I am currently with AOL and the speeds compared to my last providers 24-7 freecall and particulary Worldonline are slow, have to wait a bit, this is presumably down to their huge advertising campaign and taking on too many subscribers, therefore causing traffic problems. I must get an AOL disc stuck to every other magazine I buy and get one in the post every week! AOL being the huge company as it is, will probably sort this bandwidth problem out over time, but at this moment in time it is slowish during peak. Though if you try their different access numbers you will find some are faster or more stable than others!
Speed aside, my other niggle with AOL is the fact that you HAVE to use their software to logon and to access the internet. You can't use a normal PPP dialup and if you quit their software, you quit the internet! It also throws up windows which you might not want to see.
I personally don't like their interface (though there is some great content in there), it forces me to view the world through a tiny little matchbox window (looks bad on my 19" screen) I prefer to hide it and continue to use Microsoft Explorer and Outlook Express for my internet activities. However you can't send your AOL email from outlook (they also force you to use their email program). So you have to look for another mail server if you don't want to use their email software. I have bookmarks and emails / addresses in my existing internet software and don't want to transfer all the details across.
The content is good, discussion boards, free sending of SMS, good online FAQ, help, news etc but is geared to (I feel) internet newbies and not hardened surfers who I think would not warm to being forced to use certain software.
On a cost level at 14.99 GBP a month (VAT exempt) is quite good value for a 24-7 unmetered service and I would classify the service as a value purchase rather than a performance one.
However using their software confers some advantages like the ability to use screen names (alias usernames) for your account. You can create a screen name for each member of the family and dictate who has 18 access, billing control etc. and assign them an individual password which they use when they log on to the service. With AOL's impressive log of your account data, it can give you a break down of who logged on when....or who logged on when they shouldn't have logged on : )
Freeserve relaunches their 24-7 service mid feb 2001 with lower prices than AOL, so it will be interesting to see how their performance compares to AOL as they have upgraded their system.
by (14%):
18.02.2001 22:59
AOL will not let you connect at more than 64k on ISDN. I've tried, and it will only use 1 phone line. All free ISP's are the same. They will not let you connect at greater speeds than 64k, as they feel that you're using too many lines, that will make their connections slower for people who only have 56k modems.
06.01.2001 18:34
very interesting and informative opinion ,i dont think i will be joining AOL now i will wait till freeserve brings out their new package and transfer from unlimited freeserve .cheers
06.01.2001 16:38
Yep but it's slightly faster than what it was, nothing compared to ISDN tough. 6-8k per sec was quite normal a download speed with my other providers, with AOl it's averages about 4k/sec. My companies 64k leased line was around 15-18k per sec same sort of speed as ADSL, how fast is ISDN?