This MAY work to cancel AOL: call this number: 800 827-6364.
I found a lengthy explanation at this url: http://www.askdavetaylor.com/how_do_i_cancel_my_america_online_aol_account.html
which was apparently started in about 05 but this number is very recent. It's hellish, it's always been that way. You have to refuse three times before they will give up. Read as much of that lengthy page as you can. What's sad is that there are people posting there who apparently think that they are communicating with AOL itself.
Some other things to remember: a) get yourself into a new provider before you start. Get your email addresses out, maybe by sending yourself a message with a whole bunch of other people from it from AOL. There's now also a free AOL service that you can change your service plan to, which will let you keep your email addresses. b) To escape: It's your husband's account and he has Alzheimer's. I have found that this is a get-out-of-jail free card.
Finally, I'm perfectly willing to help anyone that I can with computer problems, mac or PC, except Vista - but if you ask, tell me what kind of computer, what browser you're using and what mail program you're using. They're all different. And if you know it, what operating system.. OSX Tiger? or Leopard? Vista, or XP?
Thankyou Briegull. I have a Vista. AOL has Macafee which fights with my AVG. I uninstalled AVG and installed Avira. Trns out not to be a problem with either-just a conflict with AOL. I already have a hotmail and Bellsouth account and transferred all the names I want as well as notifying folks I want to keep in touch with. The rest can go pound sand. By brouser do you mean Internetexplorer?
briegull-using this number:888-265-8008 I was out of AOL in less than 1 minute. You have to be careful though because there are many 3rd persons out there wanting to help with your shared information. I had alreay read Dave's blog which he has posted on more sites than you want to go to.Thanks for the help.
I'm not briegull, but I can help with this stuff too.
Yes, a browser is what you use to see the Web. Internet Explorer is what came with your computer if you have a PC. There are others as well, but see if you can get Internet Explorer to work with whoever you get your internet service from.
There are actually a lot of us with computer experience. This would be a good thread to use if you are having problems with your PC. And I think we even have a MAC guru.
Try going to preferences (the gears icon in the bar at the bottom)/energy saver/options/and uncheck "automatically reduce the brightness of the display"
Make sure your thingie is completely plugged in, it may think it's on battery power, and that would do it!
AOL is bad stuff - it integrates into every aspect of your computer. Even when you uninstall AOL it still leaves a lot behind. Fortunately I have had to re-format my computer a couple time since leaving so I know I have nothing from them. I had AOL for years then left it around 2000. Unlike others, I called and was canceled the first time. They didn't even try to talk me into staying -must admit I was disappointed I couldn't tell them 'no way'.
I use Firefox -stopped using IE once it went to 7.0 cause it kept crashing. I only us IE to do windows update.
I've been using gmail for the last several years. They're good about catching spam and putting it in its own folder which you can empty whenever - when I empty it, each week, there are at least 300 pieces in it (you don't HAVE to empty it, I' just am tidy). And I don't get viruses, the mail itself stays on the gmail server. I've never ever had a problem with it. I use it with Firefox, and I have a personalized google page with what I need on it, so I don't even usually bother with bookmarks. I also have my schedule, such as it is, on the google calendar so I can check it from away (but not from doctors' offices; gotta make a phone call and reschedule something).
Gmail will also let you set up mail sent to your own domain name, if you happen to have one, with a pretty good number of mailboxes per domain name. (I don't remember how many ... 10? 20?) And loads and loads of memory space for each. So for people who have shoestring small businesses, you can appear to have your own server, totally free (other than the what, $15 for registering the domain name for five years?)
Sounds like it is set to turn off or hibernate which would mean you have to reboot. I don't know about Mac's, but on PC's you right click on the desktop, click properties, screensaver, then monitor settings. Here you can set it to do what you want.
you should be able to get it to go back on by just hitting the mouse or the return key on the keyboard. No, that's not normal. Do check your settings (the gears on the bar at the bottom) and check the ENERGY SAVER, AND the "desktop and screen saver" and make sure that those are all set for an hour or so.. There isn't a setting to turn off on the mac, automatically. Two other things: make sure your mac is well plugged in, that the battery is charging fully. And secondly, if you have Leopard and automatic updates set to go on, whatever settings you have had might have been lost.
Finally, if you have tried everything else, you can do a really silly thing but it works: shut the machine down - from the Apple, don't just push the on-off button. When you turn it back on, KEEP YOUR FINGER ON THE BUTTON. It will eventually make some little beeps or rings. Then you can take your finger off, but not until then. It will take awhile to restart, but then it will. This does a reset I think of the PRAM. (you can check this out on the mac support site if you're scared!)
Thanks all. Hitting the keys doesn't work. It is well charged. I will try the final thing next time. It will immediately restart when I push the on/off button. It just happens about every couple of weeks or so. I will have son in law check the update things.
The macbook doesn't have a mouse while you are using it wireless and I miss having a right click button to use.
You can use apple-click for the right button! You can also get two-button mice so you don't have to just use the touchpad. But you can also do this (assuming it's a recent mac, maybe more; check the system preferences for touchpad): move the arrow with two fingers and when you get to what you want, press them BOTH down, which will give you the right-click button options. I would never have bought a mac this time around without the capability of a right button!!
When it immediately restarts, does it go through the whole apple noise and all?
as I used to have to tell a great many people just learning to use computers - you can break it (or hurt it) by spilling coffee or coke or milk (worst!) on it, or by dropping it, but nowadays you really aren't going to BREAK it! without really trying just by typing or clicking. If you use the same common sense on the computer that you use away from it, that is,don't answer the door (email) to strangers, don't buy from fly-by-night merchants, and don't leave your wallet on the front seat of the car while you run in to pick up a coffee - that sort of thing - you have nothing to lose by not trying out things like Bama and email for instance.
In 1983 I had to begin the computerization of the dean's office at Brown where I worked. I insisted that the secretaries (not the deans) get the first computers (Apple Macintoshes) because they were doing the office jobs that required the most typing, etc. FIve of the secretaries were 65! with no intention of retiring. THey learned to use a mouse (I gave them all little Christmas mice on red apples that year!) and a file system and so on, learning more each year. When they did retire, years later, one by one, they wanted computers as retirement presents! I ran into one of them about two years ago and she was still going in to do temp work, well into her eighties, using computers all the time!
Briegull, So you're saying you disagree. You have a valid point, after all, the pc has been around for some time now, and so it would tend to invalidate the theory that it is a new skill for an 80 yr. old. I'll have to discuss it further with my daughter, she is such a whipper snapper at age 43.
AOL can be very invasive. I had it for several years and when I changed providers it took my son, a computer tech well over an hour to remove all traces of AOL. It 'buries" itself in what seems like every part of the computer. He did finally delete all of it, but he had to check the entire operating system. I'm very computer illiterate and lucky to have a son to help me. Not sure I even want to learn more.
That sounds like my son talking! "Get rid of AOL, Mom...it gets into everything" Unless I get a new computer I don't think I can :-(...it does create many problems, but it keeps my vocabulary spicy.
I hate loathe and despise AOL!!! and I was an early user, and then used it for a summer once. It was nothing but trouble for me then and it is nothing but trouble for me now when I need to send mail to someone with an AOL account and they don't get it because they don't know my domain, or they try to send me something and I have to try to understand what they're telling me.. when you can use so many other services, cheaper, easier, why would ANYONE use AOL now?
Briegull, my AOL is free and has been for years. Don't know "why" it's free, but it is.
My computer tech grandchildren tell me that it's slow, but so am I ..when it comes to computers. I don't do graphics on the computer and don't do charts. I look up information and send emails and write letters. It's the only provider I have ever used..since the 90's. Maybe someday, I'll change Internet Providers, but so far," if it's not broke, I'm not changing it"
Nancy I agree with you. I got AOL when it first came out. Never had a problem.As I developed computer problems down the line all the techies said get out of AOL. Took a long time to get all of it out of the computer. Guess what-the original problems remain. Like you I had the free edition. It was expensive and dial-up at the beginning. I was the first one I knew to use Google.
I'm another one who hates AOL. It came free on my first computer but when I wanted it off, it really was embedded in everything and I had to have professional help to get it removed. Finally solved the problem when I got a new computer.
Nancy, then yes, it is free; I presume you read your mail on-line at aol. So it may be that your computer isn't too infected with AOL junk. But I won't be able to send you big beautiful pics of Santorini or Macchu Picchu or whatever!!
ooh nooooooooo, try to send me your pictures of Santorini. I've been to Maccu Picchu, too. Favorite place though was Pompeii. I tried to talk my DH into leaving me there, with a spoon and a little piece of screen wire. It's an amazing place with a fascinating history. I do get beautiful pictures on my AOL... send via jpeg...
I had heard that about AOL too - that it infiltrates every part of your computer. I finally got rid of it when I got my laptop and started using netzero as my ISP. Now I share cable internet with my son. Hard to go back to slow once you have faster.
Yes, I find netzero perfectly adequate as dial-up when I go on Monhegan in the summer. They're good about cancelling when I need them to after the summer, so it costs me maybe $10-15 for three months.
apple-plus. Or control plus. To shrink, apple-minus. (apple being the key next to the space bar with the apple and/or the little four-leaf clover thingie on it)