Tips & Help For AOL Members


AOL is a great internet service provider, as well as the largest in the world. There are many areas to explore, with many more coming online every day. There are new updates and developments, and even Beta programs. What I think many AOL users need help with, is the basics. On this page, I hope to give many little snippets of information, to help AOLers have a better time surfing AOL, and the web. I hope to keep this page organized, but my thoughts are scattered as any of you that know me already know! It's hard to pick a place to start, as there is much I want to say. Naturally, like the rest of my pages, I will update this page as often as possible.

I guess a little background here will help. I got online back in December of 1998. The first thing I did, was go to all the search engines, and search "Chevy trucks". I figured the internet was so full of information, that I'd easily find out a lot. I was wrong. There were a few Chevy truck sites, but none that provided real useful everyday info, mostly just glamour pics. The things that I wanted to know about my truck. Stupid little details, and rumors I'd heard about my truck, like specs on the drivetrain, engine and trans. Any info at all, would have been helpful. I was very disappointed at what I found on the web.

I then found the Usenet Newsgroups. At that time, there was roughly 20,000 of them. I found all the ones related to trucks, and began reading them daily. One group was much more active than the rest, and I began posting, in reply to what other people said, or asked. The group was rec.autos.4x4. There was a great bunch of guys there. I noticed one of them always had his web site address under his name, at the end of all his posts. I checked out his pages, and liked what I saw. He and a few others in the group encouraged me to make my pages. They gave constructive criticism, and support. (Thanks Steve Best! Thank you Aaron "dremu" Shepard)

I then found out that AOL, allotted 2 megabytes of server space, for each member screen name, for web pages. That means with 5 screen names, I could have a total of 10 mb of space for web pages. I also found out AOL had programs to help you make web pages. I tried it, at first I built a series of web pages, with photos of landscape installation jobs I had done. Before and after pictures, and photos of my backyard, and small pond as well. I added a page counter, and had few visitors. I had done these pages all under one screen name. I then decided to try making pages for my 77 Chevy K/10, to show it off. I began adding my web address to all my posts to the newsgroups. I also had a counter on my truck page, and saw the number of visitors gradually increasing. I started adding information to my pages daily. Info from books, magazines, and service manuals. I began taking digital photos of my trucks, and various parts of them. My pages grew, and I soon ran out of server space, having reached my 2 mb quota. I got around this problem, by making more pages under my other screen names, and linking them to my main pages. This gave me 6 more mb, as I left up the other landscape pages.... for a while. They too were deleted, to gain more room for my Chevy truck pages. The rest as they say, is history.

I'd like to apologize now for "leaving out" AOL 3.0 users, as most of these tips are for 4.0, and 5.0 users, respectively. All of the links will still work for AOL 3.0 users.
These links will take you to the page I have set up for each area. The links on those pages, will only work for AOL members, if noted as so. Those will be links to areas of AOL, and not the internet.

Paths

When I type "paths", they will look like this:

KEYWORD: newsgroups> search all newsgroups

This means you click on the "Keyword" button on the AOL toolbar, enter the keyword, then on the window that comes up, click on "search all newsgroups".

A longer sample path would be:
KEYWORD: wheels> motorcycle message boards> Harley Talk

This means you click on the "Keyword" button on the AOL toolbar, enter the keyword, then on the window that comes up, click on "Motorcycle message boards". Then on the window that comes up (Motorcycle Message Boards) select "Harley Talk" from the list.

And away we go........

AOL Basics - Know what you can do with that little heart? Double clicking?


Making Webpages - A little help for everyone, not just AOLers.



AOL Message Boards - Another great source of information, on nearly as many topics as Usenet, but not as specific. Access them on AOL instantly by clicking here



 
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