To AOL or not to AOL? :-)

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RaynPatRVN said:
We don't currently have a laptop.  The home computer is a DSL connection thru Verizon and we use either VerizonYahoo or, mostly, Internet Explorer to get to the internet, e-mail is thru Outlook Express.  I just wanted to know what I particularly had to get a laptop outfitted with to be able to do what we do at home (e-mail, pay bills, keep track of banking, ebay, surf the net - that's basically it) -- just wanted to be able to do that stuff on a laptop computer in a campground.  I'm sorry if I was not detailed enough in trying to explain what we wanted.  I do thank everyone for all of their replies and it does seem like AOL is NOT the way to go and I will take heed of that.
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Ok, that helps.

Just about any laptop you buy these days has WIFI built in. More and more campgrounds offer WIFI. The only other thing I might get would be a USB WIFI adapter for the occasions when the signal is too weak for the built in WIFI. Something like this.

Do we just click on Internet Explorer, and voila! we're on the internet?  I just don't know how to do it....
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If there is WIFI available that's how you do it. Don't worry, we can get you up and running.
 
WiFi will probably be your best solution.  I wouldn't waste the money on any dialup services as WiFi is easier to find than a phone line.  I see your email is at verizon.net and that may take some changes to use on WiFi connections but it's not difficult to do.

As Don says, once you're connected to the internet, everything works just like it does at home.  The only exception being sending email.  That may have to change.
 
Our DSL vendor (Bellsouth, now ATT) allows us to use up to 20 hours of free dialup service a month as a backup.  After that it is $1.00 per hour with a max charge in any month of $20.  We used the dialup service with our laptop when we were at a campground that didn't have WIFI last major trip out.

Perhaps your DSL vendor has something similar.
 
RaynPatRVN - just in case you have any lingering doubts about AOL, let me add that all the responders so far have been very kind to AOL and grossly understated how really, horribly bad it is in the US.

If someone is able to curse you and offers a choice of, "the fleas of 1000 camels in your bed" and "installing AOL", take the fleas every time.
 
Newt  I never thought of that comparison, but with your permission I'd like to use that sometime.  I loved it.  And it's closer to the truth than many will think. 
 
I'm not an AOL fan but, given some of the comments, I should clarify ....

Neither Compuserve nor this forum, while we were hosted on Compuserve, required use of the AOL client software that folks have mentioned in this topic. From the time the forums first went to a web front page, the RV Forum was always accessible with any web browser.

It's accurate to say that AOL acquired Compuserve and Compuserve forums continued to go downhill, a decline that started prior to AOL's acquisition. Under AOL ownership, attempts were made to revive Compuserve forums, but these efforts were somewhat misguided. I can't even begin to discuss the many hours I spent attempting to educate AOL employees on the unique needs of our forum members.
 
Shayne - I figure any posts or photos I put on a public forum are just that so feel free to make use of anything I ever post here that you want.

Since we are sort of international - I do want to mention that AOL in the UK seems to be quite a bit better than ours.  Not good but not enough to make a strong man run screaming either.

KodiakRV - thanks for the tip about some dial-up time from a broadband ISP.  We keep a netzero account for use when we visit potters (we sell their stuff online and need to connect to our web site at times) that are too far away from any WiFi but can offer a phone line.  Many months it gets less than a half-hour use but I need something so pay for it.  I'd love to do away with that particular expense.
 
Newt said:
I do want to mention that AOL in the UK seems to be quite a bit better than ours.
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Having spent some time at my son's/DIL's house in the UK last year, I have to question that assertion Newt. They had BT (British Telecom)  internet service which was unbelievably intertwined with AOL. The BT DSL modem had AOL stamped on it and they had to have the AOL client loaded in order to get online via BT. It was the most miserable internet service I've ever experienced. That's coming from someone who traveled the world for a living and was online all but a handful of days/nights over the years.

I OTOH used my T-Mobile air card in the UK, once I remembered that my son's house has 28" thick stone walls that block wireless signals, and I finally sat in the garden with my notebook.
 
Tom - my "information" was all 2nd hand from comments on a Brit angling forum where the consensus seemed to be that it was not good but somewhere between fair & poor.

I hope never to have to find out first hand about the UK service.  I used AOL in 1993 (very little else available and it really was not bad back then), moved to Netscape but when Microsoft released IE 3.0 (1996?), I tried it and never looked back.  NetScape still had a technically better browser but IE3 played a little better with some apps and I was supporting a bunch of PCs used by Doctors so keeping it simple was essential and IE on a Microsoft OS was just easier.

I have a daughter in GA who had AOL and asked for help with her PC.  When I found out she had it loaded I said I would be happy to scrub the system and reload it then set things up but I would absolutely not use or work on one that had that abomination loaded.
 
Newt.... I like that "I would absolutely not use or work on one that had that abomination loaded."

I fully agree.  First thing I do with a new compter is DE-AOL it, I don't even use AOL-IM (I use Trillian for IM-ing, it supports AOL, Yahoo, MSN and more)
 
We do use AOL.  When we switched from dial-up to Cox cable, we tried to do without AOL for about 1 month.  The wife hated using Microsoft Outlook for email so we finally went back to AOL. I had used Outlook at work so I didn't have any issues with using it.  I think a lot has to do with what you are comfortable with.  If one have used computers a lot, it's easier to accept change. If you haven't used them a lot, you are more uncomfortable with changing to something different.  I agree with others here that AOL loads a lot of junk on your computers that you might not use and these features slow things up.  It takes a long time to boot up and shut down because of all the add ons.  But I'm talking seconds, not minutes.  We will stay with AOL at least for now because we are comfortable with it.
 
WiFi will probably be your best solution.
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Well, I'm not so sure about that.  On this trip we have not had very good luck with it.  Either we were too far away from the antenna or it was a poor system or - worst of all - it was not free and we felt too costly.  Also, I must mention we were in one place where the wifi provider wanted not only our credit card number but also the 4-digit security code on the back of it.  We were not willing to provide that and all the other information they wanted so we didn't use it.  In addition, Jerry called the provider and discussed it.  Apparently we're not alone because they are in the process of redesigning their system to include payment by PayPal.  We'll be happier using PayPal for a day or two of wifi than giving them way too much private information.

ArdraF
 
When I update and uploade a site in the internet I control the site after uploading. And I see all the changes.
An AOL using friend didn't see the updated site at once as I and others (non-AOL users) did. Took him a few hours to see the "new" site. He left AOL. Now he is up to date.
 
Probably a result of the AOL caching.  They aren't properly checking the pages for expiration and just presenting the old, obsolete pages.  If the friend is using an AOL browser, there may be a setting to force it to check pages for expiration when fetching.
 
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