It is hard to understand that adult people are still signing and using AOL and Compuserve and the like with all theses problems known since they are on the market.
It would be the same as if you like to fill up your fridge with some food and first you accept that some examiner comes and controls your present stock.
There are "normal" ISPs out there and there is not even half of the trouble connecting to them, and, a most advantegeous feature of them ist, not to tamper with any settings.
Every ISP who demands a CD install (or a webinstall) is not worth a look at.
With all the internet magazines floating around and with most decent ISPs offering help on their portals, it is very easy to set-up the dialer yourself.
Beside this, there are also many customers at AOL who complain about problems with access to websites...
Hard to understand that some never learn it....