AOL Optimized for Mac?!?

AOL on Clients

ryanmt said:

to view aol in a e-mail client... use the following:

imap.aol.com
smtp.aol.com

Click to expand...

Yes this is true but there's more to it than that and it doesn't work very well even after you've set it up properly as there are alot of built in limitations. Most people who must have IMAP mail will probably find that services like Hotmail Plus or Rediff are more friendly and far less limited.

Specifics:

The SMTP server requires authentication, and you will have to select this feature at some point during the setup process.

The authentication user name and password are the same as your AOL screen name and password.

Set the Incoming e-mail server address to: imap.aol.com and the outgoing
e-mail server address to: smtp.aol.com.

In addition, you need to change the outgoing mail (SMTP) port number to 587.

Please note the following AOL e-mail features are not available on clients:
In the Recently Deleted E-mail folder, e-mail is marked ready to be deleted in the Inbox or Sent Items folders and then deleted by the AOL IMAP servers every night. Some applications show deleted e-mail in the original folder with the message flagged for deletion (such as Outlook® or Eudora®), while other applications do not show these e-mails.

You will not be able to check the status of a sent message or retrieve unopened e-mail from AOL members.

The Report Spam button is not available on IMAP. To report messages as spam, move them to your spam folder.

AOL IMAP servers do not allow folders to be created or deleted in the root folder. You will see an Inbox, Sent Items, Saved, Spam, and Voicemail folder. The Voicemail folder cannot be accessed unless you subscribe to the AOL® Voicemail product. For more information on AOL Voicemail, go to AOL Keyword: Voicemail

You cannot manually add messages to the Inbox or Sent Items folders. Messages will only be added to these folders when an e-mail is received or sent by the AOL IMAP server.

I have DSL at home and a T1 at work yet I keep a minimum AOL account for $4 per month just to use on my laptop when I travel.......AOL is the devil you know!

I have that $4.95 account and really keep it as I work on a lot of PC's with AOL and they lost their password so I use my account to make sure their So called Optimized AOL is working right! I use SBC DSL or Dialup for everything else. The Mac version of AOL 9 will not work right with some Routers unless the router has Multicasting. My Netgear does not and AOL would not log in at all till I went back to my older Linksys router with Multicasting. Almost went nuts till I found a page on the Web talking about the problem.

As a PC user, the only thing I notice different with new versions of AOL is more ads, you aren't missing anything. Simple is good.

Click to expand...

You can turn all ads off via preferences.

Additionally, (well here in the UK, not sure about US) it is no longer essential to use AOL software to connect to the internet via AOL broadband.

Also, AOL mail works fine with any email client that supports IMAP (such as Apple's mail. For those who are interested, the settings are here:

Click on Apples Mail App at bottom of second section if you want to use that. Thunderbird is great also:

(outdated link removed)

Also, as a reporter for the lat 5 years reporting on different ISPs, I can say that AOL are one of the few ISPs that give a great service here in the UK (can't speak for other countries).

MOST (not all) of the dissing on the Net comes from users who have "heard" stories without actually trying: "My mate had AOL and it ate his PC...yadda yadda..."

95 percent of all other ISPs in the UK cap their services (even dialup), AOL never has. I have been using them for five years now and have no intention of changing.

I have watched other unhappy people change from ISP to ISP because of this problem or that problem. I have sifted through people's complaints of this ISP and that ISP.

For me, AOL has never been a problem. Had AOL 1 Meg broadband for 14 motnhs now sharing with 6 pcsa/Macs via a router without any issues. Speed of the service is also good.

Before that had 512 service for 15 months, and before that used umetered/dialup service.

Never had a problem accessing any website either (the favourite assumption "but AOL blocks websites...." :lol

Never found a blocked website in 5 years, two of my sons play online games for hours, the other four of us surf avidly on and off, but when I find a site that is blocked I will eat my hat