[poor_pierre]

I have had AOL as my service provider for several years but within the past weekI have been unable to connect. I have broadband with Comcast and get AOL through them. I contacted Comcast about the problem and they gave me an alternate method of getting into AOL, but meanwhile I have lost all of my saved emails that I had with AOL, some of which I wanted very much to keep. With the way I get into AOL now, the email system seems to be different since there is no way that I can saved emails to my PC. I was thinking that if I could resume the way I used to access AOL perhaps I might be able to recover those lost emails. Can you help me?

[vingogly]

If you haven't removed the e-mails, they must still be on AOL's server - they're not lost. Here's the contact information I found:

"The AOL Postmaster department can be reached by phone toll free at: +1.888.212.5537. You must have some specific information available before you call so that we can fix your issue as efficiently as possible. This number is open from 8AM-1AM EST, seven days a week."

I'd call them and see what's wrong with your account. If it were me, I'd:

* Ask them to help you get to your account
* Ask them how you can get your AOL messages on to your hard drive
* Archive your AOL messages on your hard drive
* Close down your AOL account (they'll provide a forwarding period)
* Notify all your correspondents to use your Comcast email address

If you're paying Comcast as a service provider, there's really no need to keep the AOL account. When I change service providers, I always go through the above procedure. It's really no different than moving to a new house & notifying your correspondents.