AOHell

Things were on a go-slow this evening with AOL Webmail, to the extent that I had a look at the Task Manager on my PC (Ctrl-Alt-Del). A glance at the Network Status showed something unusual. Two Local Area Network connections, one of which was Operational at 30Mbps. That is abnormal, because I normally only have one LAN connection, and it is not operational as the relevant cable just isn't there. A further system check reveal I had a Microsoft TV/Video connection going. Not one I had installed by the way.

Looking at the timing of the connection, it had been going since about 7pm on Tuesday, which was exactly the time my ADSL provider decided to have some downtime. So, what had happened? Well, I had used my AOL Dial-up to get on-line to check the service status of my ISP. When I was logging off, I was asked to stay on for a minute to download something from AOL: a new connection set-up. Had been warned about that, fine.

Little did I realise that AOL had been up to one of its little tricks again. Installing software without advising the PC user - i.e. me. I don't want another connection, and certainly not one over which I have no control. In the past, I have spent hours kicking off some squiffy media player called Viewpoint. The moment you remove it - it reinstalls itself.

AOL, I don't think you're that bad, but in this era of PC security you do NOT install stuff on users' PCs without warning them. This stinks.