Hello, my name is bob and I.. I.. love AOL.

nah just kidding, but my wife does. We are currently using a trial version of 'avirt soho (http://avirt.com)' so that I can connect my superior linux box through her wimpy AOL connection. Hopefully someone can suggest a free alternative for me or at least tell me some gossip about AOL in order to strengthen my case aginst the wife.

I use ICS on my Windoze 98 2nd ed.. to connect my linux box to the net. Only problem I have is that the ICS (Internet Connection Sharing) can be a bit unstable at times. AOL.....why AOL? they suck...no offense to the AOL users, I always had problems connectin' during peak times and holidays...and also getting disconnect at anytime of the day for no apparent reason. I use prodigy, been with them for bout 5 yrs...they also have "shell accts"

I am not the one who likes AOL, my wife is. And you will never guess who the boss is. LOL. Did the ICS option come in windows 98 First edition. I don't think it did unless I am mistaken.

I tried to upgrade her to windows 2000 before but it wasn't compatible with some of her peripheals so she asked me to get rid of it, which was too bad because win2k ICS was probably the most stable thing on the OS.

Let me kow about the iCS thing if you can, also what do I have to do to connect to ICS from linux. I was just using the proxy settings in Konquerer but I would like to have the whole system be accessible to the internet. (i.e. configure the system as a whole isstead of by application) You don't have to spend the time giving me all the details, but a pointing of the finger would sure help me get started.

I feel ya....If it was up to me I would have two Linux boxes instead of 1 Windoze and 1 Linux.....
Anyway you have to enable ICS in ur add and remove programs under internet. Then once that is done instead of config ur apps in Linux u need to set ur IP config to match windoze. I use phone line for right now......so I have no router or cable modem to deal with. Linux is piggy backing off the windoze computer.

From this thread title, I thought maybe this was a 12 step program to get clean of AOL.

My nomination for the worst part of AOL: SPAM.

God it's just awful there.

remember, the first step to ridding yourself of AOL is to admit that you have a problem. despite the obvious hardships that come from AOL, this is often the most difficult step. people come to accept spam, disconnects, random lock-ups, and poor support as facts of online life, unaware that there is better to be had.

the second step : accepting that a power greater than ourselves can restore us to sanity ... that's right: linux. stand up and testify!!!

A lot of people use aol, and guess what I am forced to use it now. While I am in California I am using AOL because it is available in this town.

Look at www.tucows.com for proxy server software and you don't need MS ICS to share the connection.

There are many of them available, the shareware or free ones will probably work with only 3 users but this sounds like enough for you.

I got the proxy installed without any problem. Thanks for the tip David. I didn't quite understand what trusouthrnplaya said about configure you IP config to match windows. What is it that I have to do or where could I look for more info.

I think he means on the same network.

If you install ICS it defaults to a server ip of 192.168.0.1 with a network of 192.168.0.0, so you can use 192.168.0.2 for your client. and .3 .4 etc...

I tried ICS with 25 clients on Starband Satelite and it could not handle it. Crashed all the time. i tried it on three different computers and it crashed, even windows 2000 on a brand new 900 MHz computer quit networking, It did not hang, but it had to be rebooted.

I use Linux 7.1 on it now and it is doing great, no reboots since I set it up two months ago.


Most proxy servers should handle transparent proxy where you just set your ip addresses on the same network, and it works. If it's not transparent you need to put the ip address and port number of the server in you clients browser.


Lets say you setup the net card of the windows machine to 192.168.0.1 and a netmask of 255.255.255.0


You would set up linux to connect to it via eth0 like this


ifconfig eth0 192.168.0.2 netmask 255.255.255.0

route add default gw 192.168.0.1


then edit your resolv.conf file to have the dns server for your ISP



nameserver 24.18.24.15


then setup netscape for proxy server if it is not transparent, which just means that it is listening on port 80 instead of the standard proxy ports.

Thanks, I understand now.

Bingo......thanks DavidPhillips, Couldn't put it more clearly that......

aol suxors

nm, I decided to start a new thread.