Hello! I tend to be on AOL almost 24/7. Recently, AOL has been shutting down after only a few minutes of inactivity, and requiring a semi-reboot before I can get logged back in to it. Can you help?

Sure. I have two words for you "Ditch AOL" and get a different service. You can also try fiddling with your settings for internet connection. If that does not work - then ditch the service. Someone else not too long ago on here had asked almost the same identical question about the computer having to get rebooted all the time due to AOL. Apparently they are not like they used to be. I ditched them about 5 years ago and never looked back. I was happy to get away from them to put it mildly as what they were doing to my computer and connection was atrocious. Won't go into the details but as you can tell I'm still steamed about how I was treated by them.

Some people actually like AOL -- in spite of all the problems they have

Technology: AOL pros and cons (http://www.sptimes.com/News/073001/Technology/AOL_pros_and_cons.shtml)

You can get on the internet without AOL -- Just open IE and go

Most people I know who like AOL have never used anything else and don't know the difference. Some of the "good" things I'm seeing at that link are things that can be gotten elsewhere, like chat rooms and instant messaging. (And you can even get AOL's instant messaging w/out using their online service. I had to get it for work at one time, and I thought it stunk too.) And most web-based emails are easy to use so I don't see the advantage there. In other words, these "advantages" seem to be nothing that can't be found elsewhere. (Customized sigs on email? Where can't you do that?) If you can find the advantages elsewhere, why put up with the disadvantages? The one person who had no problems, but had constant disconnects with three other services I think was a definite exception. (There's always exceptions.)

I have no idea what this current issue is cause I refuse to use it, but back when I was at a job where they had AOL, it was constantly doing stuff to the computer that I didn't ask it to. If it wanted to download something, it would. It wouldn't ask me for permission. And this was a work computer -- I couldn't have AOL just doing whatever the heck it wanted. If it wanted to do anything, it just would. I never had the re-boot problem -- that's probably a way newer version than when I last used it. But it controls things too much. Don't know if this is still true, but it was also way too much money to pay for a service and then still get a ton of ads! There were way cheaper services that didn't come with the headaches.

I totally agree to ditch the AOL and find something else.