Trying to get AOL working on a friends laptop. Message pops up when I click anything having to do with AOL: "America Online will now install the files required for you to connect to the service. Click yes to install these files. You may be asked to restart your computer; otherwise, you will not be able to connect." When I click yes it looks as something is being installed, but AOL still doesn't work. (the computer did restart one time) If I click no nothing happens. They are using Dial-up, the laptop is at my house and I use DSL. The modem is hooked up through a DSL "filter" and then to a phone jack. Also tried it without the filter. I do not use AOL as my ISP, could that be some of the problem? Think I should go to a store and get another AOL cd? The cd's title is "AOL 9.0 OPTIMIZED, and it's red.

hook the laptop directly to the wall jack see if that helps

hi for one the dsl modem should be hooked to the phone jack directly no filters.and next try downloading aol from their site www.aol.com see if that works. keltik

The filter is prob for the phone, to help reduce "noise" over the phone, it's not hurting anything else. Second, do what Cats says, the filter is there to reduce the noise over the incoming line so that when you speak on the phone, and have a dsl connection in the same phone jack, you can hear the voices more clearly over phone. I too have a DSL connection with no filter and hear the voices alright, but i hear voices all the time, so i dont think it would work anywho. lol You can be amused by the simplest of things. The smartest people in the world, over-look the smallest objects. War does not determine who is right, only who is left.

Tried it without the "filter" first. It didn't work, thats when I bought the filter. It has to be software related, because AOL tries to install more files. I saw on another site (aolhelp) that said the CD comes with a user name and password, I didn't get one with the CD I'm using. Went to AOL and can't download anything, can somebody else try AOL downloads? I was gonna download it on my desktop, burn it to a CD and then load it on the laptop. I tried a reinstall of AOL, repaired XP Pro, nothing seems to work. I'm gonna go to the store and pickup a CD. I'll post what happens.

What version of AOL are you installing? If the version is not compatible with the computer it won't install and you need an earlier version. All versions are on the AOL disk so you just need to browse it and pick what one to install. From my experience it's much better to install AOL from disk rather than downlaod. If you are trying 9.0 then I would try 8.0 and see what happens. I still refuse to put in 9.0 because I am still hearing problems with it from friends and think 8.0 is better. I don't know anyting about DSL as I run AOL through cable but when I had it as dial up I just had the computer connected straight to the phone jack. Not sure if DSL is like cable but when I go through cable I had to change some setting so AOL wouldn't use the modem to dial anymore. Then you tell AOL you want the BYOP plan (bring your own provider plan) at $14 a month. God knew I couldn't be a pioneer, that's why he gave me a computer!

After talking to AOL tech support, he told me to run a virus scanning program called "stinger". Ran it and it found nothing. He asked me to install 7.0, I did and AOL is working fine. If the laptops owner wants to "upgrade" to 9.0, I'll let him do that part.