#531 AOL Is Broken Again

I noticed when I brought up the new AOL that McAfee virus scanner is included free. You have to uninstall any other virus programs first, though. I currently have Norton, but when I tried to renew my subscription, they insisted I had to get the current level, and it wouldn't download, so I've been stuck for a few months with no virus updates, while I decided whether to pursue Norton or not.

AOL said not to try to remove Norton using the Windows uninstall procedure, but to use a special exec on the Symantec site. So I went to the Symantec site, and THEY said not to use the exec until after you've tried Windows uninstall and it fails. So ... I tried Windows, and it said it was successful. Now what?

So, ok, I restart the system and ... SLOW!!! The cursor was a dead mouse lying there. On the phone with Daughter at the time, and she says McAfee is probably running a preliminary scan. Go have a cup of tea. Given the age of your hardware, have several cups of tea.

Several cups of tea later, things are a little better, so I go into McAfee options, and turn off EVERYTHING. I'll tell you when I want you to scan and what, thank you.

Then I brought up Netscape and went to Yahoo. Looking fine. A little slow, but not bad.

Next I tried to start AOL. V-e-r-r-r-r-y s-l-o-o-o-w. I mean, we're talking 10 minutes to get the signon screen. Plus I get an error message: "A full connection to the AOL service cannot be established. Browsing and other features may not work correctly... blah blah...." AOL finally came up and I was able to read and send email (which requires a connection to the internet, right?) but I couldn't do anything else that required a connection, including getting to AOL's own Help pages. One would think if AOL is offering McAfee, McAfee at least wouldn't break AOL, huh?

Ya gotta give me optomism credit - I tried it twice. Same result.

Back when I read about McAfee on AOL, there was all kinds of "what do I do if" advice. Guess what? When "a full connection cannot be established", you can't get to that advice!

So, the next step is to go back to Symantec and download and run that special uninstall exec. If you don't hear from me for a few days, I'm trying to breathe life into dead mice.