AOL alternatives
NOTE: Aid4Mail is software that will convert and archive many different types of mailboxes. If you wish to provide a sample personal filing cabinet (.pfc) file to the author of Aid4Mail to help him possibly add AOL to the list of formats that can be converted, please let me know
NOTE: you can now use third party e-mail programs to receive/send your AOL mail
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- Address Magic Personal Edition, from Connected Software, converts email
address books between Outlook 97/98/2000/2002, Outlook Express, Windows
Address Book (WAB), Outlook Personal Address Book (PAB), Eudora Light/Pro,
Microsoft Exchange Server, Global Address List (GAL), Pine, Lotus Notes, Netscape 4.x, AOL 4 through 9, the Palm Desktop, Opera 6, and GroupWise. Converts just about all contact info, including distribution
lists! This commercial product emphasizes reliability and three click
operation. Free demo available.
- ePreserver, from Connected Software, "can migrate a user's AOL address book,
email and favorites places to Microsoft Outlook or Outlook Express." (for Windows)
AOL e-mail info/links: 
Conversion from or leaving AOL: (address books and/or messages)
- eMAILescape.com -- Forwarding AOL Emails. Allows you to have mail forwarding with or without autoreply, or autoreply only without forwarding.
- Mac
- Address Book Extractor from Apple Computer From Apple's site: "This utility quickly exports all the addresses from the AOL 3.0 address book to a file that can be imported by Claris
Emailer 2.0. This utility is only necessary with the 3.0 version of AOL software; access to previous AOL address
books is built into Claris Emailer 2.0." Notes: I've heard that it works with AOL 4.0. Also, after exporting to Emailer format, you could use one of the other tools here to convert from Emailer to Eudora, etc.
- Archive AOL Mail
- InterGuru's E-mail Address Book Conversions (Mac OS, Unix, Windows, etc.). This service will convert e-mail address lists between Eudora address books, Pine address books, Elm address files,
Pegasus address files ( Europe and USA ) address files (including Compuserve), databases and spreadsheets
Compuserve, Spry, Lotus cc:Mail, Microsoft Internet Mail, ldif formatted file, Netscape address books, Claris
Emailer, and Mac AOL. Other conversions are being developed.
- MailConverter by R. Shapiro includes older AOL formats among its importable formats. See http://hyperarchive.lcs.mit.edu/
- Windows
- ACtoCDF (AOL Contacts to Comma Deliminated File) lets you convert your AOL address book to a Comma Deliminated File (comma separated values) which can then be imported into Outlook Express, Outlook, or other address book or contacts applications.
- Address Magic Personal Edition, from Connected Software, converts email
address books between Outlook 97/98/2000/2002, Outlook Express, Windows
Address Book (WAB), Outlook Personal Address Book (PAB), Eudora Light/Pro,
Microsoft Exchange Server, Global Address List (GAL), Pine, Lotus Notes, Netscape 4.x, AOL 7, the Palm Desktop, Opera 6, and GroupWise. Converts just about all contact info, including distribution
lists! This commercial product emphasizes reliability and three click
operation. Free demo available.
- AOLeave for Windows by Duncan Mackenzie exports your AOL (version 5 only) address book and bookmarks (favorite places). Mailboxes (personal filing cabinet) in alpha testing.
- AOL PFC Conversion service by Password Crackers, Inc. "Password Crackers, Inc. offers a conversion service to convert the AOL proprietary Personal Filing Cabinet (.pfc) to either text format (.txt), Netscape¨ format, or Microsoft Outlook¨ format (.pst) so that users can access these email items without using AOL¨.Ê All Personal Filing Cabinet (.pfc) email items can be converted to either .pst or .txt formats. Newsgroup postings (if any) can only be converted to .txt or Netscape¨ format. We do not convert the list of downloaded files."
- ePreserver, from Connected Software, "can migrate a user's AOL address book,
email and favorites places to Microsoft Outlook or Outlook Express." (for Windows)
- ForMorph by fkeeps.com will import a variety of formats, including AOL, and export to these standard formats easily importable by many programs.
- UniAccess by ComAxis supports conversion of AOL versions 6 or 7 filing cabinets, and version 6 address books. Can convert from many other systems as well, and converts to Exchange, Outlook, Notes, Netscape, Eudora, IMAP4, Pegasus Mail, MHS, ExpressIT, GroupWise, HTML, Calypso, and generic.
Ways you can use your AOL internet connection with other e-mail programs:
- You can use AOLLink (must be on AOL to view that link) and then use any Internet(TCP/IP) e-mail program to send/receive e-mail using POP/IMAP/SMTP servers (barring firewalls between you and the servers) that you have access to elsewhere.
- If you wanted to, you could set your return address to be your AOL address in your Internet e-mail program. (but then note that replies would, of course, go to your AOL address, and unless you use one of the programs/methods below, would not be retrievable without using AOL's mail client.)
Ways you can use your AOL address, other than AOL's built in program:
- Mac
- Emailer by Claris (Macintosh)
- Netscape 6.0 for Mac, Win, Linux will read AOL mail. (Now that AOL owns Netscape!)
- Win
- AOL2POP "is an AOL POP3/SMTP email interface for users of America Online. This program allows users to check AOL e-mail from any standard e-mail client (Microsoft Outlook, Eudora Email, etc.) instead of using AOL's proprietary email service."
- Cyber-Info WebMail Notify supports 21 different webmail sites, including aol.com
- ePrompter for Windows. ePrompter lets you check up to eight AOL, Hotmail, Yahoo or POP3 email accounts simultaneously -- anytime, anywhere, online or offline (dials on schedule).
- Email Connection by ConnectSoft (Windows)
- eNetBot Mail for Windows is an email automation software program that allows you to read/send your AOL mail from any POP3/SMTP compliant email program
- Netscape 6.0 for Mac, Win, Linux will read AOL mail. (Now that AOL owns Netscape!)
- PowerFilter for AOL 4.0/5.0 "can automatically filter out email you do not want -- advertisements, junk mail, hackers, smut peddlers! Set up your delete and accept lists by screen name or by subject line. Dispose of email by "Ignoring" it or "Deleting" it. This handy utility works as a stand-alone program, but can also be used with your PowerMail Address Books."
- PowerMail "for AOL [4.0/5.0] is a set of utilities that integrate with -- and then expand -- the capabilities and features of AOL's mail program. It "hooks" into AOL and automatically intercepts various mail requests, replacing many of AOL's basic functions with much more advanced tools."
- PowerTools for AOL 5.0/6.0 "offers a convenient way to quickly send email, attach files and optionally use mail templates to create your messages.You can easily add your own custom mail templates, send mail to entire Address Book groups, save email addresses and subjects to a frequently-used list and more!"
- Web2POP for Windows by JMA Software allows you to download your webmail via a standard POP client. Supports many different webmail services, including aol.com
- PDA/wireless
- PocketMail Backflip by PocketScience allows you to retrieve AOL mail on your Palm.
- ThinMailApollo from ThinAirApps is a server that will allow you to access POP/IMAP, AOL, and webmail (Yahoo, Hotmail, etc.) via your web-enabled mobile phone by pointing your phone to www.thinairapps.net
- AOL Anywhere for Palm/WinCE/PocketPC
- Web-based:
- AOLMail via the web allows you to access AOL e-mail via a browser. See NetMail help (but I think this is no longer relevant.)
- Bigfoot.com can forward your AOL e-mail to you with their Consolidation service ($19.95 per year). You could then set your regular e-mail program to respond to that mail with a return address of:
- Your AOL e-mail address
- Your Internet e-mail address
- Your Bigfoot address
- Forward America can forward your AOL mail to another address.
(NOTE: you can now use third party e-mail programs to receive/send your AOL mail. This section needs to be edited/deleted.)
Why most e-mail programs don't work with AOL (and why AOL's mail program won't let you check non-AOL accounts)
Many people want to use a program besides the one that comes with AOL to access mail sent to their AOL accounts. Basically, this is not possible because AOL is not an Internet Service Provider, at least not in the strict sense of the term "ISP".
The "Internet" operates on a Network using a standard called "TCP/IP." Macs, Windows, and most computers sold today have TCP/IP capability. Once you are hooked into your ISP (or your campus computer, office computer, etc.), you are on the Internet, part of this massive TCP/IP network.
There's a saying that "nobody knows you're a dog on the Internet." What this means is that no one can tell if you are using a Mac, a Wintel machine, a modem, ethernet or what have you. You are simply a number (an IP number). You are like every other computer on the Internet. Once connected, you look the same as a computer given the address, say www.apple.com.
AOL, however, does not give you a TCP/IP connection. Yes, you can access the World Wide Web, send and receive e-mail, access Usenet newsgroups, etc. But what you are doing is accessing AOL's machines, which then act as a gateway to the Internet. Think of the Internet as a giant library, with stacks and stacks of books, and each dialup company as a doorway to the library. With an ISP, you can actually go in to the library and pick any book and bring it back. With AOL, you don't really go into the library proper; you can only stop at the circulation desk and ask the librarians to go to the stacks and get a book. (Thanks to Jonathan Rynd for analogy.)
The Internet also has standards for e-mail, namely POP3 and IMAP4 for mail collection and SMTP for sending mail. AOL does not use these standards either. Since Internet e-mail programs use POP3 and/or IMAP4 and SMTP, they won't pick up your AOL e-mail. See also what AOL has to say on this topic. Also informative is AOL's indication that they supply non-standard Internet access
Also, many ISPs and Internet mail servers allow you to set your mail to be forwarded or to enable autoreplies while you are away from the office. As far as I know, AOL allows neither option.
This is not to say that AOL is not for you. While I don't have a need for AOL, there are some cases (no pun intended) in which I recommend AOL:
- You have a need/desire for the AOL sites/services you can only get on AOL. (You might not be able to get a specific site on a regular ISP, but similar sites will be out there)
- They are the only place in your area to offer a local phone number (Doublecheck The List of ISPs)
- You travel a lot and they offer numbers in the places you travel to better than other services (I normally recommend local ISPs, but check out ATT/MCI/Netcom, etc.)
- Price of unlimited access. ($19.95/month unlimited became the ISP national standard long before AOL thought of this, and now AOL is a couple of dollars higher)
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