AOL 9.0 is accused of 'badware behavior'

security.itworld.com ^ | 28 August 2006 | Robert McMillan, IDG News Service, San Francisco Bureau

[Tennessee_Bob]

AOL 9.0 is accused of 'badware behavior'

Only this version?? Geeze - all of them suck.

[ShadowAce]

[Toby06]

You can get your account cancelled if you are very firm and insistent that they cancel your account. They are sneaky, especially with their really strong indian accents, but you can do it.

I hit a rough patch in my life last year, used AOL for 75 or so days and never paid them a dime because of their 90 day free trial.

It's a pain, but you can do it. Also, their tech support was pretty decent.

That said, their software sucks and ir really hard to complelely remove.

[Toby06]

LOL, Compuserve. 2400 baud modems, 8" floppy's, COBOL.

Ah, the good old days!

[Ben Hecks]

First BBS I logged on to was some kind of General Aviation thing, not my line, but the first time I saw "e-mail" mentioned.

I'll bet you probably still have a link to that site ; )

[70times7]

AOL - get your internet service here if you want access to more chatrooms and other useless garbage than you ever thought possible teamed up with absurdly high prices. Just think, AOL users, you get to pay the price for those billions upon billions of CDs that make the smooth transition from letter carrier to household to landfill w/ the wrapper intact!

Has anyone else heard the recording on the net of the AOL rep that will not let the guy cancel his account? When I heard it I thought it was a humorous fake, but now I hear it is real. Anyone know?

If it is real it would not surprise me. I still get phone calls occasionally from a collector trying to get me to pay an AOL bill for an account from ~97 that I cancelled and they didn't - called and e-mailed them to end it, then closed the bank account they were drawing on. They still seem to think I owe them. The only thing they are owed is distain.

[KoRn]

"RealPlayer is especially offensive because it basically hijacks your computer for anything multimedia, and also installs "RealDownload" and "RealJukebox" and other unnecessary crap."

Yeah, RealPlayer is the mother of all bloatware. I avoid it like the plague. As for Adobe reader, you can choose not to install the google toolbar during installation. Adobe has become very annoying to me. Used to, you could install the program quickly with no worries, but in the last two versions they created an installer that takes forever on a slower PC, and they try to slip in 3rd party software on you.

[PogySailor]

Ah, the days of XMODEM, YMODEM, ZMODEM and Kermit.

Mustang and Wildcat BBS could run on my 286/16 with a whopping 512k of RAM and a 30MB HD.

Now I have digital photo RAW files larger than that first hard drive.

[Sue Perkick]

That's about all they're good for.

[FreeManWhoCan]

Isn't there any software out there that deals exclusively with removing AOL from a computer?

[Toby06]

I don't know. It SHOULD uninstall using windows, but won't.

[COBOL2Java]

Isn't there any software out there that deals exclusively with removing AOL from a computer?

fdisk works remarkably well.. :0)

[phantomworker]

I used Prodigy. LOL! Also went through AO hell.

Thanks for posting the article. Glad to see it's finally being equated with malware.

[Recovering Hermit]

Friends don't let friends install RealPlayer.

Agreed.

Unfortunately, part of my job involves streaming Real Media.

We began offering alternative formats a few years back because a portion of our more intelligent customers flat-out refused to install RealPlayer (and the host of other garbage that comes along with it).

BTW - Real charges big $$$ for their wonderful streaming server software.

Double BTW - GOOD LUCK if you ever want to edit or convert Real Media to another format. It can be done, but it ain't easy.

As you might have guessed, I am not a fan.

[reagan_fanatic]

Monday's report states that AOL is taking steps to address StopBadware.org's concerns, and that the company has confirmed that there is a design flaw in its uninstaller software, according to a draft obtained by IDG News.

Bullcrap. There was no 'design flaw', it was deliberate.

AOL could at least restore a little of the trust they've lost by simply telling the truth once and awhile.

[Oberon]

WinXP's System Restore function ought to work.

[FreedomPoster]

I still have an original Hayes Smartmodem 300 around here somewhere, in the sleek extruded aluminum case.

[Toby06]

Mt dad was a computer geek who started his own cumputer business in 1966. We had all those toys at some point.

Funny thing is my cable modem has as many lights on the front as those old Hayes and rockwell modems. The box sure hasn't changed a heck of a lot, but what it does sure has.

[phantomworker]

Friends don't let friends install RealPlayer.

Quicktime is also malicious.

[rock_lobsta]

Paging Captain Obvious...

AOL's malware has been screwing up sheeple's computers since they went Windows. Each successive version has been more intrusive than the last. I'm sure version 10 will suck even more.

As said previously, sheeple who use AOL deserve what they get.