AOL and Datastorm

[terry nathan]

Hi everybody, and greetings from Brecon Beacons in Wales.

We are having problems to download our e-mails when we go directly to Compuserve, without passing by Internet explorer.  It is very, very slow and most of the time we receive a message which tells us : ?HMI protocol error Lost connection to Compuserve?.  Everything else (eg when surfing the internet) is fine.

It is so frustrating that we are considering switching to AOL.  We are told that AOL has a lot more possibilities compared to Compuserve, especially concerning e-mail and the attachments (pictures).  However I am a little bit worried to switch like that, because I don?t know what, if anything, it will do to our  Datastorm system

I don?t know how to proceed and specially what to do with Compuserve after we try AOL. Should we first of all download the AOL software, then after the first month of free trial cancel Compuserve??? I really am frightened to take a stupid risk.

Help friends.  Liliane

 

[Ned]

Liliane,

First, Compuserve is AOL.  However, you should be able to get your Compuserve mail via POP3 rather than the antiquated, proprietary, HMI protocol.  I strongly advise you to NOT switch to AOL for email.  Once you install their software, you will never be able to get rid of it, it insinuates itself so deeply into your Windows system.

Better solution is to register your own domain, like terrynathan.com, and use that for your email.  Email hosting for a private domain is very reasonable and available from many sources.  In particular, check out GoDaddy.com for some reasonable email plans.  A big advantage of hosting your own email domain is you can then switch ISPs at any time and never have to change your email addresses.

I believe that Compuserve has an option to forward your CIS email to another address so you could keep the CIS address for awhile until you get all your correspondents notified of your new, permanent, address.

Hi to Terry too.

 

[Ron]

First my advice is to AVOID AOL like it was the plague.  I have seen several folks that have had nothing but problems after AOL was installed on their computer.  Ned has provided some very sound advice.  Once again I would not install AOL on my computer.  Compuserve was bought by AOL and that is when IMHO compuserve started downward. The only thing that kept me on Compuserve was this forum and was I happy when we moved off CS.  I immediately dropped CS.  We have our own Domain as Ned suggested.  We got our domain HERE.  Works for us.

Also Hi to Terry.

 

[Smoky]

I agree.  I work for CompuServe and I would be first to say don't install either AOL or CompuServe proprietary software.  You can access CompuServe via your naked browser.  Not true for AOL, however.

 

[John From Detroit]

Better yet, if you have Hughes.net (Datastorm) to get your E-mail with, why not use thier mail server as well

It should be able to FETCH from another pop-3 server (Though I've never tried it)

My E-dress is a reflector, when I dump AT&T and go 100% wireless all I do is log on, issue a command and in the flash of a web page,,,,, mail goes to the new place

Course if my ARRL membership expieres then they stop forwarding my E-mail, but since it's a life membership, I won't care

 

[Smoky]

Oh!  An added thought!

Go to mail2web.com.  You can get your CS mail there and reply to it via that web site, using just your browser.

 

[terry nathan]

Thank you Ned, you too Ron, and of course John and Smoky - hope we'll get to meet you two when we are next your side of the Ocean.  I'll digest all your comments and come back if necessary.  Love to Lorna and Sam

Liliane (in rainy Brecon Beacons National Park, Wales)