I Love AOL???

[Amused]

I have a confession to make. Well, actually, I just made it.

Why?

Lately I've been teaching my GF's family (she has nine aunts and two uncles and her mom, of course) to use computers. And AOL's E-mail makes it SO much easier. I've been putting them on cable modems, and teaching them to use BYOA AOL for E-mail, and IE for websurfing.

OK, flame away, but teaching a newbie how to use AOL's email is a HELL of a lot easier than teaching them OE. And it's safer to boot, since I turned off the file download option on their AOL prefs. I figure as soon as they get comfortable with their computers, I'll have them migrate to OE.

:::Applying 500 SPF flame screen:::

 

[Czar]

If the only thing they can learn on the computer is aol, then the world is better of not allowing them to use a computer.

 

A-holes off line

 

[notfred]

I love Rock and Roll....

AOL sucks though.

 

[Wallydraigle]

I like to eat bacon.

 

[Ameesh]

<< she has nine aunts and two uncles >>



holy crap are they mormons?! lucky uncles!

 

[Amused]

<<

<< she has nine aunts and two uncles >>



holy crap are they mormons?! lucky uncles! >>



LOL, nope. Those are her mother's sisters and brothers. Her grand parents were just very busy.

 

[Scootin159]

<< I have a confession to make. Well, actually, I just made it.

Why?

Lately I've been teaching my GF's family (she has nine aunts and two uncles and her mom, of course) to use computers. And AOL's E-mail makes it SO much easier. I've been putting them on cable modems, and teaching them to use BYOA AOL for E-mail, and IE for websurfing.

OK, flame away, but teaching a newbie how to use AOL's email is a HELL of a lot easier than teaching them OE. And it's safer to boot, since I turned off the file download option on their AOL prefs. I figure as soon as they get comfortable with their computers, I'll have them migrate to OE.

:::Applying 500 SPF flame screen::: >>



I totally agree. I almost always reccomend to someone to get a POS ($600) retail comptuer with 6-months of AOL for a first comptuer. Once they learn the basics I'll help them learn the 'real' way to do it, and even offer to build them a sweet system when theirs gets old.

 

[NetworkDad]

Have you tried MSN Explorer? It's just as easy, but clearly the lesser of the two evils. I just set my inlaws up on it, and they love it. They are former AOL users.

 

[Scootin159]

<< Have you tried MSN Explorer? It's just as easy, but clearly the lesser of the two evils. I just set my inlaws up on it, and they love it. They are former AOL users. >>



Actually now that I think about it, I guess it does depend on how 'incompetent' I feel they may be (or how much I just don't want to be offering tech support). I just set up my parents with a WinXP + MSN Explorer + Road Runner + 1gig duron box I made for them. They seem to be having no problems with it.

 

[Zenmervolt]

You definitely made the right decision. Reminds me of when I was working on getting my grandmother set up with a computer. I ended up just telling her to bet a basic computer from Best Buy and to use AOL for internet because teaching her anything more complicated was beginning to tax my sanity.

ZV

 

[Amused]

<< Have you tried MSN Explorer? It's just as easy, but clearly the lesser of the two evils. I just set my inlaws up on it, and they love it. They are former AOL users. >>



One of them tried it, but I had them stop. Why? When you forward or recieve a forward, it's turned into an attachment. VERY annoying.

Besides, I'm not too fond of webpage based E-mail.

 

[NetworkDad]

<< I just set up my parents with a WinXP + MSN Explorer .... >>



Ditto - The Remote Assistance feature has already came in handy when they had a question on how to burn a CDR.

They arent' using MSN internet access, just MSN explorer as an interface. I figure i can slowly wean them away from the cluttered interfaces to just OE6/IE6 only.

Amused one - you can set up outlook express to download the messages as your primary mail program.

 

[SuperCyrix]

So easy to use, no wonder it's number one!
You got mail!
Hello!
Goodbye!

 

[Amused]

<<

<< I just set up my parents with a WinXP + MSN Explorer .... >>



Ditto - The Remote Assistance feature has already came in handy when they had a question on how to burn a CDR.

Amused one - you can set up outlook express to download the messages as your primary mail program. >>



ROFL!! Which completely negates the reason I put them on AOL in the first place!

 

[NetworkDad]

<<

ROFL!! Which completely negates the reason I put them on AOL in the first place! >>



Yea, i know. With MSN, you can slowly wean them to OE6 though. You can't do that with AOL. But if they are totally new to the internet, i guess AOL would teach them a few things.

 

[Scootin159]

<<

<< I just set up my parents with a WinXP + MSN Explorer .... >>



Ditto - The Remote Assistance feature has already came in handy when they had a question on how to burn a CDR.

They arent' using MSN internet access, just MSN explorer as an interface. I figure i can slowly wean them away from the cluttered interfaces to just OE6/IE6 only.

Amused one - you can set up outlook express to download the messages as your primary mail program. >>



Remote Assistance is a lifesaver when you're at college & don't want to drive 3hrs home to show them how to run a virus scan.

 

[Bluga]

AOL sucks

 

[MrCodeDude]

I don't like AOL, I don't see how Outlook Express is hard to learn.
-- mrcodedude

 

[grr8scott]

if i can teach my ex to learn OE, u can pretty much teach anyone. trust me!

 

[AdamDuritz99]

from a lazy point of view, i would agree just let them use aol, less hassle for me.
but aol still sucks!!! and like someone said early, if all they can handle to learn is aol, they really shouldn't be on a computer.

oh well

peace
sean

 

[andrey]

Most people for some reason hate AOL even although they never used it. Believe it or not, proprietary interface is way easier to learn then OE with many functions, many bells and whistles. In AOL you have everything in front of you, E-Mail, Internet, Chat Rooms and IMs. What else newbie needs from Internet? Once they learn the basics, they can certainly move to different choice, but I personally leave that decision up to people. After all, I don't have enough time to teach everyone that they need to dial in ISP before using Internet Explorer and how to download Outlook's attachment and how to find it.