Hey Mark,
I just poked around the ftp area on AOL and found this help text:
<< America Online provides every member up to 2 megabytes of disk space. We call this FTPspace "My Place." Each screen name has a maximum of 2 Mb of storage space, which gives the account (maximum 5 screen names per account) a total of 10 Mb. There is no ability to allocate this storage dynamically among screen names. This means after the 2 Mb limit has been reached, no more uploads will be permitted for that screen name, regardless of the amount of unused FTPspace under that account. This FTPspace is available to all members at no extra cost.
This FTP disk space can be used for any of the following:
* upload Web pages (HTML files) for others to use. Writing your own page gives you more flexibility but takes more work and headache than creating a personal page using AOL's My Home Page service
* make files available to friends or co-workers: word-processing files or digitized images and sounds
* upload multimedia files for use in your personal page
**Note The My Home Page service uses the same disk space as your FTPspace, and the 2 Mb limit applies to files uploaded from either the My Home Page service or from the FTP tool. >>
At least we can put that issue to rest. I think even alot of AOL members aren't aware of this feature. I'm surprised AOL doesn't advertise this more prominently. Maybe they don't want everyone to take advantage of this feature due to disk space limitations. ;-)
As for the front end, I think we were talking about different things. I thought you were referring to the AOL client, itself, as opposed to AOL's host computers. I see your point and have seen other posts alluding to the fact that AOL is a slower ISP than a direct PPP connection. Nowadays, the network itself is just as important or perhaps more than computing power. Who cares if you've got a pentium if you've got a 2400 baud modem? I bet AOL's got a faster net connection than most ISPs which, IMHO, would make up for any computing cycles lost in the host front end.
Are there any web pages which compare AOL's performance to various ISP's? This is important for the future valuation of AOL stock. If AOL is as fast or faster, switching from a local ISP might be justified. However, if AOL is slower, people will stick with their local providers.
Anybody have any facts?
-Rich |
