On Sat, 8 Jul 2000, Mike Yuhas wrote:
> I'm no AOL apologist, but I'm not seeing the problems you guys are.
> AOL folks make up the largest block of subscribers on my list --
> about 17% -- and there haven't been any widespread problems in recent
> memory, outside of a couple spurious "mailbox full" errors.
>
> I think it's AOL's worldwide presence that makes them an attractive
> ISP, with local dialups in virtually every city of consequence. They
> certainly have their own goofy way of doing things, but for non-geeks
> I recommend AOL without reservation.

Oh, but I also recommend AOL, but only for those who use the Internet
mainly for recreational purposes. For those who need mission critical
Internet access, relying exclusively on AOL for email service is not a
good idea. Just take a look at a traceroute between your system and AOL
and compare it to any of the other ISPs that are represented on your list
and you'll see what I mean. Mail to AOL goes through a lot of hops within
AOL's infrastructure and each of those hops is a source for potential
problems or delays in mail delivery to AOLers.