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Recently the AOL servers have been a bit shoddy and haven't been working properly which has meant that some unfortunate souls, like myself, have been unable to access certain websites (mainly wiggle.co.uk). The way to fix this is to change the DNS servers you connect to away from the main AOL ones to openDNS servers instead at no cost whatsoever.
I take no responsibility for any mishaps etc. that may occur
I found this data on the web and i am simply putting it into an easily visible instructable format
I take no responsibility for any mishaps etc. that may occur
I found this data on the web and i am simply putting it into an easily visible instructable format
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Signing UpStep 1Open Control panel
Open Control Panel and Click on 'Network and Internet Connections' (highlighted in red)
This bit shouldn't be too difficult
This bit shouldn't be too difficult
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I connect to my AOL account via Penggy and linux. Penggy is a third party program that mimicks the connection the AOL software provides. Alas its also no longer supported since AOL forced the French group of users that created it to take down their website some years ago.
Was running into same situation of less than optimal AOL dns server. Penggy only gives way to not automatically use the AOL dns server, doesnt give way that I have found to assign a nameserver directly.
Little experimenting and found when Penggy connects it generates a new /etc/resolv.conf file with AOL nameserver like this:
Quote:
# This file has been automaticly generated by penggy
# A backup of your old configuration has been made in /etc/resolv.peng
# It will be restored when connection is down
domain aol.com
search aol.com
nameserver 205.188.146.145
Then when Penggy closes it deletes this file and restores the old one.
I replaced the numerical nameserver address of AOL with numerical address of the OpenDNS server 208.67.220.220 and saved it. Then changed setting in Penggy conf file to not set dns automatically. With it set this way it doesnt create a new resolv.conf file when it connects, just uses exisitng one if its in right format.
Killed Penggy and restarted. It uses the existing /etc/resolv.conf file, doesnt generate new one. Thus uses OpenDNS nameserver address that I edited in.
Sure there is a way to just make Penggy use whatever dns I want without all this manual editing, but so far havent figured it out, and this manual editing does work.
I posted this in case some linux user runs into this problem as very little correct info on Penggy out there. Few linux users of AOL! Again this isnt going to help windoze users and I havent used windoze for so long that I am not going to speculate beyond saying.... I would guess that the official windoze AOL bloatware creates a setting or file someplace with nameserver when it connects and that file could be modified once set, possibly with a little script.
AOL never designed anything to be easy to modify or bypass. It was meant for people who never want to open the hood to see how things work underneath. I only came to AOL because dialup is dieing and the smaller isps have started to limit hours significantly and drop connections more frequently. AOL still doesnt complain if you stay on all day and rare for them to drop my connection. Also before I signed up, checked and they now allow you to cancel your account easily and painlessly online without arguing with some guy in India with heavy accent.