I found the following article and thought it may answer some of the
questions as to AOL email problems and the why's of it. Even though
it is wrote for users of the Eudora email program, it does describe
how AOL's system works and why some may be having problems.
Opal
_________________________________________________________________________
Eudora and AOL
Many people want to use Eudora to access mail sent to their AOL accounts. Basically, this
is not
possible because AOL is not an Internet Service Provider, at least not as I think of
ISPs.
I don't know all the technical details behind the Internet, but I'll give it my
best shot. The "Internet"
operates on a Network using a standard called "TCP/IP." Macs, Windows, and other
machines
have TCP/IP capability, which can be accessed either "directly" (those people
who access the
Internet via ethernet or some other method not involving a modem) or via modem. Whichever
method used, once you are hooked into your ISP (or your campus computer, etc.), you are on
the
Internet, part of this massive TCP/IP network.
There's a saying that "nobody knows you're a dog on the Internet." What
this means is that whether
you have a desktop, even a laptop, dialed into the Internet, you could theoretically run
your own
server. You wouldn't really want to run your own web server, because:
1.Your ISP might not allow those paying personal rates to do so (this is not to say you
can't put
your WWW files on their server; just that you might not be allowed to run your own
server
via your connection to the Internet through your ISP)
2.It's slow, both at your end and especially for those accessing your server
3.You might not want to leave your computer on and dialed in all the time.
4.Most people accessing ISPs via a modem have a "dynamic" IP address, meaning
your URL
would change each time you connect, making it difficult for people to reach your
site.
But the important thing is that it can be done, and there are many types of servers
besides web
servers, which will run at decent speed even on a modem connection. See The Mac Orchard
for
examples of various Internet server software you can run. Many of these your ISP probably
would
have no problem with, especially if you are reasonable in your use of them. For example,
NetRPG
allows you to run a small chat server on your Mac, to which people all over the world,
using Mac,
Windows, Unix, etc. can Telnet to have a chat session. Windows users on the Internet also
have
various server software they could use.
AOL, however, does not give you a TCP/IP connection. Yes, you can access the World Wide
Web, send and receive e-mail, access Usenet newsgroups, etc. But what you are doing is
accessing
AOL's machines, which then act as a gateway to the Internet. This is where I have
trouble explaining
things, as you might ask if one isn't doing that with a normal ISP. Think of the
Internet as a giant
library, with stacks and stacks of books, and each dialup company as a doorway to the
library. With
an ISP, you can actually go in to the library and pick any book and bring it back. With
AOL, you
don't really go into the library proper; you can only stop at the circulation desk and
ask the librarians
to go to the stacks and get a book. (Thanks to Jonathan Rynd for analogy.)
The Internet also has standards for e-mail, namely POP3 for mail collection and SMTP for
sending
mail. AOL does not use these standards either. As Eudora uses Internet standards including
POP3
and SMTP, Eudora won't pick up your AOL e-mail. Note that AOL's latest software
(using "AOL
Link") does let you use various "client" (as opposed to server software
mentioned above) software
requiring TCP/IP, as long as you have a valid Internet address with which to use them. For
example,
if you don't like AOL's Web browser, you can use Netscape, Microsoft, etc., and
point it to any
web site in the world. Similarly, you can run Eudora while connected to AOL, and access
POP3
and SMTP servers at an account elsewhere (barring firewalls at that site). But AOL does
not offer
POP3 and SMTP.
This is not to say that AOL is not for you. While I don't have a need for AOL, there
are some cases
(no pun intended) in which I recommend AOL:
1.You have a need/desire for the AOL sites/services you can only get on AOL. (You might
not
be able to get a specific site on a regular ISP, but similar sites will be out there)
2.They are the only place in your area to offer a local phone number (Doublecheck The
List of
ISPs)
3.You travel a lot and they offer numbers in the places you travel to better than other
services (I
normally recommend local ISPs, but check out ATT/MCI/Netcom, etc.)
4.Price of unlimited access. ($19.95/month unlimited became the ISP national standard
long
before AOL thought of this.)
And there are various ways you can still use Eudora with AOL:
You can enter your AOL account as your return address in Eudora, as long as you have
a
real ISP account with which to use Eudora.
On the Macintosh, MailConverter will convert your AOL mail to Eudora format. (While
I
haven't tried the program, I imagine this is not something you would want to do
every time you
check e-mail; while that would work, the purpose of the program is one time
conversions, not
on the fly transfers.)