Not to belabor this, but any little clue can be interesting to you computer savants out there.

This is the heading on the error page that AOL returns:

As of about a quarter past 7 this evening (Monday), AOL won't access SOG, but IE does fine.

I mention the text above simply in case the "500" error code might be useful to someone.

According to a web search, it means:

Internal Error 500: The server was unable to send the html document to you due to an internal (server software) error.

It's a pretty generic message, unfortunately.

I've also noticed (not every time) that the screen that you describe above seems to cover up the title "Portrait Artist Forum - Powered by eBulletin" for example, of the site you are trying to find. This happens almost instantaneously. That's always been a curious thing to me. It's like it's saying -- here it is, oops, never mind.

To all who have experienced a problem accessing SOG thru AOL
 

I have just filed a report with the FBI's Internet Fraud Division. I did this onliine at www.ic3.gov. I've also sent an indepth email to AOL's Network Operations Center.

Nothing will ever get corrected unless multiple people are complaining.

So, I'd like you to do the following steps. Be sure that you refer to www.portraitartist.com even if you have your own domain so that parties that read various complaints can connect them. In fact, if you have your own domain and are a full client of SOG, it would be better to state that your url is www.portraitartist.com/lastname instead of www.yourdomain.com.

1. If you have made tech support calls to AOL regarding this matter, call 888-265-3733 and ask for the dates of your tech support calls. Write these down.

Yes, you'll likely get India and have to wait 15-20 minutes, but we need to make waves.

2. Send an email to:

AOL Network Operations Center at [email protected] and
AOL Legal Department at [email protected]

As I understand it, their service to you has something of a contractual nature and though they surely have a disclaimer saying they can not guarantee 100% up time, we are talking about a different situation here. Regardless, we want to make waves.

Extract what is relative from my email to NOC below. Add in data relevant to your situation, such as the dates of your tech support calls, if any. If you have never called tech support, you might want to try doing it at least one time.

Please copy me in your email. As well as referring to www.portraitartist.com also include my name. At the time I emailed them I had not yet filed a complaint with the FBI, so the complaint number is not in my email, but you might want to include it for greater clout - see number below. I would suggest that you keep in your email the information about the other sites that cannot be accesssed. Take each site, try it in AOL and then try it in Internet Explorer so that you can attest that they don't work in AOL and do in IE.

3. Go to www.ic3.gov and file a complaint online with the FBI Internet Fraud Division. If you would like a copy of my complaint, please email me and I can send it to you. Please refer to my complaint number I04113011135219. At the end of the submission, you will be given a complaint number also. Please keep a record of it. In fact, I printed out my complaint pages just before the submit button and then printed one page after that because it contained the complaint number.

4. I have two phone numbers that are apparently not to AOL's normal tech support. They were given to me by St. Louis Internet and at least one is probably to the Network Operations Center. In any conversation, you can count on AOL saying it is not their problem, so you must be very tough and you must demand that this problem be escalated if the person to whom you are speaking gives you no satisfaction. (703) 265-4662 and (703) 265-6942


The more people complaining about the same thing, the more chances they will listen.

Hey Steven, you're an attorney. Bet you could compose a killer communication to their legal department. Please?? I know you've had this problem also.

Anyway, here's the email I sent to NOC. You could also add the following in the list of sites you tried in AOL that did not work, but did in IE (after you've tried them in both, of course):

www.leonloard.com
www.johnhowardsanden.com,
www.asopa.com
www.portraitclubs.com
www.portraitinstitute.com:

Are all of St. Louis Internet's sites experiencing this same problem with AOL or just yours, Cynthia? Perhaps it is a problem with how they have their servers set up.

I cannot speak for all of the sites on St. Louis Internet, only the ones we tried. If it were a problem with how St. Louis Internet is set up, then the sites would not come up ok in Internet Explorer and all other browsers.

When I spoke to the FBI, someone there said they had heard this complaint before.

I've returned to intermittentcy. I didn't make any changes, maybe they did.

I know that dealing with a large bureaucracy can be a mind numbing experience. But, they do have their pluses. One plus is that if you can ever get into the stream you will find at least a dozen people that do nothing but specialize in your little niche problem.

This is one of the mysteries for me. If it's just a matter of altering some addresses on some number of servers, that doesn't seem like it would be that big a job. Especially for the department that does nothing but alter addresses for servers. And yet, at least a year later, they can't seem to make it happen. It makes me think that there is more to it.

Has anyone followed my instructions above? The greatest chance of anything getting fixed if if multiple people complain.

The following is the e-mail that I wrote to the addresses you recommended:

I have been able to gain access to SOG sites for the past three days without exception.

Wow! Let's keep our fingers crossed. Could it be possible that we've actually finally made some waves?

Mike, could you please try the other web addresses that I gave you to try before and add to that RaymondOlivere.com.

Thanks!

My guess is that if they fix it they will never make an announcement that they have done so.

I've not been denied access a single time for just about ten days now.

I'm almost ready to jump thru hoops, but I will reserve this until more time has passed.

Mike, could you check the other sites that I gave earlier in this thread and see if you can now get those too?

Cynthia,

I just visited each of the sites you listed above with no problems.

Thanks, Mike!

On the tenth day of Christmas
 

Today just before ten AM I tried to log onto the SOG forum and was denied several times. I tried to access the SOG home page and the page came up, but like before only the independent links would work from the page. Marvin M. would work, Raymond O. would not. The forum could not be reached from this home page. This is much the way I have seen it many times in the past.

I went to IE and got through straight away. I copied the links above that you had ask me to test earlier and went back to AOL. All links would bring up the home pages, but, like the SOG home page, nothing would link from the home page.

After being denied three or four times through AOL (history is that if you are denied once you will be denied forever more until you log off and back on) I logged off and back on three times and was accepted the third time. This is much the way it was in the intermittent days (not so long ago).

Well, I'm holding onto the hope that this was simply a result of the Southwestern Bell large telephone cable that got cut earlier today and knocked out 30,000 customers, including St. Louis Internet, which hosts Stroke of Genius and all the other sites.

I figured there was some reason why I couldn't access SOG for most of the day! Nice to have an explanation. Everything seems good to go, now - but of course I've never tried accessing through AOL.

This is what I get today.

Each time I am denied I get a full page of the sort of thing you see above. This is the first one that shows up at the top of the page. Almost a windfall for this guy. Someone types in SOG and they see him at the top of the page.

1. At one time, Peggy B. went days and days thinking the site was down. It turned out she simply needed to clear her cache. So, if you haven't done that, please do so. Also, run AOL's autofix.

2. If this does not help, as I've said many times before, this is not a problem with St. Louis Internet and there is only so much I can do, especially since I am not an AOL client. I would suggest that you write again to the AOL Legal Deparment at [email protected].

Cynthia

Mike,

While this probably isn't the problem, if you haven't tried it it couldn't hurt. Can you access the forum from your browser by typing in the IP, http://65.127.237.190? If that doesn't work, and you are using Windows, try typing in the following from a DOS prompt; PING forum.portraitartist.com, or PING 65.127.237.190. If pinging doesn't come back with a several replies in milliseconds for the forum command, but does for the IP number command, then that most likely means your internet provider lost the domain name from their list, and needs to add it again.

Holly

Thanks, Holly. Yes, the contention of my isp and myself is that there is either something amiss with AOL's name servers and/or one of the isp's along the route traveled. And, one of the reasons it would come up one time and not another is that they have many name servers and rotate between them.

Typing this: http://65.127.237.190

Brings back the followning:

I don't know how to get to the DOS command.

Try this, go to http://www.dnsstuff.com/

First, under "DNS Lookup" type in "forum.portraitartist.com", or any site you can't access. It will give you the IP number for it.

Then, under "Ping" enter that IP number. Hopefully it will return with some times that it took a sample packet of data to reach that destination.

Then, under "Tracert" enter that IP number. If Pinging worked, this will return with the route that packet of data took to get to its destination. If the packet of data doesn't make it, the last entry in the table is likely where the data got hosed.

Then enter that last IP address in the "IPWHOISLookup", and it will give you some info on who owns the server where the data got lost.

Hope that leads you somewhere!

And I thought AOL was supposed to be so easy. From the problems so many people have with it, it's a wonder they have any customers left at all!

There used to be a little banner, very professionally done, that some web designers used to put on their sites. It said "AOL sucks." :)

Mike,

I think you have XP. Go to Start | Programs | Accessories | C Prompt. That gets you into DOS if you ever need to.

Holly,

I did a tracert thru your method and it said Reached Destination, but it also said "missing reverse DNS entry" at a certain point. Do you know what that means?

Of course, someone with AOL needs to do it from AOL.

I got the same thing Cynthia.

I did a check of "reverse DNS" through Holly's link and it came back with the following:

I don't know what all that means, Mike, but I'll check with my isp.

I thought this article I just found really expressed well, many of the things I've felt about AOL over the years:

An important word about America Online

America Online was my first ISP back in 1995, when the only other choices were Prodigy and Compuserve. Karan's Korner was first built and hosted on AOL. Back then, AOL was definitely the best choice, and is still a popular starting place for beginners.

In the few years since then, hundreds of new ISP's have come online, providing much better services than AOL. Internet professionals consider AOL to be a place for "newbies" but not an ISP to be used for serious internet users or business. The Information Systems Management Handbook says:

"...AOL makes it easy to get started on the Internet for beginners; however, AOL is not well-suited for business subscribers. Its proprietary software interface is not designed for business use, though if simple e-mail and web access is all you need, it may suffice. Its network speeds are rated the slowest of the major ISPs."

AOL is a popular tool for beginners, and their marketing policies certainly have made AOL the largest online service. Offering up to 500 "free" hours has convinced many people to sign up. However, as everyone knows, being the biggest doesn't mean it's the best. Having the largest market share only means that their marketing has been very successful. This is true in ANY area, but seems to be common in the computer industry - for example: Windows has by far the largest computer OS market share, but it is also FAR from the best. Microsoft just has great marketing (spelled M-O-N-O-P-O-L-Y).

Basically, the only people who believe AOL is really good are AOL's CEO, Steve Case, and those who don't know any different. People who know the real issues avoid AOL. Here are a few reasons why:

1. AOL's captures control of your computer once it is installed, guaranteeing that you will have great difficulty UNinstalling AOL. Furthermore, it is almost impossible to get UNsubscribed and have the credit card charges stopped.

2. Contrary to their advertising campaigns - AOL is NOT the internet. In fact, AOL intentionally keeps it's users off of the internet and "locked in" to the AOL interface as much as possible. AOL's protocols conflict with or ignore standard internet protocols that were established long before AOL existed.

3. AOL is apparently SO popular, that it sometimes takes many days for email to get through. Here's one user's account: "...a coworker sent me e-mail from her boyfriend's AOL account in Ohio. Her message took three days to reach me. A postcard she mailed to another coworker arrived a day earlier. She was already back from her trip and at work by the time I got the message."

4. AOL intentionally avoids providing "Help" information about using the actual internet. This is because AOL does not want you to "browse the web" or use the actual internet outside what is provided in the AOL interface. Consequently, most AOL users remain uneducated about using the real internet. AOL's attitude is, "keep them ignorant and they won't know what they are missing!"

5. AOL's subscribers spend 80% of their time looking at the company's own "content" -- a miscellany of entertainment, chat and travel services -- rather than using it as an inexpensive route to the Internet.

6. AOL subscribers don't realize how much control AOL has over their online experience. This control limits their exposure to the wealth of information available on the internet. If you think AOL's information is impressive, you should explore the internet - it's overwhelming!!! Basically, AOL is acting as "Big Brother" - only allowing it's users to see what AOL wants them to see. If the same level of censcorship was used anywhere else, people would probably protest or boycott.

7. There are several lawsuits against AOL for:
cencorship of free speech and content
continuing credit card charges after unsubscribing
overbilling: adding 15 seconds to the connection time, then rounding up to the next minute

8. AOL's protocols are not Internet-standard? Here are a few examples:

1. People who manage email lists have to add special coding in their messages just so that AOL users can access a website - "Click here if you're on AOL" the tag usually says. Have you ever wondered why AOL addresses are the only group that need this "special" link?

2. Every email attachment becomes a separate download for AOL users, whereas the attachment comes in with the message for those who are using internet standard mail software. Often, AOL recipients can't open internet-standard pictures that arrive as attachments.

3. Because the AOL mail reader intentionally strips the coding from website addresses so that they cannot be double-clicked on, AOL users have to manually type the website address into their browser. They aren't told that they can simply Copy/Paste a website address into their browser and go to a website w/o having to type in the URL. Most AOL users don't even know what a URL is!!! (Uniform Resource Locator - a website address)

4. AOL screen names are unique to AOL and do not work on the internet until they are conformed to internet email standards.

5. AOL keywords are unique to AOL and do not work outside AOL. The internet does use keywords, but not AOL keywords. For example: In 1999, when Rosie O'Donnel told her audience to visit her website, she only gave the address as "AOL keyword Rosie" and did not give out the URL. Consequently, no one outside AOL could get to her website. She was obviously not informed by AOL about this fact.

6. AOL's non-standard email protocols prohibit the use of most third-party web-based email services, effectively blocking AOL's users from retreiving their email from anywhere in the world, except through another AOL user's computer!

7. AOL's non-standard protocols prohibit the use of wireless internet access points, such as Apple's Airport, 3Com, and other similar devices. The international wireless transmission standards are ignored by AOL. If you desire to use wireless internet access points at home or the office, you will need to use Earthlink or another standards-based ISP, instead of AOL.

8. Many websites that display just fine in Netscape or Explorer, do not display properly in AOL's browser.

9. AOL caches (or stores) many web pages in their servers so AOL access APPEARS faster. However, most useful websites these days have pages that change often, and AOL's cache servers don't usually send the latest updated page. Knowledgeable webserver managers turn OFF caching to ensure dynamic pages are sent properly. AOL doesn't care whether you see the correct page or not when you are browsing "outside" AOL.

etc..........

The point about whether AOL is good, bad or worse has never been the issue with me. What has concerned me is that AOL is the dominant service provider, good or bad. It's a matter of percentages, the greatest number of potential clients will come from AOL and they will never here or understand that AOL is inferior.

You can control where you base your business, but you can't control the path your customers will take to get to you.

Cynthia,

You probably know all about reverse DNS by now, but just in case, take a look at this FAQ. I wouldn't have thought it was a big deal not to have a reverse DNS entry, as it appears many servers are missing that entry. But as Mike found, it may make a difference with some ISP's, at least in the case of mail servers. In any case you can have St. Louis Internet make sure your web sites are set up properly.

Holly

Mike,

I posted the information on AOL not to convince you, but for the information of all readers. I think it's time for you to write to the AOL Legal department again - breach of contract? Even if that's not correct, perhaps it will get their attention.

All,

My isp wrote the following in regards to the most recent DNS things we've been doing:

Problems connecting to SOG sites
 

I have had from time to time the same problem, but I figured out that the reason could have been, that my computer does not accept cookies. After I disable the cookie protector, I can connect.

Tito,

To the best of my knowledge this very nasty problem has been solved. I have been error free for months.