Losing Customers Due To AOL
 

I'm an AOL techie and we've had problems with people visiting Wikipedia. Since AOLers use both dialup and broadband, the ip addresses logged can rotate and it appears that the same person is visiting when it's someone else entirely.

If you use AOL via tcp/ip and you visit a site like Wikipedia or any site that interacts with an ip address you'll notice when trying to input data that you may find that you've been:

A.) Banned
B.) Wanted by the police
C.) Cast into the Negative Zone with General Zod
D.) The father of Laqueesha's baby.

Often the wrong person gets targeted and accused because of this. It happens with most ISPs and in varying situations. Mostly on highly political websites.

So if you've banned an ip and it was from a multi flow isp then your surfer/customer who is a good boy may find inaccessbility due to a bad boy you've banned.

dam thats not good :(

That's not news.... Or at least it shouldn't be.. It's not hard to check if an IP is from a AOL and only put in a temp ban as opposed to a permanent one... You can never permanently ban any IP thru which a surfer can access your site.. Even the broadband ones rotate occasionally... I've had about 2-3 over the last year.

how do I cancel my subscription?
I have been trying for over 10 years now.
I just keep on getting a run around from some no speak english dot head.
has anyone ever been able to cancel a AOL subscripton?

If you have your stuff setup right, it shouldn't effect your sales in any way...

At the risk of stating the obvious - have you ever tried simply stopping your subscription payments to them ?

LOL, I bet they would cancel your account then :winkwink:

My DSL gives me a new IP every time I reconnect.

Indeed, but the static IPs versus non-static is the problem. With so many wi-fi and multiple user accounts one account ends up being misidentified by the setup. I've had low grade morons accuse me of being this guy or that guy and not realizing that their dumb asses didn't check to see the ip setup. It is something to consider and be on guard for.

One of my non-adult sites is a very popular nightlife related forum (nightclubs, concerts, raves, etc).

We have this same problem ALL THE TIME.

If someone makes a fake username to post something crazy, and they use an AOL IP address, it traces back to like 50 different users.

Exactly. That's why so many AOL members end up with one threat against them from some website every so often. Many webmasters who think they're CSI fuck up and accuse the wrong person and end up in court instead. Especially when they threaten a minor, law enforcement officer, politician or relative to any of the above authorities. It's very confusing and time consuming but most people don't know the simple procedures to prevent it. AOL is moving away from dialup. They've offered free memberships now as most people are using DSL. Thus if you block someone with an AOL or Earthlink or other ISP similar, you end up probably blocking tens of thousands of others who might just be interested in your products. Once those people can't get access they may label your site as bogus.

I laugh at people using AOL.. always have.

hmmmmmmmm i used aol, many moons ago though

AOL Sucks! AOL billed my Mom for months after I called and cancelled her service. She had to cancel her credit card and they billed her new card! I would call AOL for her and they put me on hold for ever. When you get put on hold and try to use a speaker phone they turn down the volume so you can't hear the person if they ever pick up.