Once you're up and running on AOL Plus, you'll get decent broadband performance, as well as multimedia content that's been well integrated with AOL's user-friendly interface. But based on our rocky installation and given our level of experience, the company's assumption that the average AOL user can configure out this software and hardware is wishful thinking. Furthermore, its current lack of support for notebooks and Windows Me are major impediments to widespread adoption. View images AOL supplies the modem, interface, and technical support. Currently these partners provide coverage in most major metro areas.
Satellite service is available through DirecPC nationwide.
AOL customers can find out whether the service is available in their region by typing AOL Plus in the keyword search and entering their phone number at the prompt. You can also get prequalified to find out if and when the service will be available in your neighborhood and pick up an AOL connection package at selected chains, such as Circuit City, Gateway Country, and Office Depot. Two weeks after accepting the rep's phone offer, we got our connection package in the mail, which included an Efficient Networks SpeedStream DSL USB Modem, a number of filters for our phone jacks, and two installation disks. The company says this is because Efficient Networks hasn't produced the drivers for these OSs yet. AOL claims it is now shipping Actiontec modems that are equipped with Me-supporting drivers out of the box.