AOL's statement
NBC story

Well, it's the end of an era.

I had AOL growing up. Surprised to know they still offered dial-up... I remember using AIM to talk to MFGG people back in the day. AOL became the purview of old people at some point, but hey... using a forum in 2025, I get how they felt. I'd imagine smartphones took over AOL's market for the old people that are still left.

Wonder if they have AOL in heaven. Hope they do

My first experience with any live chat was with AIM, actually. back in the day, it was the go-to thing. Boy was I behind everyone else in the internet department though. Took awhile before broadband arrived in my area.

Same here, really. We didn't start getting broadband in my area until I was in high school or so. I kind of wonder if I can still get dial-up internet access in 2025 anywhere.


Not that I need it, what with how data plans are everywhere now, but still. Might be enough to use Lynx or some other text-only browser to read, but not much else.
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Edited by: fireball3k, Aug 12th, 2025 @ 9:20 pm

My thoughts more or less echo those already shared. It is indeed the end of an era, and I too am surprised it was still being offered so recently. That's wild, man.

AOL was my gateway to the internet for quite a while. AIM was my jam for the longest time, too.

Oh yeah, I remember the AIM days! We had AOL dial-up for about 12 years - my family was just a little late to get aboard the broadband train.

The exact estimate varies, but I've seen reports that over 200,000 Americans still use dial-up. That's not a huge number relative to the country's population, but it's still a decent number of folks. I'd imagine many of them are elderly people who don't use the Internet much and stick with what they're used to for getting online, but there are still places where it's hard to get high-speed Internet.

Indeed. I know many places it's impossible to get high speed internet. one of which I used to house sit for...I'm sure you remember me being absent for months, only able to check in when a website "Decided" to load...

Was that the time you had to use NetZero to log in? I think I remember this now

Bump after a few months. But ever since I started working helpdesk, I've seen a number of customer computers come in that are still using AOL's e-mail services. Which is just as well. Oftentimes, it's old people, and part of why I wanted to work helpdesk was to help old people figure out how the hell to use their computers.

It's neat to see AOL still be used for something as simple as that. I haven't really got to talking to anyone about the old days of AOL, but I'm sure I could.

My mom still has an AOL e-mail address. I'd say Gmail offers a better overall experience than AOL, but AOL mail still gets the job done.