[Random-bits] Ted Bridis's earlier story on AOL software sabotaging rival ISPs.

[James Love]

Apparently Prodigy's Kirkner was also quoted by Ted Bridis 
last week in his story about AOL software sabotaging rival ISPs.


Date: Fri Jan 21 08:01:17 2000
WASHINGTON TODAY: Critics say new AOL software interferes with
rivals
By TED BRIDIS=
Associated Press Writer=
¶   WASHINGTON (AP) _ The latest software from America Online
Inc., 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., 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., 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. 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.

   [snip]


-- 
James Love, Consumer Project on Technology
P.O. Box 19367        | http://www.cptech.org
Washington, DC 20036  | mailto:love@cptech.org
Voice 1.202.387.8030  | fax 1.202.387.8030