From the frying pan to the fire?

I've decided to get broadband, which is being installed on Saturday. I've had such a gutsful of hateful old tortoise-web a.k.a AOL dial-up. But I'm a bit wary, as I'm getting ntl broadband. Those of you who are regular readers will know I loathe ntl. Not quite as much as I despise the council or British Gas, but almost as much. People keep reassuring me that ntl broadband is fine. Their dial up was useless, which is why I went to AOL. But then again, isn't all dial up useless?

I can't stand the thought of dial up or AOL any longer. Here's my list of gripes against AOL:

1. Slow, slow, slow.


2. Cannot dial in directly - I can only connect via their bloated, deformed software.


3. Their stupid integrated web accelerator mangles images and prevents connection to some web pages.


4. Their stupid instant messaging client, integrated into their browser, cannot be turned off. The second you log on to the Internet, you're signed into AIM, and if you don't feel like chatting, you have to either use parental controls to block all messages, or block all your friends, which isn't very nice.


5. AOL's over-enthusiastic spam filters, which are server level, often block legitimate mail as well as spam. I have a friend who uses a lesser known ISP, and her email simply isn't allowed to be delivered to me, not even to my Spam folder.


6. The browser constantly freezes.


7. Can't access many secure sites, although I can if I use IE7 or Firefox.


8. Can only download email into Outlook Express for the AOL screen name I'm signed into, and not all my AOL email accounts
.

9. Uses IMAP for email, so I can't poll other POP3 email accounts.


10. Doesn't allow me to export my favourites or address book into another program - a ploy to force people from leaving AOL.


11. The software has to be regularly uninstalled and reinstalled.


12. The software frequently loses my dial up settings.

I could go on forever in this vein. Although I have the hassle of manually copying and pasting all my favourites into another browser, and I'll have to get new email addresses, I think it's time to kiss this shoddy product goodbye. The fact that ntl offered me broadband for just £13.99, saying the £4 discount is permanent was the clincher - just £4 a month more than that nasty AOL thing. I could have had my three services for £30, but I'd have lost my 5p talk plan and 20 channels, including one of my favourites, Discovery Channel. So here's hoping ntl broadband turns out okay.