Robert Bonomi writes:

And, as you know, they're shutting those machines down.

You *cannot* access AOL 'news' with a conventional newsreader, like "Agent".

I don't want to access AOL news. AOL does that fine. I wanted to use Agent in
conjunction with AOL to access Usenet NGs. For that, Agent requires FTP and
NNTP numbers, which I cannot locate in AOL. You say it doesn't have such
numbers, which is fine. I can dump Agent and free up some disc space.

I haven't got a clue as to what is eating Mozzila's favorite son. It perks
up,
goes right along, and then cannot access AOL, even though it has my correct
screen name and password.

Obviously, It can't access any of AOL's 'proprietary' content -- like the
chat
rooms, etc.

And, in and of itself, it *won't* do the dialing like the AOL-ware will.
You need to start the AOL software _first_, then launch Mozilla's favorite
son.


Did that. Made no difference, except that I could get to the stage where I
entered my AOL username and password for Mozilla to use. It then was unable to
access AOL.

Lastly, AOL _e-mail_ requires a *DIFFERENT*FROM*NORMAL* type of connection to
read mail. Besides the AOL software, there are a limited number of programs
that know how to make that kind of connection. Netscape version 7, and above
*is* one of the programs that _does_ know how. (when you create an
'account',
it has a special type "AOL account".)

Note: the Mozilla 'all-in-one' application, and, thus, presumably,
Thunderbird
as well, does *NOT* know how to connect to AOL's mail-reading servers.


Again, I do NOT want to read AOL mail or news. I want to access Usenet.
Following Mozilla's own instructions gets me nowhere.

More disc space freed up.

I will probably just use Google Groups. It is not particularly handy, and
doesn't seem to have filters, but I have neither the time nor inclination to
develop expertise in attaching various bits and pieces to AOL. I've already
****ed away a couple of days fiddling with this when I could have been doing
something profitable from either a fiscal or enjoyment stage.

I have no idea why these programs won't work with AOL 9.0, or whether it's
something I'm doing. I'd say the latter is most likely. But, as someone who
writes instruction manuals, I see that as a major fault in the instructions,
which, IMO, are often written so that someone can feel superior when saying
something like, "but, you see, everyone who KNOWS computers knows that step, so
it doesn't need to be written down."

Charlie Self
"I think we agree, the past is over." George W. Bush