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.