Forgive me gang, an AOL question

[Brute]

Hopefully I won't incur too many flames.

My father is an AOL user, and when I go to visit, I minimize it and fire up IE for some decent browsing. But when I was visiting him, there was no Net access to be had via anything other than AOL. The browser couldn't connect to anything, and Norton Systemworks could not connect to run LiveUpdate. Both acted as though I was not connected to the Net. But within AOL, I could use its browser with no problems.

Any suggestions where to start? And spare me the "tell him to get a real ISP response," ok? Getting my 60 year old father online is a major accomplishment in and of itself.

 

[Ladi]

What version of AOL? IE? What OS?

~Ladi

 

[Brute]

AOL 6.0
IE 5.0
Win98 SE

 

[Ladi]

Have you checked for proxy servers? Configured IE to use existing connections or AOL connection by running Tools>Options>Connections>Setup Wizard?

~Ladi

 

[Brute]

Yes I checked. Told it to automatically discover the settings, proxy wasn't checked.

 

[858diver]

This happened to me on some older versions of AOL. My recollection is that simply removing some or all of the browser-related files and re-starting AOL did the trick.

As I am a bit fuzzy, I would simply call their tech service, who can walk you through the procedure. Best if you have the machine on when you call. If you only have one phone line, they now have live online Java-based support to accomplish the same thing.

Not to start an AOL flame war, but I have to admit that I still use it (only because we have a free account), even with Pac Bell DSL. Particularly for those not very familiar with computers, I would still recommend it. (My 2 cents).

 

[fergiboy]

Configure the proxy server manualy. You must set the proxy server to "ie3.proxy.aol.com" This is what it was when I had aol over a year ago, hopefully it is still the same.
I believe that it only requires you to use the proxy server if you have parental controls enabled and you have some web sites blocked. Try disabling parental controls if this is the case.

 

[erub]

you may have to click on internet to get AOL to open you up to the internet so you can use explorer

 

[Pakman]

Check and make sure that the AOL Dialup adapter is installed in your Network properties. A cousin of mine had that problem where he was able to use AOL but couldn't surf the net. I haven't used AOL in a long time (since '97), but I think that AOL copies it's own version of winsock.dll to your windows directory. What you might wanna try is to find the winsock.dll file in your AOL directory and copy it to your Windows directory (Make a backup copy of your windows version just in case).

 

[858diver]

Fergi: Why would he have to mess with the proxy server?

Pakman: Unless he is using a VERY old version of AOL (earlier than 4.0), AOL will automatically detect if an adapter is missing, and automatically re-install it.

Brute: As I suggested earlier: contact Tech Support with AOL open and they will get you going.