Diana the Valkyrie

Problem with AOL and some web sites

AOL is one of the most commonly used companies giving access to the internet. In the last few months, they've had an annoying and persistent problem.

The symptom

The symptom is that sometimes you can access the web site, sometimes you can't

The problem

AOL have something they call the "AOL Top Speed Cache". This works by storing pages you've visited before, then if you try to visit one of those pages again, it shows you what it has stored, instead of reaching out across the internet to get it. This makes surfing faster.

But there's a problem with it, that causes loss of access to web sites. AOL's technical support recommends that you try clearing the AOL Top Speed Cache when this happens. Here's their recommendaation.

The solution

To clear all the Web page items TopSpeed has stored, please click SETTINGS on the AOL Toolbar. Click the A-Z tab, click the G-M link, then click the INTERNET [Web] OPTIONS link.

Click the AOL BROWSER tab. Under AOL WEB PAGE STORAGE, click the CLEAR STORAGE button, then click YES. Click OK.

Another workround is to use your browser *outside* the AOL user interface. Then the AOL cache isn't used by your browser.

AOL technical staff recommend that you should clear the "AOL Top Speed Cache" frequently. In my view, this rather negates the whole point of having the cache, but since it suffers from the above problem, that's a good recommendation.

The symptom

When you try to save a file, it wants to save it as a bmp, even though it's a jpg.

The problem

The cause is that the Temporary Internet Pages cache is full on your computer.

The solution

Click Tools, click Options, click General and then click Delete Files button. You will then automatically save files as jpg and the name of the file will be as it is on the web site.