Randy said:
Which version of AOL is it though? 9 or 9 Optimized? Also, what OS and
IE version are you using? AOL doesn't have its "own" browser, it uses a
shell of IE as its internal browser. So, the underlying IE version will
have an impact on AOL.
If you are using AOL9 on Win98 with IE5, then AOL will use IE5 as a
shell, yet if you install that same AOL on WinXP with IE6 SP2, then it
will use the IE6 SP2 for its shell.
From my experience doing technical support AOL only partly uses the IE
dll files & partly skips on others. This is because they refuse to use
the standard 32-bit TCP/IP protocol that Windows comes with & insist on
using a 16-bit TCP/IP stack. If you want proof of this try publishing a
FrontPage 2002 web while connected to AOL. It will never work, but if
you have a regular Internet connection you will be able to because you
are no longer using the 16-bit TCP/IP stack that they insist on using.
You are correct in saying they don't have there own true browser but it
still isn't 100% IE because of several scripting limitations built into
the AOL browser.
One last thing some of the later versions of AOL (I think starting at
about 6.0 install new.net which is known to cause all sorts of TCP/IP
related issues as well as the WAOL caused an IPF in module kernel32.dll
error that AOL is known to flog customers over to Microsoft for even
though it is just that they installed software the is not compatible
with the AOL client.