AOL search doing weird things!

[JohnRoss]

Running aol 9.1 and if I type something in the top search bar I get something like this: Typed BBC Space force and the following appears in the search bar on the page that comes up BBC%20Space%20force. The list that appears under this has lots of entries that look like this:

 

SALR Thread Data v2 id=2270712&lastpostdt=200701091022&lastp...

... =56946&title=BBC%3A%20%27New%20stem%20cell%20source%27%20discovered ..... = What%20music%20would%20you%20like%20to%20wake%20up%20to%20IN%20SPACE%3F ... =How %20do%20we%20force%20some%20hygiene%20habits%20onto%20this%20guy%3F ...

If I type BBC Space force in the search bar at the top of the welcome page it all works normally so what is going on? Only just started doing this. Any AOL experts out there?..................................................................JR

[AnOther]

Know nothing about AOL, save that I wouldn't let it within 100km of any machine of mine, so can't say what's going on but you may have deduced that %20 is web speak for a space between words.

[JohnRoss]

Yes and thank you for the reply but whilst I accept some do not like AOL, as is demonstrated every time I ask a question about it, most never say why they feel so strongly about it. What is it that is wrong with it? Specific statements would be much appreciated so that one could assess and compare from one's own experience. ...............................................................JR

PS Would still like to hear from someone who could shed more light on the effect that I have described.

[suein56]

[quote user="JohnRoss"]

Yes and thank you for the reply but whilst I accept some do not like AOL,[/quote]

IMHO AOL is as invasive of your computer as Norton AV. A long, long time ago in the UK, in the days of dial-up, I used a superb, and cheap, ISP called 'redhot-ant' but, unfortunately, it eventually experienced problems and gave us notice it was going to have to close. To give me time to find a new ISP I inserted the AOL disc, delivered free through our letterbox, which gave me up to a month of free internet access. The first thing I did was to make sure that as soon as AOL was up and running I opened up internet access through IE; thereby avoiding the worst of the AOL nannylike compulsion to monitor and restrict every move made. As soon as possible I ditched it, as even after a couple of weeks of dodgy receipt and sending of emails I had had enough. AOL = AO hell in my view.

Sue

Edit: having read through the articles mentioned in A N Other's link I just had to laugh; how true the comments seem to me. I was fortunate in that, in my early days of having/using a computer and learning to access the internet - at the mind boggling speed of 28 kbps (is that right, I have forgotten?) - I had geeky neighbour who came and uninstalled AOL for me - and what a b****r it proved to uninstall, but he succeeded - thankfully.

[AnOther]

A lot of us 'old hands' have had sanity challenging experiences with AOL and although I'll admit to not having experienced the current version neither have I seen or heard any evidence that it's got any better, on the contrary, only reports of the same old problems. Customer retention is probably driven more through inertia than anything else and rather than write my own missive I'll let THIS site articulate my feelings.

But, if it works for you.........................[;-)]

Oh, sorry, it isn't is it [Www]

[JohnRoss]

Thanks Sue. When you say "The first thing I did was to make sure that as soon as AOL was up and running I opened up internet access through IE;"  I assume that you must have either had some bad experience of AOL before or have been alerted by someone else to potential problems. When you say " thereby avoiding the worst of the AOL nannylike compulsion to monitor and restrict every move made." What do you mean by this as such a description is alien to me and it would be useful to have examples so that I can check to see if I am a victim of such things in some way as yet undetected by me. My emails seem to be received and sent without problem and have always done so as far as I am aware. However interesting as others views of AOL are I would really like to address the problem I reported in my original post.....................JR

[Clair]

Search engine hijack?

[AnOther]

Unfortunately JR I rather doubt that you'll get much in the way of solutions to your problem here as I can't imagine that anything but a minuscule number are using AOL hence the vast majority will have have no experience of it.

There's another reason too but stating it will get me into big trouble so I'll stay stum [Www]

[JohnRoss]

Feel free to pm me....... I am now of the opinion that the effect is something to do with Internet Explorer as if I close AOL and open I.E. and type stuff in the search bar I get the same symptoms. I don't know how the AOL software interacts with I.E. but it clearly does as the history of I.E. shows the sites looked at through the AOL search facility. I am not a software man, as you may gather, only hardware and out off date at that! Z80s and 6502s were more my experience and not this modern stuff!...........................JR

[tel]

Hi John,

As Clair has indicated you probably have a 'Hijack Trojan', there are many in the wild.  Try the method in this LINK to remove it.

Best of Luck

 

[suein56]

[quote user="JohnRoss"]When you say "The first thing I did was to make sure that as soon as AOL was up and running I opened up internet access through IE;"  I assume that you must have either had some bad experience of AOL before or have been alerted by someone else to potential problems. When you say " thereby avoiding the worst of the AOL nannylike compulsion to monitor and restrict every move made." What do you mean by this as such a description is alien to me and it would be useful to have examples so that I can check to see if I am a victim of such things in some way as yet undetected by me. [/quote]

It was just that, having had unfettered access to websites using my old ISP, I could detect sometimes I was not being given the full access I was used to using.

[quote user="JohnRoss"]

However interesting as others views of AOL are I would really like to address the problem I reported in my original post.....................JR[/quote]

I agree with the other posters you would seem to have acquired a nasty somewhere along the line.

Sue

[JohnRoss]

Thanks again Sue but as I have never used another ISP other than AOL so I am unaware that I may be being fettered by them. Anything I look for seems to come up ok until this problem started and the search bar on the welcome page still works ok but then I would not know if anything they don't like is missing. I think the problem is to do with Internet Explorer (8) as I have discovered that if I get rid of all the other search bars in I.E. like Yahoo, AVG and AOL all works well when using I.E. with the example I gave in my first post on this. Sadly when I fire up AOL I still get the same problem that I had before. I allowed the machine to update windows yesterday by downloading Windows Vista Service Pack 2 which was a mistake as I cannot now restore the system to an earlier date to see if that fixes the problem. I will try restoring it to before the Service pack update and see if the system then allows me to go back further. Really don't need this just now!..............JR

[suein56]

[quote user="JohnRoss"]Anything I look for seems to come up ok until this problem started and the search bar on the welcome page still works ok ...[/quote]

Have sent you a pm John.

Sue

[JohnRoss]

Thanks again Sue and I have replied to your pm. The situation just got a wee bit stranger! I fired up our old machine which runs Windows Millenium with Internet Explorer 6, not 8 like the other machine, and with AOL 9 and not 9.1 and guess what, exactly the same problem soooo looks like it may be something their end. The only common factor here is the AOL broadband box. I have asked a friend to check out their machine as they also run AOL. The old machine has not been on-line for weeks so I think that almost rules out the possibility of a recent downloaded Trojan or some such. It would be good to hear from anyone else having the same problem with AOL or even if your are not having problems, I cannot be the only one on this forum using it...............................................................JR

PS My friend just got back to me and it is happening to her machine as well so panic over but are there others out there with this problem just now? A second friend has just confirmed it is happening to his system too. All the machines have different versions of I.E. and run different ISP software, one AOL 9.1, one AOL 9, one neuf and one SFR. These are all basically AOL of course so they have that in common! Chances are that anyone in France on AOL or associated ISP may have the same problem.

[JohnRoss]

Ok well tried OpenDNS and I am afraid no difference except, and this may be my imagination, web pages seem to load more quickly than they did. It really is no big deal to go on as we are except that the search bar at the top of the welcome page is masked by any other web page you have open so if you don't want to close it before doing another search you have to click and drag it down out of the way before typing new search words. To be honest I am still not sure how OpenDNS has modified they way I access the web so will have to get more info on that. Thanks for the help guys.........JR

[JohnRoss]

Well even weirder the problem I reported has just disappeared today. The only Windows update today has been this one which I would not have thought could be responsible but what do I know. Maybe AOL has done an update, don't know how you could tell!...................................................JR

 

Definition Update for Windows Defender - KB915597 (Definition 1.63.422.0)

 

Date d'installation : ‎28/‎07/‎2009 09:27

 

État de l'installation : Réussite

 

Type de mise à jour : Important

 

Install this update to revise the definition files used to detect spyware and other potentially unwanted software. Once you have installed this item, it cannot be removed.

[tel]

Hi John,

Have you checked Windows Defender 'quarantined items' to see if it has removed any spyware?  Clair and I suggested earlier in this thread that you may have a trojan.
Then again many problems sort themselves out just by re-booting the PC.

Regards

 

[JohnRoss]

Thanks tel but nothing in Defender quarantine. I did run Spybot S&D and AVG recently but nothing found either. Maybe AOL has done an update but no-one else has reported problems. My two friends who said they had problems don't in fact so still weird. I have just checked my old Millenium based machine and that had the fault too but it is gone now also so it must be something to do with either AOL or more likely the AOL box which both machines use, the only common factors for both machines........................................................JR

PS I did try the Spyware Doctor thingy but it found nothing significant. Don't think it could have been a trojan as both machines had been affected in the same way and the old machine had not been on prior to the event which was sometime last week so lots of reboots since then.

[Joerger École]

JohnRoss,

 

I had exactly the same problem with AOL for the last couple of weeks. I also relied on IE to search.  When I tried to search using AOL today the problem had mysteriously disappeared.  Must have been something on their end.

I have used AOL for over 12 years and have found it occasionally difficult, but for the most part it has served me well enough. I would change but old habits die hard!

James

[JohnRoss]

Aha! Thank you James so I am not a still small voice crying alone in the wilderness then. Were you getting the %20 stuff everywhere? The fault was there first thing yesterday morning but had gone when I checked the machine later, probably lunch-time. So AOL.fr duff then!..............................................JR

[Joerger École]

JohnRoss,

 

Yes, I was getting the %20 business everytime I tried to search for anything other than my favorites items. It did start, however, nearly a week ago.  Glad they got it sorted.

James

[JohnRoss]

Brilliant and yes I hope so. I share your view about AOL. Cheers.....................................JR

[AnOther]

[quote user="Joerger École"]I have used AOL for over 12 years and have found it occasionally difficult, but for the most part it has served me well enough. I would change but old habits die hard![/quote]Hardly a glowing recommendation and I wonder how many feel the same.

AOL is a dinosaur which sat on it's outdated model for far far to long and is too far behind now to catch up, or maybe even survive in the long term as I doubt they are winning many new customers.

Ironically, whether they realised it or not, the ditching of dial up was a hugely damaging move because it signalled the end of the international service by means of which you could dial up from most major countries in the world and at a stroke that removed what was virtually their one unique selling point and the sole reason some were with them in the first place. I personally know 3 people who relied on that when travelling between UK, US, France, and other countries, and abandoned it as a result.