6 ms·

AOL had a 45 minute idle timeout, meaning you'd be logged out regardless of what was happening on your screen if you weren't moving the mouse or using the keybo

AOL had a 45 minute idle timeout, meaning you'd be logged out regardless of what was happening on your screen if you weren't moving the mouse or using the keyboard. This was a problem if you wanted to download files and have them in the morning. Making my first "idler" in Visual Basic (which sent a string of whatever song was playing in Winamp to a random AOL chatroom where I was the only person) meant my inactive timer was reset every few minutes. AOL, "progs", Visual Basic—and the "scene" in AOL chatrooms at that time—hold a special place in my heart.

syndicatedjelly 3y ago
That was a nice slice of history, thanks for sharing.
demizer 3y ago
AOL gave me my love of programming. I learned how to program in Visual Basic because I wanted to write my own "aol prog". I can still remember the "server" in the Warez room listed VB3.0 as the "the software that is used to make progs". Luckily there were people sharing their code so I could study and figure out how to do it myself. Me and my cousin created a yo momma joke spammer. I was a shit head back then, but it paid off being a nerd. But still, I did not learn about linux and free software until many years later because of AOL's shitty walled garden.
- davely 3y ago
  Hah! I remember running decompilers (of questionable utility) on various VB-created progs so I could attempt to reverse engineer them. It definitely got me interested in programming and the early-ish days of being apart of an internet community. An embarrassing aside: my parents used to give me birthday and Christmas presents that was an allowance of AOL minutes.
  - ShadowBanThis01 3y ago
    More embarrassing: My parents still pay for AOL. $40 a month. My dad is convinced that he’ll lose the 20,000 E-mails he has there if they stop paying. And he worked in IT his whole career.
- dbsmith83 3y ago
  Ahh good memories. This is how me and a friend got into programming. We would constantly feud though because he used VB, but I used delphi. Clearly, I was using the superior language :)
- nirav72 3y ago
  Aohell is what got me into Windows dev stuff back in the day. Then discovered the warez room. Downloaded a copy of VB 3.0 and bunch of other dev tools. I think Borland Delphi and also Power Builder. Best thing about AOL was that even in the mid-90s, their email system held what seemed like an unlimited amount of multi-part binary files as attachments. So when you requested a warez in the chatroom, your inbox got flooded with like 30-40 emails with rar file parts. Like pretty much everyone back in those days on dialup, I'd start the download at night , so less chance of someone picking up phone and disconnecting my session from AOL. When I was college, it got easier. Because AOL added TCP/Winsock support to their desktop client. So I could just install AOL on unsed Comp Sci lab PC and then download all the email attachments at 1-2mbps.
yarone 3y ago
Ha, that scene is how I learned to program. Built a shareware tool called AoLOL! (available by going to keyword "Addon"), $14.95, got paper checks from all over the country! Then I met the ICQ founders...
- krenzo 3y ago
  "Uh oh!" So, what happened next?
  - jve 3y ago
    Seems nothing much continued apart from declining to join and declining UIN #007 offer: http://www.yarone.com/2011/06/blast-from-past.html http://www.yarone.com/2011/06/blast-from-past.html
- nobleach 3y ago
  I am certain I've seen that one. I loved AOHell and CreditWiz... and all the associated tools around that era.
jandrese 3y ago
That idle timeout was pretty important when AOL cost $1/hour (and it was the cheap service! Prodigy, Compuserve, and especially GEnie were more expensive!). Leaving it connected overnight would get you grounded in a hurry when that AOL bill came in the next month. It was really no wonder that all of those services basically collapsed once dial up ISPs with flat (and low!) monthly fees started appearing. $10 for unlimited (modem speed) data is a steal in comparison.
- RNAlfons 3y ago
  I've been using AOL CD-codes up until the moment where I got my hands on some Compuserve code generator. The only cost which remained was for the local dial up. Good times. I personally thanked a Compuserve representative for their easy access at some fair. Didn't seem like he understood but I still felt better afterwards.
- smcl 3y ago
  I imagine everyone who was a kid during the dial-up times has a horror story of being confronted with an enormous phone bill by their parents. I remember mine going mental at me for costing us £40 one month (normal service was iirc ~£10)
  - euroderf 3y ago
    Was the bill forgiven the first time (and the first time only) ? Good for customer relations.
    - smcl 3y ago
      Nah but really the bill wasn't bad enough for that, and honestly I'm not sure that kind of PR move was very common before social media days (total guess). I just remember it because I had to give my parents the difference and as a 12-13 year old that £30 was a lot!
  - georgeburdell 3y ago
    I was a teenager on the tail end of dialup, so no hourly fee, but my parents got awfully mad if I tied up our phone line all day playing online games. They’d randomly call home a few times a day to ensure compliance.
VBprogrammer 3y ago
Ha, that reminds me of one of my first useful programs. In the early days of the internet my dad picked up a internet contract which allowed you to dial in on a toll free number; it was pretty cheap per month but the only catch was while dialled in they displayed a banner along the top of the screen with advertising. Using the win32 API in VB I was able to find the handle to the window kill it. The only problem then was that tying up the land line constantly got on my mum's nerves, being back in the days before land line numbers were redundant for other reasons.
- Bluecobra 3y ago
  Yep, there were a few of free dial up ISPs that came and went like BlueLight and NetZero. I took a more crude approach to work around the banner and used Internet Connection Sharing in Win98 from a second PC and kept the monitor off.

syndicatedjelly 3y ago

That was a nice slice of history, thanks for sharing.

demizer 3y ago

AOL gave me my love of programming. I learned how to program in Visual Basic because I wanted to write my own "aol prog". I can still remember the "server" in the Warez room listed VB3.0 as the "the software that is used to make progs". Luckily there were people sharing their code so I could study and figure out how to do it myself. Me and my cousin created a yo momma joke spammer. I was a shit head back then, but it paid off being a nerd. But still, I did not learn about linux and free software until many years later because of AOL's shitty walled garden.

davely 3y ago
Hah! I remember running decompilers (of questionable utility) on various VB-created progs so I could attempt to reverse engineer them. It definitely got me interested in programming and the early-ish days of being apart of an internet community. An embarrassing aside: my parents used to give me birthday and Christmas presents that was an allowance of AOL minutes.
- ShadowBanThis01 3y ago
  More embarrassing: My parents still pay for AOL. $40 a month. My dad is convinced that he’ll lose the 20,000 E-mails he has there if they stop paying. And he worked in IT his whole career.
dbsmith83 3y ago
Ahh good memories. This is how me and a friend got into programming. We would constantly feud though because he used VB, but I used delphi. Clearly, I was using the superior language :)
nirav72 3y ago
Aohell is what got me into Windows dev stuff back in the day. Then discovered the warez room. Downloaded a copy of VB 3.0 and bunch of other dev tools. I think Borland Delphi and also Power Builder. Best thing about AOL was that even in the mid-90s, their email system held what seemed like an unlimited amount of multi-part binary files as attachments. So when you requested a warez in the chatroom, your inbox got flooded with like 30-40 emails with rar file parts. Like pretty much everyone back in those days on dialup, I'd start the download at night , so less chance of someone picking up phone and disconnecting my session from AOL. When I was college, it got easier. Because AOL added TCP/Winsock support to their desktop client. So I could just install AOL on unsed Comp Sci lab PC and then download all the email attachments at 1-2mbps.

yarone 3y ago

Ha, that scene is how I learned to program. Built a shareware tool called AoLOL! (available by going to keyword "Addon"), $14.95, got paper checks from all over the country! Then I met the ICQ founders...

krenzo 3y ago
"Uh oh!" So, what happened next?
- jve 3y ago
  Seems nothing much continued apart from declining to join and declining UIN #007 offer: http://www.yarone.com/2011/06/blast-from-past.html http://www.yarone.com/2011/06/blast-from-past.html
nobleach 3y ago
I am certain I've seen that one. I loved AOHell and CreditWiz... and all the associated tools around that era.

jandrese 3y ago

That idle timeout was pretty important when AOL cost $1/hour (and it was the cheap service! Prodigy, Compuserve, and especially GEnie were more expensive!). Leaving it connected overnight would get you grounded in a hurry when that AOL bill came in the next month. It was really no wonder that all of those services basically collapsed once dial up ISPs with flat (and low!) monthly fees started appearing. $10 for unlimited (modem speed) data is a steal in comparison.

RNAlfons 3y ago
I've been using AOL CD-codes up until the moment where I got my hands on some Compuserve code generator. The only cost which remained was for the local dial up. Good times. I personally thanked a Compuserve representative for their easy access at some fair. Didn't seem like he understood but I still felt better afterwards.
smcl 3y ago
I imagine everyone who was a kid during the dial-up times has a horror story of being confronted with an enormous phone bill by their parents. I remember mine going mental at me for costing us £40 one month (normal service was iirc ~£10)
- euroderf 3y ago
  Was the bill forgiven the first time (and the first time only) ? Good for customer relations.
  - smcl 3y ago
    Nah but really the bill wasn't bad enough for that, and honestly I'm not sure that kind of PR move was very common before social media days (total guess). I just remember it because I had to give my parents the difference and as a 12-13 year old that £30 was a lot!
- georgeburdell 3y ago
  I was a teenager on the tail end of dialup, so no hourly fee, but my parents got awfully mad if I tied up our phone line all day playing online games. They’d randomly call home a few times a day to ensure compliance.

VBprogrammer 3y ago

Ha, that reminds me of one of my first useful programs. In the early days of the internet my dad picked up a internet contract which allowed you to dial in on a toll free number; it was pretty cheap per month but the only catch was while dialled in they displayed a banner along the top of the screen with advertising. Using the win32 API in VB I was able to find the handle to the window kill it. The only problem then was that tying up the land line constantly got on my mum's nerves, being back in the days before land line numbers were redundant for other reasons.

Bluecobra 3y ago
Yep, there were a few of free dial up ISPs that came and went like BlueLight and NetZero. I took a more crude approach to work around the banner and used Internet Connection Sharing in Win98 from a second PC and kept the monitor off.