I have never used AOL so not sure how it works but firefox will ask during install if you want to import your favorite sites to firefox, I know it will import them from IE, you would have to ask someone who has AOL experience. I found these directions, not sure which version you have or if this will work for you, but worth a try. "Click on "Favorites". Go down and click on "More Favorites". On the bottom right hand corner, click on "Save/Replace". On the next screen click "OK". On the next screen go to the black arrow at the top to do with "Save In" and click on it. It will bring down a menu from which you can choose "Removable Disk". Before you choose "Removable Disk" have your cd, floppy or Zip in the slot. Click "Save" and you are on your way. After you sign off, if you want, you can stick it back in and verify that indeed the favorites are on there." I also found this info: "How to transfer your Address Book from AOL to a new email client (eg, Thunderbird). Here's the drill: - In AOL's address book, click on one address then "Select ALL" (eg, Cntl-A), then "Copy" (eg, Cntl-C). - Open Excel or another spreadsheet; paste into a worksheet (eg, Cntl-V); you'll see your correspondent (LN, FN) and email address, separated by a Tab. Widen the first column, if necessary. - Do any editing, deleting. - Do a "Save As..." and for file type, select "TAB-DELIMITED CSV" or just "CSV (Windows)" and save it to a familiar place (I give it the name "AddrBookFeb06.csv"). - In your email client (eg, Thunderbird -- should be similar on others), Select "Tools/Import..." or similar, select the "CSV/TEXT/ETC" option, and browse to the CSV file's location. - Complete the Import, and you'll find all our AOL addresses in your new program. Not quite the way you'd like them (it won't import phone numbers, etc, and the LN,FN are all in one field), but this new Address Book is now available. - You can use them this way: select the new Book (give it a name - "Addresses from AOL"). Thunderbird will find them by alias, FN, LN, start of email, etc. - I'd copy (Cntl-A, then drag) these into the Personal Address Book, then edit them when you have time, to change them to true FN and LN fields. I like to have mine sort this way "LastName, FirstName". See if this general technique works for you -- perhaps a similar method would work for AOL's "Favorites". this service is free if you happen to be going to one of their isp partners. http://www.trueswitch.com/ directions more instructions here this is a program that will supposedly do all the moving for you of all your AOL stuff, I know nothing about it just saw it mentioned in forum. I will link it at the bottom in the helpful link area. OH !!! wait wait wait I just found the instructions on the mozilla forum on how to move them from AOL to firefox!! Save your AOL favorites. In your AOL interface, go to Favorites > Favorite Places > Save/Replace. This will save your AOL favorites to a .pfc file. Remember where you saved this. Go to LinkaGoGo. Make sure that the input is AOL PFC and the output is Netscape/Mozilla/Firefox. Click the "Browse" button and find the .pfc file you saved earlier. Click on the "Convert" button. You should be prompted to save the bookmarks.html file. Remember where you saved this, as well. Open Firefox's Bookmark Manager (Bookmarks > Manage Bookmarks) From the File menu, choose Import. Then find the bookmarks file you just saved. And her is a link with directions on how to move all your AOL mail that you have saved over to Thunderbird mail. mail convert Hope some of that helps you out. Here is a link that might be useful: AOLconverter

Terry - that was great - thanks. It completely did what I wanted to achieve. I can easily see if I've gotten new email on my other account without switching software, etc Now a new problem occurred yesterday - before I made those changes - and I have no idea what I may have done to cause it. probably something I did in experimenting with all these different email issues. I had my firefox set up to send links in emails (from my AOL address). But now I'm trying to send my mother a link (for the emergency microsoft update from 2 days ago) - and when I'm in Firefox (and the computer forum thread is open - or any web page is open) - and I go to File - then click send link - it brings up an email form (with my screen name in AOL as the sender - so that party's working) - but a whole mishigosh of info (the link info, perhaps) appears in the space where I should be entering the email address I'm sending it to. I have no idea why that is happening. If I cut and paste that info into the body of the email - and send it to myself to test it - it doesn't appear to be a link to get me to the webpage I want). Seems to me that the webpage link should be referred to in the subject line - and supplied in the body of the email - not some mess of information occuring in the send to line. I tried going to FF tools - applications- and mail to . I have several options to choose from - use AOL software (this appears twice - once with the AOL triangle with "default" in parentheses and once with what looks like a mail page form), and once it says use AOL mail. I think I've tried all three and it still doesn't work. And before I started trying to change my email settings this week, I think there was only 1 or 2 AOL options for mail application in Firefox. Okay - so now I checked all three. On use AOL mail, it gives me the gibberish (somehow related to the webpage I'm trying to send a link for) in the to: line. If I choose use AOL software (default) - with the mail form logo - it goes to AOL software - sets up the email correctly with the information about the link in the subject line - and the to: field blank for me to fill in the recipient. But it wants me to sign on or the send button is faded and I can't click it. If I choose use AOL software (with the AOL logo - not the email logo), it takes me to the AOL software page and says this file may not be supported by AOL. AOL will try to send it as a text file (and if I choose to try, it will tell me the file is too big). So I do I email somebody links? Thanks. Lynn.

Then there was the blister pack where trying to open it caused the pill to crumble to powder no matter how careful I tried to be. How's that for effective dosage? I once spent almost an hour on the Internet tracing a prescription skin cream and lotion manufacturer to complain about their !@#$ packaging. The cream version was very thick and didn't flow. It came in a stiff-sided plastic bottle which couldn't be squeezed enough to force it out. The lotion version came with a pump that was boxed with the handle depressed, without directions, and which would not pop out no matter what I tried. When unscrewed, the tube carried with it far more of the cream than needed for one dose. Nor could the tube be easily removed. Their response was to refund one copay, but the refills are still just as bad. Fortunately, while I had the pump out spilling the lotion I somehow managed to get it to pop up (still don't know how I did it) and I've been transferring that pump to each successive bottle. It's certainly not sterile, aargh.

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!