Well well well, so nice to know what those little "software upgrades" are,
once and for all!  Not only are they annoying, but they do not ask if I
*want* the upgrades, and just maybe I don't want yet more junk written onto
my tiny little hard drive?!?!?
    I agree w/the comment about AOHell 5 being essentially a virus... only
reason they are on my computer is because my roommie seems to think that
they are a good ISP (no offense to AOHell lovers, but I simply think they
ought to be burned at the stake!), and I happen to have a nice enough heart
to let my roommie have AOHell on my computer for him.
    However, I also agree with another comment earlier... when installing
the thing, it will ask if you want it to be your default internet browser
and mail client.... click on NO NO NO!!!

    I, myself, have one of the "freebie" ISP's... I've tried several of
them, and this particular one is the bomb... you don't have connection
prob's, you don't get booted offline, and there is no annoying banner that
must be in the way of your browser in return for having a free ISP!  This
isn't an advertisement board, so I won't go into antics here... if anyone is
curious about them, I can be emailed.  ;)    Point being, I make sure that
my ISP remains my default browser for IE (I personally don't like NetScape,
but this ISP is the home page for them too, just in case), and I made
Outlook Express my default mail client.  That alleviated AOHell taking over
my internet settings.
    *** Except for one: once my roommie has run AOHell, my computer is slow
and I have to reboot... ending the task isn't good enough.  Does this happen
to anyone else???  I feel that this one IS pertinent to HTML editing, etc.,
because if I forget to reboot after roommie runs the demon ISP, my computer
can (and has a few times) "freak out" on me, and reboot on its own...
meaning that any info I just wrote did not save and I have to do it all over
again!  Nothing else causes these phantom reboots, only AOHell 5!  Stick to
4, if you insist on trying them out... and if you do try 5, then reboot
after shutting them down; this happens to my girlfriend too, and her
computer has everything a computer nerd would dream of!

Well, enough spewing for me!  TTFN     ~~KAT~~

----- Original Message -----
From: "Richard Haskins" <goldwing(at)bikermail.com>
To: <hwg-techniques(at)hwg.org>; <darrell(at)webctr.com>
Sent: Saturday, May 20, 2000 9:32 AM
Subject: AOL user check (somewhat off topic)


: Those wonderful AOL "software upgrades" are actually a small agent on your
machine that scans the directories of your hard drive and reports your
directory structure to AOL.
:
: AOL then sells this information to advertisers.
:
: I once installed and unregistered copy of a database program on my
machine.  No one knew I had it.  AOL did one of their "software upgrades"
and within 2 weeks I was getting offers my mail for add-ons and enhancements
to my database program.
:
: HTH...
: Richard
:
:
: >I get mysterious, automatic "updates" installed without asking everytime
I
: >log off.
:
: ------------------------------------------------------------
: Love Motorcycles? Get yourname(at)Bikermail.com today!
http://www.bikermail.com/
:
:
:

HWG hwg-techniques mailing list archives, maintained by Webmasters @ IWA