Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!rutgers!elbereth.rutgers.edu!marosen From: marosen@elbereth.rutgers.edu (Mark Rosen) Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.comm Subject: Re: WANTED: America Online OPINIONS Message-ID: Date: 21 May 91 23:01:04 GMT References: <1991May21.160855.21767@oakhill.sps.mot.com> Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J. Lines: 35 AO is pretty decent. It's not the fastest, but it's not slow either. At peak times, it can get slowed down, but not enough that you waste an hour waiting for the system to keep up. jThe navigation software is by far the easiest of the online services, though Navigator makes compuserve alot easier than it was for me without it. It has plenty of files, and gets most of what the other services get. For example, sys7 was available at 12:01 AM on the fifteenth, just like everywhere else. For sure, it's worth a free month just to check it out. AO excels at some things that the other services can't even begin to compare with. It's chat features are great, for real time chatting. The online games in real time, like trivia, used to give out free hours of time to the winners, but they don't anymore, except for a few events, and certain weekly "center stage" events where LOTS of people play. They've recently merged with PC Link, a similar service on the PC side, so that there's a lot more people on now than a while ago. There software will be updated this summer, and supposedly the update is going to be truly outrageous! We'll see. The message threads are less dealable than compuserve's (with Navigator) but they're pretty good. Additionally, they have a lot of companies on line that keep their products updated. Mail implementation is nice, but as yet there's no gateway to the INternet. They say soon, maybe. File downloading is not as fast as compuserve's but for 5.95 a month, it ain't bad. At least there's no advertisements, like a certain other service that charges 12 bucks a month. Since I quit playing the games, I've averaged under an hour a month, since you can compose mail offline and send it once you get on. Usually, though, I try to get files from the INternet, since that's cheaper anyway. For small files, though, I use AO with no qualms. Let me know if you need more info, and when you sign on, send mail to "Grok", that's me. -- ------------------------------------------------------------- Mark J. Rosen | Internet: marosen@elbereth.rutgers.edu | CIS: 72717.2733@compuserve.com -------------------------------------------------------------