AOL playing Microsoft Games ?

[Andre' Kesteloot]

AOL SUED OVER BUGS IN V5.0
by Dave Murphy, member@itrain.org

America Online Inc. has received a class-action lawsuit on
behalf of subscribers who installed AOL version 5.0 and
subsequently lost their ability to connect to other Internet
service providers.

The lawsuit was filed on January 31st in the U.S. District
Court for Eastern Virginia. It alleges that "fraudulently
concealed" that it's current release, version 5.0, could
interfere with the operation of other software and Internet
access settings.

The AOL 5.0 networking bugs have been a topic of hot
postings on the net. Beta testers have taken to calling the
problem the "Evil Connectoid." The problem usually affects
AOL users with a LAN connection or who also have access
to other Internet Service Providers (ISPs). The bug can reset
or reconfigure the TCP/IP settings of the system, and the
user can then no longer access other workstations, file
servers or ISPs.

AOL reports that version 5.0 has generate fewer tech support
calls than previous versions. But my guess is that it's
generated it's fair share, but the calls are being placed to
network administrators and other ISPs -- because users will
initially blame them for their problems, not realizing that it's the
AOL software's fault.

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