Hi, and welcome to Anti-AOL, a blog about how to cancel, uninstall, or file a complaint against AOL which also sometimes covers the latest bad news about them.

How to find what you need: All the tutorials and help pages are here. All tutorials except those written for Vista users work on XP.

If you want to leave a comment or add this blog to your LJ Friend's List you might want to read this first, since I won't publish or keep every comment that I receive, and I'm a terrible online friend (unless you add my personal blog, in which case I'll pay much more attention to you).

Here are some questions people typically ask me when they're leaving AOL. If there's any questions that you don't see answered here or elsewhere on my blog send me an email. (This page was last updated on 4-28-08.)

Questions

• How do I contact AOL to cancel my service and/or change my price plan to "free"?
• If I cancel AOL, can I use my existing AOL email addresses with AOL's free email service?
• How do I uninstall AOL/AIM/other AOL products?
• Do I need AOL if I have dialup, DSL, or broadband service with another ISP?
• What other help can I find here?

"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. 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\

She tells 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?

To solve the first problem, 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 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.

Added later - 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?

To solve the second problem, 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 from Los Angeles 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 that. He insists I should wipe my hard drive and re-install Windows when I'm done with my bi-annual testing of AOL software for this blog (we've argued about this for three years). I insist it's much easier 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.

Note 7-20-08 This post will get updated sooner or later since I re-installed 9.0 VR after I wrote it and it turns out my own advice doesn't work to shut off auto-update nags, most likely because I don't have AIM or AIM Triton installed, which supposedly includes the stick.dll file among it's auto-update arsenal. I also tried deleting anotify.exe since tech forums always recommend getting rid of that but no luck. Deleting anotify.exe might stop the white auto-update nag above the system tray but does 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". In the course of figuring all this out I let the damn thing update itself so now I have to wait for another nag to figure out how to make it stop. I just downloaded everything System Internals ever made for XP so I can try to trace the process(es) and anything related back to what to delete, but it will be a while until I have the answer. Hang tight or look elsewhere on the Web - I did, and I can't come up with anything more than what I've suggested so far.

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, certainly. Here it is. 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!