The short version, if you dn't want to rad all of this, is if installing AOL 5.0 and the question comes up "Make this your default browser" click NO!

Friday January 21 2:05 AM ET

AOL Enrages Smaller Competitors

By TED BRIDIS Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - The latest software from America Online Inc

(NYSE:AOL - news)., the world's largest Internet provider, can prevent

customers from using rival online services or corporate connections,

enraging smaller competitors and even some of AOL's own subscribers.

Critics contend that version 5.0 of America Online's Internet software - which

a national technology magazine this week suggested was ``the upgrade of

death'' - sometimes cripples existing Internet accounts with rival companies

and prevents current AOL users from signing for service with competitors.

``You're faced with a company that knew its software would blow up

the ability of its competitors,'' charged Bill Kirkner, chief technology

officer for Prodigy Communications Corp (NasdaqNM:PRGY - news).,

an AOL competitor that has roughly 2.2 million subscribers. ``We can

get our customers through it if they call, but the solutions are

sometimes a bit nasty to go through.'' These include deleting and

reinstalling software, and sometimes tinkering with arcane technical

settings.

America Online, with 20 million subscribers, said complaints about

interference by its latest software are overblown and the result of customers

not understanding that if they click yes during installation to allow AOL to

become their default Internet browser, AOL largely takes over all the online

functions on the computer.

``If a member picks yes, we make their lives simple,'' said Jeff Kimball,

AOL's executive director for its client software. That means AOL seizes

responsibility to display all Web pages, send all e-mail and exclusively

perform other tasks online.

But rivals and some AOL customers complain that the selection, made with

a single click of a mouse with no added explanation, also can suddenly

interfere with connections to rival Internet services or business accounts.

``It wipes out their previous settings, and the customer becomes an AOL

customer,'' said Kirsten Witt, a spokeswoman for Mindspring Enterprises Inc

(NasdaqNM:MSPG - news)., with 1.3 million subscribers. ``In effect it allows

the customer only to access AOL.''

Peg Graham of New York installed AOL's latest software on her laptop

weeks after its initial release in October with disastrous results: Her

computer crashed. In vain, her laptop manufacturer urged her to reinstall her

entire Windows operating system - she did three times - before she finally

paid a local repair shop $145 to fix it.

Afterward, she returned to an earlier version of AOL's software she considers

less risky. She suspects the new program suffered conflicts with the laptop's

network hardware she used to connect at her university.

``There's no person to hold accountable,'' fumed Graham, who's now

shopping for a new Internet service. ``They just say, yes, we know there

might be problems. It's almost like brushing you off.''

The complexity of modern software can lend itself to problems that are hard

to diagnose and make it even harder to lay blame. Rival Internet providers

won't say exactly how many customers have reported problems, and no one

admits even to calling AOL formally to complain about its software's alleged

behavior.

AOL spokeswoman Anne Bentley reported ``very minimal calls about this,''

and many AOL customers said they installed the latest software without

hassle.

But AOL's own message boards, with thousands of complaints since

Christmas, suggest these problems are more than fantasy concocted by

disgruntled rivals. And this week, Windows Magazine's Web site asked,

``AOL 5.0: The Upgrade of Death?''

The magazine's technical testing showed AOL's software installed redundant

files that threatened a computer's stability. The software crashed the first

time it ran.``AOL can reduce a perfectly good computer system to a

paperweight,'' the magazine concluded.

Software problems like these also can take on enormous implications when

a company becomes as dominant as AOL, which last week announced its

$145 billion mega-merger with Time Warner Inc (NYSE:TWX - news). That's

a deal that will allow AOL to distribute this new software with Time Warner

products, including its magazines, which draw 120 million readers. So far,

about 8 million of AOL's 20 million customers have installed the new

software.