our ISP is having the same problem....have been with them for over 10 years...plan on sticking with them. Here is an excerpt from their last email.... Hello ISP Customer, Recently, the internet has suffered a dramatic increase in the overall amount of junk email, or spam, that has been sent out. In the last year alone, there has been over a 120% increase in the amount of junk email, to the point where there are 9 pieces of spam email out there for every 1 piece of legitimate mail. Here at *********, we think that this is an unacceptable amount of unsolicited email to have to sift through every day, which is why we have used our PureMessage spam filter to help cut down on the amount of unwanted emails that make it through to your email box. While our filter does a good job of keeping out unwanted emails, we want to take things a step further to help filter your email even more effectively. Together with Google, we are going to be transitioning to a new system for email delivery that will help to ensure more accurate email filtering with faster delivery time. This will prevent delays between when email is sent and when you receive it, while still keeping all the unwanted emails out of your inbox. One of the great things about my ISP, is that when I call, I usually get right through to a tech and they address any problems I may have in a timely and courteous manner.

Try DSLExtreme.com They are based in California and the 2 times I have called which was for a minor thing I get to talk with someone without an accent and very helpful. The last time I called several months ago the lines were busy so I was asked to leave my name and phone number and they would call me back. 20 mintes later they did call me and I was shocked to say the least. Their prices are really reasonable and if you don't want to use their home page (most home pages are very cluttered) you pick what you want without something being thrown at you all the time. BTW, your choice of a home page is in your browser settings. They work perfectly with any browser you want and I recommend them highly!! I dumped MSN on my computer 2 year ago and it was the best thing I could have ever done and it cost me half as much. I might also mention I can not get high speed in my area of any kind and they also offer dialup which I am on.

A browser is software. AOL is kind of a hybrid. It offers you a "portal" to the Internet and also I guess still provides you with Internet services. Think of it like a phone company. Your phone is like the software and then there are the lines that allow your phone to work and access other phones, and then once you get that set up, you can call anyone you like! With the Internet, your browser is software that allows your computer to access and view Web pages. How those Web pages come to your computer will depend on your Internet Provider Service (ISP). Then, once you access and view a Web page, it will most likely have gazillions of links that take you to other Web pages. All kinds of organizations sponsor Web pages, which can have all kinds of links to other Web pages, either related to the sponsoring organization, or not. AOL kind of piggybacks on all of this and puts their brand on things. It's like having a phone labeled "AOL" and every time you make a call, a recording comes on and says, "This call is being sponsored by AOL." But that doesn't mean that AOL somehow controls your call or that whomever you're calling works for AOL. So you can get a NEW BROWSER and still access all of the features of AOL on it. But getting a new browser will change the way the labels and pull-down menus and links are configured on your home page. I know, you don't like it and I don't blame you. One of the features of modern computing is software companies constantly update the "interface" of their software. That means the way their pages look and the way they organize files and windows constantly changes. You get a system you like and know, and then "splat" it is gone and you have to learn something new. That's just the way the Internet works, it's very dynamic. Find someone to talk you through the set up of a new browser and trying to organize features you like to work the way you like them. There are ways to customize your experience. But don't fight it, because you will end up with something akin to a phone patched together with duct tape and you're always going to struggle making calls on that kind of system. To use a computer, you need to know that it is designed for you to INTERACT with it, so you need to learn how it works so you can master it. It's not smart enough to be your boss, you have to boss it around!

Frontier so far is pretty funny & frustrating too to me. I now have my original Verizon email which is actually older mike@gte.net forwards to mail.AOL.com which forwards to mike@hotmail.com . I did get some kind of customer access code number mailed to my Hotmail which was on the account for Verizon as contact email. I have no idea what to do with that yet. But I go to Frontier and I don't seem to have an account yet.. to pay my bill online... keeps sending me around in circles. I imagine they are kind of busy right now. I can see how they have probably messed up big time... my Verizon mail all forwarded to Hotmail... when they changed me to mail.aol.com... they quit forwarding it to Hotmail and had it all going to AOL. If I hadn't realized what happened .. I'd be missing and wondering where some very important mail was. I'd almost suspect Verizon will have their FIOS in my neighborhood in coming months and be offering FIOS packages at lesser prices than Frontier sells the services it bought from verizon. Kind of like using the money they sold me to frontier for, to string fiber to my neighborhood. Lots of this area already has been slowly getting the FIOS strung around.