AOL and connection to the internet

[Neil Jones]

And who remembers eGroups? It used to be really good before Yahoo took it over in circa 2000/2001.

Hotbot.com used to be search engine of choice and ICQ was a must-have!

Ahh, nostalgia.

Hobot is still with us, though not as we used to know it. Previously a standalone search engine much like Google is now, its now main job is a front end for Ask Jeeves and MSN. In the grand scale of things, it is crap.

eGroups was great, Yahoo bought it in 2000. The original author of eGroups held 5.7% stake in it (which was worth about $24m when Yahoo bought the company).

ICQ is now classed as Adware, but there was a time when it wasn't adware, but even then it was so big and so system heavy it was awkward to use. ICQ Spambots were all the rage as well. Apparently AOL bought the company in 1998.

[James Martin]

Good old ICQ. Does anyone still use it? With the Teletubby sound and the clacking typewriter?

Amazing how MSN just came and suddenly became weapon of choice.

[Jamez]

MSN became so successful because:

A.) It was bundled with every Windows computer since 2000
B.) It was no frills and very simple to use. It had a nice, clean, uncluttered interface
C.) Most people had Hotmail addresses from the late 1990s (me included) and it made sense to use it
D.) Everyone started using it, so you were left out if you weren't on it.

Sadly, Microsoft have now wrecked it. They've packed adverts into it, made it ridiculously bloated (24MB of RAM!) and above all it's now weirdly called "Windows Live Messenger". However, everyone still calls it MSN - which is good.

[cdd]

However, everyone still calls it MSN - which is good.

Yes, but then people still call fast reverse play on DVD's "rewinding", even when no winding is going on!

[Sput]

It does wind spacetime a bit if that helps

[cdd]

You're on execeptionally good form today!

[Sput]

You're just trying to force my hand so I'll tell you that you're right for once! Damnit, you ARE right though!

[Neil Jones]

MSN became so successful because:

A.) It was bundled with every Windows computer since 2000
B.) It was no frills and very simple to use. It had a nice, clean, uncluttered interface
C.) Most people had Hotmail addresses from the late 1990s (me included) and it made sense to use it
D.) Everyone started using it, so you were left out if you weren't on it.

MSN Messenger first appeared when the pretty but dismal Windows ME was first released - that was version 2.

Microsoft confused things when XP first came out - it bundled what was effectively MSN Messenger, but it was called Windows Messenger. It took another year before you could run Windows Messenger and the then MSN Messenger 5 on the same XP machine.

These days, Live Messenger looks pretty but it's leaning heavily towards being an all-in-one application. You can skin it, play games on it and apparently browse the web on it. I fail to see the point considering XP came with the ability to play checkers and what not out of the box.

Windows Messenger on the other hand is "classic" MSN Messenger. It's clean , its not cluttered, it gets the job done and its perfect. Which could explain why its not available or supported in Windows Vista (or XP any more, come to that) and you're effectively forced onto Live Messenger.

[Jamez]

Well, well...

I currently use Tiscali and their service has been intermittent for about a week. It began by cutting me off at 22:07 every night and not working again until 09:00 the next morning.

I could tolerate that as I, and most normal people are sleeping between those hours.

However, since last night I have only been able to connect to Tiscali broadband for 10 seconds at a time. Just long enough to load 1 webpage if I'm quick enough. The modem then reboots itself and synchronizes with the phoneline. Eventually, it stopped connecting altogether. The modem would sync itself and everything looked OK. I then hit 'dial' in the dial-up networking box and it said "verifying username and password..." as it always does. However, it would pause for about 20 seconds on that and then say "The remote computer did not respond" etc.

By this time, and me unable to get any work done, I decided to cancel my Tiscali broadband account. Oh what a kerfuffle!


Firstly, I phoned directory enquiries to get Tiscali's number. I was put through to the usual incompetent and barely audible and comprehensible folk in New Dehli. I told them I wanted to cancel and they put me through to their cancellation department. However, after about 2 minutes of silence I was cut off. I rang back, got put through, and I was cut off again!

I was less than happy.

I eventually got given a direct number to the cancellation department at Tiscali. Surprise surprise I was cut off yet again!

I phoned directory enquiries again and asked for Tiscali's head office. I was given a London number and spoke to some disinterested and sullen Scottish woman who gave me yet another number to dial.

I eventually got through to the cancellation department at Tiscali.

The number is: 0845 0774488

I spoke to some woman with a very strange accent (it sounded eastern european) and requested my MAC key. She told me that I couldn't have it over the phone and that it would be e-mailed to me. I was suspicious. She insisted that the MAC would need to be generated by BT Wholesale and could take up to three hours.

After finishing the phone call, I realised that I couldn't actually connect to the internet to check my e-mail!

Luckily, I still had my old 56k modem in a box in my wardrobe and hooked it up. I'm typing this while connected to 1p-a-min dial-up! It's dreadfully slow, but nevertheless it's stable.

I've just heard the "dingdong" of my e-mail inbox and my MAC key has just come through.

Moral of the story? Never, ever, sign up to Tiscali. Orange or AOL aren't much better according to ADSLGuide.

Anyway, that's what's been occupying me most of this afternoon. Perhaps I should invoice Tiscali for at least 1 day of lost productivity!

[Nick Harvey]

It began by cutting me off at 22:07 every night and not working again until 09:00 the next morning.

I think that was a special safety measure designed to protect the internet from someone called James.

Trouble was, it must have got the wrong James.

[Johnny]

It began by cutting me off at 22:07 every night and not working again until 09:00 the next morning.

I think that was a special safety measure designed to protect the internet from someone called James.

Trouble was, it must have got the wrong James.

I've been with supanet on both dial up & broadband and I have had no problems with them (so far) They're kind of "no frills" though but seemed to have the best package on dial up at the time when I signed up to them.

I couldn't be arsed to changed so I kept with them