aol locks up 2 computers

hello. this is a very weird, and slightly long, problem. hope someone can help.

I am in the UK, I have 2 computers, 1 laptop and 1 desktop. both running on a BT phone line with aol as the broadband (512Kbps) isp. both connect wirelessly to a belkin modem/router (b/g MIMO) using a notebook adapter and a usb adapter respectively, (both b/g MIMO). both run win xp; laptop pro, desktop home.

basically when anything other than the aol software tries to use the internet the whole computer locks up. i.e. no mouse input or ctrlaltdel, no autorestart. just frozen. this happens on both machines. usually just as it finds a website the computer locks up. occasionally it will freeze after a few seconds... the aol software works fine, no lock ups and generally a good connection.

I then have to manually restart to get access to the computer again.

I have even moved the laptop, router and the notebook adapter, up the road to another house running a bt phone line with bt as isp. the laptop, unsurprisingly, worked perfectly.

I even replaced the router. so i have ruled out the hardware as the problem, as it works fine on another phone line. the laptop works fine through another phone line.

both machines lock up, which must be impossible? so it must be the phone line somehow crashing the computers? or, my bet is placed firmly on aol...

but how could aol broadband manage to lock up 2 computers through a router and wireless adapters??

does it realise that windows or a third party program tries to use the internet and punishes the machine by locking it up?

I have reset the winsock. reinstalled the belkin hardware. the only thing I haven't done is uninstall the aol software...

I really hope that someone might have some ideas...

steve

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Relevant Pages

  • Re: aol locks up 2 computers
    ... I am in the UK, I have 2 computers, 1 laptop and 1 desktop. ... basically when anything other than the aol software tries to use the internet the whole computer locks up. ... no lock ups and generally a good connection. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)
  • Re: aol locks up 2 computers
    ... a BT phone line with aol as the broadband isp. ... no lock ups and generally a good ... I have even moved the laptop, router and the notebook adapter, up the road ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)
  • Re: aol locks up 2 computers
    ... i have tried to remove aol before from other computers. ... I am in the UK, I have 2 computers, 1 laptop and 1 desktop. ... no lock ups and generally a good ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)
  • AOL IM Startup with OE
    ... How can I stop AOL IM from starting up when I open OE??? ... I am running two different computers, and they both have the same OS and ... options to turn the silly thing off, the laptop does not show that option. ... I hate having something forced on me like that. ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.inetexplorer.ie6_outlookexpress)
  • Re: aol locks up 2 computers
    ... it locks up whether aol is open and running or not. ... it will lock up if one machine is on and the other off and if both are on. ... > is it really possible that the software is locking up the computers? ... > AOL software is proprietary and unfortunately you will have to live> with ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)