Hi, all.  I agree that AOL's content is hit-and-miss; I rarely look at
it myself.  While it's inevitable that an occasional AOL customer will
have software or network problems (as my mother does) due to AOL's
_huge_ subscriber base, I must comment regarding my own perception of
AOL's value after 10 years' usage.

For my $10 per month to AOL, I get 5 hours on-line credit, _5_ email
accounts, 10 MB of web page storage, and I'm certainly able to access
all of the same Internet content that everyone else can.  At my home,
I average 52 kb bandwidth and rarely get a busy signal.  I use Internet
Explorer or Netscape Navigator as suits me.  The last time I called AOL
tech support, a technician answered the call on the second ring.  (No,
he didn't help me -- I solved the problem myself).  I feel my $10 per
month is wisely spent.

Just my opinion.  Regards,

Pete Woodworth
San Luis Obispo, CA
http://www.calpoly.edu/~pwoodwor

 [ MMDer Ingmar Krause notes that AOL is "just a mini-net within the
 [ 'Net."  True: AOL is just like a big private corporate email network,
 [ with the ability to also communicate with the World Wide Web.  The
 [ advantage may be better communications with other AOL clients, but
 [ communications with the rest of the world may suffer since all traffic
 [ must travel through the master message switching center.  That's a
 [ problem all private networks have.  -- Robbie