the effort of going through all this. It is a Dell Dimension PC, 4550 series, Intel Pentium 4 Processor at 2.40 GHz. It came with 512MB DDR SDRAM at 333MHz. The computer is 61/2 years old and is left on for 16 hours a day (every day). Do you think that maybe we are dealing with a computer that, even purged of AOL, will still never be very fast (at least not fast enough to notice the extra fast AT&T DSL connection that I pay extra for??

    I would value your opinion before I get further into this process. If the computer is not worth the effort, can you recommend a replacement? Are you an Apple fan?

Thanks a million,
Elliot K.

My Next Response

I think the idea that Elliott's system "may not even be worth the effort of going through all this" is absurd, so I wrote him to say:

Hi Elliott,

Your processor power is certainly more than adequate for surfing the Web, reading and writing email, working with basic photo programs, watching videos online and offline, etc. If your Dell's motherboard supports it, I would suggest bumping up the RAM to a 1 Gigabyte. If it's possible to fit another 512MB stick into a second memory slot, that will be the cheapest way to go; otherwise you might want to make a tiny investment for a full 1GB memory stick - it will pay you back in spades with vastly improved computer performance.

RAM is quite inexpensive these days; good deals are available both online and in places like Best Buy. I was ready to replace my 7 year old eMachines desktop (born in 2002!) that I'm typing this email to you on when someone convinced me to try a simple RAM upgrade first, so I did what I'm suggesting to you: I doubled my RAM from 512MB to 1GB. The difference was huge and immediately noticeable; it was like buying myself a new computer for a tiny fraction of the cost.

I'm sure Macs are fine computers, but as a Windows person who has not used Mac extensively since 1990 I shy away from giving my opinion on whether or not it is worth buying a Mac - especially when the computer you have needs no more, in my opinion, than a RAM upgrade to get it fast enough to do what you need.

---

Any additional advice from readers for Elliott and others in the same boat? The amount of email I get on the above topics is somewhere between frequent and never-ending so I'll take any help I can get. Given the way AOL ties your data down into proprietary formats and makes leaving so difficult, crowd-sourcing the best answers might be the way to go.

Patty, the reader with the AOL proxy/ AOL Trojan scare a few months ago, wrote me again to say that she finally quit AOL. While I am - as anyone can imagine - happy for her (she's with Earthlink now, which is a big step up), canceling AOL is, as always, fraught with peril, trepidation and fear of the unknown. Her updated saga, with the subject line Ex-AOL Proxy!, is below.

Hello Marah! Thought you might like to hear the end of the story -- I finally quit AOL! (which so far has been no big deal, but that's kind of what scares me!) (time will tell!) First of all on Wed., 1-21-09, I followed your cancel.aol.com link, and filled out the form (making sure to check the box at the bottom!) -- got an immediate "successful submission" response, and a box telling me to allow 3 business days for the cancellation to kick in. It also said I'd get an email, and that I'd still be an active member until my next billing date (2-1-09). (haven't gotten that email yet . . . )

As backup, the next morning I called your 888 265 8003 #, following the cues for cancellation. After entering my phone number, got an automated answer saying the account had already been canceled effective 2-1-09. To make triple-sure, I went online to LiveHelp, but again when I entered my info, got the response I didn't need to talk to anyone 'cuz the account was already closed. So the final safeguard was checking my AOL "My Account", which also said it would be inactive as of 2-1-09. (you're welcome to my info if you want to experience this first-hand!)

[My note: That would be a violation of AOL's TOS, but thanks anyway.]

Anyway . . . no where along the line did I get a cancellation/confirmation #, and I never spoke with anyone, so I'm still leery! We'll see what happens when 2-1-09 rolls around!

[My note: I would have demanded a cancellation confirmation number...but many of my readers don't think of it while they're talking with an AOL rep, or else, out of politesse, they let the AOL rep boonswoggle them into believing the account is really closed when it isn't.]

As far as getting rid of their software, I wasn't so concerned, since I'm gifting that PC to a friend. But I did go to 'add/remove programs' and uninstalled whatever AOL components there were. Then did a search for any files/folders with AOL in them, and deleted the 17 items that came up (including a big ol' 'AOLback' application). Did the same thing for McAfee, so hopefully I got rid of enough to prevent any issues for the new owner (who isn't going to use AOL)!

[My note: I would still check to make sure AOL's Connectivity Service isn't running and disable it if it is. It will needlessly use RAM and CPU cycles even when AOL is not in use, and on older computers like Patty's that's both an inconvenience and very likely the case if the computer came preloaded with the defective AOL 9.0 SE.]

So . . . It literally took me a good month to get over my PC withdrawals and get used to the iMac -- kind of felt dyslexic for awhile there though! But I'm almost kind of sad I won't have as much to troubleshoot/resolve as I did with Windows! (that new conficker worm sounds interesting!)

[My note: Yes...sometimes I dream of owning a computer that "just works", too.]

BTW, yes that was me on the PCHelpForum!

[My note: Gotcha...I should be a private investigator...I'm quite good!]

Told you I'd been searching for the right source . . . glad I found y'all. But, alas, I no longer have need of the excellent service you provide, so thanks for the help, and keep up the good work exposing AOL for what they are! :-) (But I will let you know if I get charged for another month!)

Patty, you've welcome! Let me know if there are any future issues, such as a fee from AOL still turning up on your monthly credit card statements, or any problems with traces of AOL software on your old computer.

Today "NP" asked me via email:

I'm beginning to see the light! But I need someone to answer a question for me before I let loose of my three-year connection to AOL (I basically just use it to get online). Somehow, I sense you're that person. (no pressure!)

I'm[...]kind of new to this technical stuff, but observing "inbound events" logged by my McAfee firewall ("FREE" from AOL!) (but at what price?!), put me in my investigative mode. Hopefully you can explain to me what's going on.

When I check my IP Address I get:

Proxy Server Detected!
Proxy Server IP address: 205.188.116.65 Proxy Server Details: HTTP/1.1 (Velocity/3.1.1.5 [uScMs
f p eN:t cCMp s ]), HTTP/1.1 spider-dtc-td04.proxy.aol.com[CDBC7064] (Prism/1.2.1), HTTP/1.1
cache-dtc-ab01.proxy.aol.com[CDBC7441] (Traffic-Server/6.1.5 [uScM])

(all Greek to me!)

So as I ventured into the world of "proxy servers", checking every "Google" lead on the subject, I discovered this nugget on your website . . . "Another thing: AOL's software doesn't let you surf the Web. Instead it connects your computer to a network of proxy servers that store cached copies of sites you're "allowed" to see."

Ok, I kind of get that, but what I really don't get is why that address (traced back to AOL in Reston, VA), would be "attempting to scan my system by sending a large amount of various UDP packets", (partially 'cuz I also don't "get" what UDP packets are, or what they have to do with me!) or why my proxy server 'status' would allow Trojans to scan my computer. How does my innocuous home-based PC fit into AOL's scheme of things?

Somehow I get the feeling this proxy server set-up has a more nefarious premise than just expediting things!

Thanks for helping me understand!

Whew...

OK. Where to begin....

Does an AOL Proxy = a Trojan attack?

No. An AOL proxy server is not a Trojan so there is no need to worry that it is doing anything harmful to your computer. (I'll explain what an AOL proxy server is further on in this post). If the only reason you want to cancel AOL is because of their proxy servers, I'm afraid you'll have to find a better reason than that - but there are plenty of reasons to choose from, so no worries here.

That leaves your first question. While I'm known for making difficult things easier to understand, I'm not sure how easy I can make this.

Why is an AOL proxy server on my computer?

Assuming you have a dial-up connection through AOL, this is why you're seeing an AOL proxy server listed in your firewall's exception list (McAfee might also be falsely flagging AOL's proxy server as a Trojan...but if so, I have no idea why):

1. When you click "Connect", your computer uses it's modem to open your phone line and call another computer that is owned by AOL.
2. The computer that AOL owns also has a modem that receives your computer's call.
3. Once the call has been answered by AOL's modem, the two modems need to "talk" to each other to establish who you are and to grant you permission to connect. They can't "talk" in English (or in any other spoken language) so what they do is use audio signals to transmit information to each other.
4. Once the modems "handshake" (that is, once they agree that a connection between your computer and AOL's computer should be established), your modem is assigned an IP address from AOL that it can use throughout your web-surfing session.
5. The IP address your modem gets is for the actual physical address of AOL's computer (in this case, that IP address is 205.188.116.65 - and you're not the only person using it - chances are, thousands of other people all over the country are, too).
6. AOL passes that IP address to your modem to allow the connection to AOL's computer to take place. The IP address can (and when using AOL, it usually does) change every time you connect.
7. While you are using the IP address that AOL assigned to your modem, you are actually connecting to the Internet through one of AOL's proxy servers. "Proxy server" simply means "any computer that is allowing you to surf using their connection to the Internet".

Think of a proxy server this way. Every computer in the world can have it's own unique IP address which identifies where it is located (this is especially true with the next version of Internet Protocol, called IPv6). When you connect to AOL, your own IP address is not used to connect to any of the websites you visit. Instead, a proxy address (one of AOL's IP addresses) is used. AOL's computer is acting as a "proxy" (a middleman, so to speak) which handles all of the connections and communications between you and the websites you visit.

AOL's proxy servers are "special". Like that aunt of yours with the "photographic" memory...

AOL is not the only "proxy server" out there. Any dial-up company you sign up with provides you with the same exact way of connecting to the Internet. What sets AOL apart is that they run "caching" (pronounced "cashing") proxy servers, not regular proxy servers.

The difference between a regular proxy server and one that performs caching is this: A regular proxy server does not store copies of the web pages anyone visits. A caching proxy server does. Caching is used to store copies of web pages you visit so they can be delivered to you faster the next time you visit them.

AOL goes a step further than that and uses its caches to speed up web page delivery by serving pages out of it's cache for Joe when Sally wants the same pages. AOL basically downloads the entire Internet using their customer's visited web pages to build up their cache. AOL flushes the entire cache and builds a new one every 24 hours or so, so that the copies of pages that you get each time you connect are not so out-of-date as to be useless.

Is UDP out to get me? What is it doing?

No, UDP is not a harmful thing. Once you're connected to the Internet, AOL, like all dial-up ISPs, uses special packet-delivery protocols to get web pages to you - namely TCP/IP and UDP.

• A "packet" is simply a small bit of data that one computer sends to another computer.
• A "protocol" is simply a set of rules that is agreed upon by two computers for how to transmit the data.

UDP is concerned only with transporting packets, while TCP takes IP packets (IP packets are the simplest form of data packets), decides which protocol is "best" to deliver them to another computer with, then "streams" them to their destination.

Each packet, as I said above, contains a bit of data; together, these packets transmit information that allows AOL's proxy server to serve you the web pages you want when you want them. AOL has a glossary that covers most of these terms in a fairly easy-to-comprehend manner.

As for AOL's UDP port scanning, the easiest way to explain what's going on is this: Your computer receives the data packets that AOL sends it through what is known as a "port" - a software "endpoint" on your computer designed to receive and process the data that an ISP sends. While port scanning can be (and often is) used to malicious ends by hackers and other "nefarious" types, AOL is simply checking if ports are open while you are connected to ensure it can continue streaming data.

A quick primer on TCP/IP and UDP is here. You can also check Wikipedia, eHow, and your favorite tech sites and computer forums for more information.

"Invasive AOL updates!"

A young lady from Los Angeles emailed me this week asking, "Are you familiar with these invasive AOL updates? Can you help me???"

I test AOL's software for my blog, so the answer is, "Yes and yes".

One nearly fool-proof method to make AOL's forced updates stop is to delete the stick.dll file.

You can also delete the entire folder mentioned below - either method works on AOL 10.0 Desktop but not on AOL 9.0 VR, which I need to play around with a bit more. The full path to the file on a Windows PC should look something like this:

C:\Program Files\Common Files\AOL\1144194954\ee\services\softwareUpdate\ve r1_13_8_3\

On older versions of AOL like 9.0 VR you can try deleting anotify.exe, which might stop the white auto-update nag above the system tray but will not stop AOL from notifying you the old fashioned way that it wants to update - by covering your AOL window with a huge "now or later" nag with some buttons on it to click for "now" or "later".

My reader goes on to tell me that she can't stop using AOL dial-up because:

1. I have lots of email that have important information and don’t want to lose them, so I need to go through all of them and get what I need before I cancel (case in point: I just retrieved some emails 6 months and older today with very imp info).
2. My neighbor shares his DSL with me (I can’t afford my own right now), but every once in a while I don’t have a connection and I need to use my AOL dial-up to get online and pay a bill on time.

How to import AOL email?

I would simply import AOL's email into POP Peeper. When you set up POP Peeper, and before you use it to fetch email from AOL, make sure you change its settings to ensure your AOL email gets copied to your hard drive: Go to Options, Set Options, Storage, then set POP Peeper to "Store Entire messages to disk" and check the box for "Save messages periodically". Here's a screen cap of the window you'll use for that.

If for whatever reason POP Peeper is not for you, you can do a web search for "how to import aol email". The first result will normally be for the ePreserver program. It costs money, but many of my readers swear by it, so listen to them, not me, when you're trying to decide how best to fetch your AOL email.

How to switch to another dial-up provider?

If you need to use AOL only infrequently, why not use Net Zero for free instead? (This is the first time I've recommended a dial-up ISP in almost three years of writing for this blog, and I'm suggesting Net Zero only because her need for dial-up is not 24/7). They offer a decent plan with 10 hours free each month. That should more than meet your needs. Before you switch, find out how to switch your ISP without losing your connection to the Internet.

The best way to remove AOL?

My reader continues:

Once I get rid of AOL, I plan to copy all of the files on my computer, reformat my hard disk, and start all over to make sure there is nothing from AOL left on my computer. I know this may sound extreme, but I believe it is the best way to completely remove AOL, as suggested by close friends!

Gotta love them "close friends"! My boyfriend and I cannot even agree on this. He insists I should wipe my hard drive and re-install Windows when I'm done with my bi-annual testing of AOL software (we've argued about this for three years). I insist it's easier (and quicker!) to get the computer "like-new" again than it is to format and re-install Windows - but I don't constantly complain of AOL's ravaging effects on my computer for nothing, so I'll flip our "close friends" a quarter for suggesting a computer is much better from scratch than it is after AOL has been on it - even if you remove every last trace of AOL's invasive software. Ultimately, the choice is up to you.

From: Daniel @
Halexandria Foundation

Dear MMarah (of Anti-AOL),

I am not an AOL subscriber...I managed to dodge that particular bullet. But I do have a complaint that might interest you.

I have a large non-profit website (about 850 web pages and roughly 3 million hits per month). I also send out a quarterly e-mail talking about updates to the website. On my last attempt, virtually all of the AOL addresses bounced. This was roughly 150 e-mail addresses out of 1,533 messages sent.

Now, my list is derived entirely from visitors to the website who first write me -- at which point I add their addresses to the list on the basis that they're interested in the website. I also have a strict policy that whenever anyone asks for their address to be removed, I do so immediately -- no questions asked. The updates are a service; not a benefit to me.

Now...my questions are:

• Is there any remote chance that I could complain to AOL and they might do something?

There's a chance, but you will probably have to join AOL's Whitelist for Non-Profits in order to remove the block. Most webmasters must pay money to send normal email to AOL's subscriber's because starting in January of 2006, AOL joined with Goodmail to start charging webmasters for the "privilege" of having email passed on to AOL subscribers without worry of it bouncing. You can direct your complaint about email that has already bounced to The Postmaster at AOL.com. The phone number for the Postmaster is 1-888-212-5537.

• Can you use this example to include in the obvious attempt by AOL to deny its subscribers access to sites they choose? (If so, feel free to do so.)

Yes, I certainly can. I will publish all complaints that I get as long as I have the webmaster's permission.

• What do you think about my placing on every web page a note that I can not respond to feedback from AOL users for the simple reason that AOL will not allow my reply and update messages to get through?

I think if that's what you want to do then that's fine. I prefer the idea of inserting a simple contact form on your website with instructions that you will not be able to respond to AOL users because AOL is blocking their email - unless they include an alternate email address. Encourage them to sign up for free email addresses at Yahoo! or other well-known, reliable email providers. If you apply for non-profit credentials with AOL, mention that too, and ask AOL users to please be patient while you await accreditation.

• Any more ideas? O:-)

Yes. I'm hoping AOL will go out of business soon or else get sold to more competent owners - I'll keep my fingers crossed!

• Also, just how many sites are there out there complaining about AOL and their total lack of responsiveness?

You're hardly alone. The EFF created Dearaol.com because they were outraged by AOL's partnership with Goodmail in 2006, and many webmasters have complained of email to AOL users bouncing since then. Though it may surprise you, many members of AOL complain about it, too, because they cannot receive the very email subscriptions that they signed up for - AOL blocks it. AOL has a long history of blocking websites and email that goes back years before they partnered with Goodmail, so no one should be surprised that this tyrannical behavior from AOL goes on to this day.

An AOL user can block email from any business or sender by simply clicking a button in AOL's software to mark the email as spam (here's how to do it). AOL does not check to see whether it's spam or not; you will simply never receive email from that sender again. If enough people click that button, your email will be blocked from reaching any AOL user forever. That's when you have to join the Whitelist. See how hard AOL makes it to operate without them owning you somehow?

Thanks for your email, Daniel!

Yes, you can use AOL's software and email now - for free!

The emails about how to cancel and remove AOL are piling up in my inbox again - in fact, that's nothing unusual - so let's go over this one more time, folks:

You can use the AOL software that's already on your computer, or download and use the latest AOL software from aol.com, and use AOL's online email service for free since August of 2006. Find out how to cancel your monthly charge for AOL here. Scroll down the page linked to in the previous sentence to choose the cancellation method that best suits your needs.

Exceptions to Using AOL for Free

1. If you still need to use AOL for a dial up connection you must pay a monthly fee for it.
2. In the UK, if you still use AOL for a broadband cable connection you must pay a monthly fee for it.
3. The US dial up and UK broadband connection plans each include an AOL web browser and email.

No, you do NOT need AOL's software in order to use Roadrunner, Comcast - or any other ISP!

Don't let AOL or your ISP fool you. Are you paying an extra monthly charge because AOL or your ISP told you that you must use AOL's software in order to keep your connection to the Internet alive?

Unless you have one of the plans mentioned here (check with your ISP first) they are not telling you the truth. Learn how to cancel AOL's monthly charge to your credit or debit card here. Scroll down the page linked to in the previous sentence to choose the cancellation method that best suits your needs.

Yes - AOL 9.0 VR and AOL 9.1 Are Causing Your Connection Problems!

Not only have I had a lot of problems maintaining a connection to the Internet with AOL 9.0 VR or 9.1 installed; so have other people. I get email every week about this. In my experience, AOL 9.0 VR and AOL 9.1 are the most likely culprits for being unable to make or keep a connection to the Internet on a clean computer that had no connection problems before installing AOL. The AOL Adapter used in those versions is most likely at fault.

To restore your Internet connection, follow the steps below, and follow them in the exact order they're listed in.

General AOL Removal Instructions

1. First remove AOL from XP - or remove AOL from Vista - and be sure to follow all of the steps on those pages in the exact order they're listed in.
2. Next, remove the AOL Adapter.
3. Lastly, reboot your computer and check your connection again.
4. If taking the steps above does not restore your connection then AOL's software might not be at fault so take your computer to an authorized repair shop or seek help from an online computer-help forum to determine what the problem is.

"Marah, if Time Warner owns AOL and Roadrunner doesn't that mean that I can't..."

Yes, Time Warner owns AOL and Roadrunner but that does not mean you must use AOL's software in order to use Roadrunner Broadband. I don't. That's right - Roadrunner is my ISP, too, and I'm going to sue them one day for throttling my bandwidth - but if you're happy using Roadrunner then just keep on using it. You can still cancel and remove AOL from your computer if you like - you will not lose your connection to Roadrunner over it at any point. You don't need one to use the other. It's as simple as that.

It's True: AOL 9.0 SE Cannot Be Removed Using Any Normal Method Known to God or Man

I did find one safe way to get AOL 9.0 SE off your computer, though, and it's not hard to do; follow the instructions here.

To Recap

This post has covered all the questions that I normally get by email. Each and every one of these questions has been answered on my blog. If you want to email me with any questions not covered in this post I will simply refer you to one of my other FAQs. I will only answer in more detail if you ask me a question that I haven't covered at some point. Thanks for reading!

Do you want to make a lot of money quick? Set up a phishing site (most of them can be made overnight with easy-to-use, affordable tools) then just send AOLers email asking them to "visit AOL" to update their accounts. That's all. You'll probably be rich in a week.

That's right, I'm suggesting you steal. AOL won't stop you just because I'm pointing out how easy it is to do. AOL ignores most phishing on their email servers even when Marcus of Singing Fish complains about it (as I mentioned in AOL Now the Largest Free Proxy Site in the World), even when other bloggers bring it up, even when Big Media is all over it in droves. Wanna steal from them? Go for it. I'll even show you how it's done.

By the way, the title of this post is inaccurate. That reader didn't write to me saying he was being phished at all. That's what scares me.

AOLers are so uneducated about the Web that the ways to take advantage of their ignorance are almost endless. Kenneth wrote to me today:

Question

Why did I get the notice below, what needs to be updated in my account?

First of all, if you see enough of these things, you learn all the little warning signs. The punctuation in the opening line is misplaced. The grammar is stilted, more like a foreigner wrote the email than a member of the AOL Billing Department. The email makes implausible claims, which might or might not take a sharp eye to catch. For instance:

"Once you have updated your account records, your AOL session will not be interrupted and will continue as normal."

AOL will never "interrupt your session" to make you update your account. If they send you an email about it, it won't look like that one.

If that isn't enough clues for you, there's more. You can hover your mouse over the link in the email (like I did) and see clearly that the link is to pageantgirl.com, not aol.com.

If that isn't enough to convince you, you can right-click the link and copy and paste it into Notepad or Wordpad to get a clear idea of how hard some people will work just to screw you over.

If that isn't enough proof, check the "Source" of the email, which proves that what you've got on your hands isn't a polite warning from AOL, but cleverly disguised bait from someone out to steal everything you own.

AOLers don't know to check for the warning signs of being phished, because AOLers don't even know what phishing is. They don't know that there's people out there who spend their lives devising cruel, sneaky ways to steal their money and their lives just by clicking on a link in an email.

Why not? Because AOL never told them, that's why not. AOL doesn't care what happens to you or your damn email or your entire life. Just pay the bill and don't ask too many questions...all their call centers are in India or the Caribbean, anyway, so those guys won't have the answers.

The site is hosted on the first link in this post, which explains to their customers just how easy it is to phish anyone with their tools.

Not bad for a fake, huh? What do you guys over at AOL think?