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Possibly, you saw our "AOL users: Having trouble..." notice even though you use an apparently non-AOL Internet provider such as CompuServe or Netscape Internet Service or Wal-Mart Connect. In fact, these are all basically AOL service by other names. Users of any of these services may suffer the same kinds of problems as described below for AOL, so please read on...
The problems AOL users may notice include difficulty registering (e.g., it may say you've typed the Confirmation code incorrectly) and difficulty posting (you may get logged off prematurely). These problems occur because, when communicating with AOL users, our software may have difficulty determining that it's still talking to the same person during subsequent operations. For example, when it says you mistyped the Confirmation code, the real problem may be that our software doesn't know you're still the same person who was shown that code in graphical form.
To understand how this happens, our discussion board software keeps track of users' IP addresses which denote their location on the Internet and, for people with most other Internet Providers, remain constant throughout a session. However, AOL users may have IP addresses which change frequently during a session. Every time it changes, our software may think you're a different person!
There is a relatively straightforward way AOL users can work around this problem: The trick is to realize that the problem occurs only when using the web browser built into your AOL software (technically, this happens because, when using the browser built into AOL software, your web requests are routed through AOL proxy servers). However, AOL users aren't forced to use the browser built into the AOL software. Even while using AOL to make your Internet connection, you can run any other web browser that's installed on your computer.
The solution is therefore: don't use the web browser built into AOL software. Instead, even if you make your Internet connection using AOL, access our board using a different web browser such as the version of Internet Explorer accessible from its desktop icon on Windows systems, or the Safari browser provided with Mac OS X, or an independent third-party browser such as Mozilla Firefox.
I understand that this solution (to run a different web browser) may seem formidable to a lot of AOL users, many of whom are probably using that service precisely because they're new computer users and don't feel very computer savvy. Therefore, I'll try to describe it as simply as possible, as a step-by-step procedure:
- Assuming you have an active AOL session, keep that session active, but "minimize" (hide) the AOL software window. In Windows, you "minimize" a window by clicking the leftmost of the three little buttons at the upper right corner of the window--this is the button with an underscore(_) symbol.
- Look for the "Internet Explorer" icon which is probably on the left side of your desktop (on a Windows system), and double-click it. (If you can't find an Internet Explorer icon, look for it in the Start menu--the path may be Start - Programs - Internet Explorer.)
- Once Internet Explorer is running, type www.uoaa.org in the Address bar. Then, follow a link to our discussion board.
A possible complication: if you've activated certain features in AOL Parental Controls, it may have disabled your ability to run a web browser outside of the AOL software. In that case, you'll need to inactivate that feature before you can use the technique I've described.
If you use Netscape Internet Service, the procedure described above using Internet Explorer may not work for you; however, downloading and installing an independent browser such as Mozilla Firefox ought to do the trick.
Good luck using our discussion board,
Bob