 Uploaded - 28 Feb 2002 18:32
AOL deliberately makes
Web Graphics look horrible!Did you know that when you first create an AOL account, it is deliberately set up in such a way that most pictures on the Internet will look much much worse than the Web Designers intended. The reason is that AOL has its own network, with relatively few connection points to the main Internet. At these points AOL have installed large computers called Proxies which pass your requests to the main Internet and then return the results to you. These Proxy Servers also keep a copy of the page for use by other AOL users so that it doesn't need to go fetch it again from the main Internet until the page changes. These pages are stored in the Cache of the Proxy computers. Naturally this uses a lot of disk space on the Proxy computers especially for the pictures. Presumably to save money and enhance their profits, AOL do not spend as much money as they should on these Proxy computers, instead they arrange that your copy of the AOL program gives permission for the graphic pictures to be compressed by the Proxy to make its storage requirements smaller. This will work OK on poorly designed web-sites. However on well-designed web-sites, where the graphics have already been compressed by the designer as much as practical, the result of AOL's additional compression is to severely degrade the quality of the picture. So if you are an AOL user and you have not yet done so, switch off this nasty compression feature and view the web-sites in the manner intended by the page designers.
Users of AOL 6.0 and AOL 7.0
1. In the AOL Toolbar at the top of the screen, click "My AOL."
2. Scroll down to Preferences click it and the preferences window should open up.
3. Click the "www" tab and look for the "use compressed graphics button" make sure it's un-checked.
4. Exit the menus and quit AOL
5. The next time you sign on the changes will go into effect.
Users of AOL 5.0
On top of this AOL web browser window, just above the address box, there should be a button labelled [Prefs].1. Click on the prefs button as shown.
2. Click on WebGraphics.
3. Make sure there is NOT a check next to "use compressed graphics".
4. Then Click OK.
5. Quit AOL
6. The next time you sign on the changes will
take effect. Under your www settings you should also purge your local cache.
Users of AOL 4.0
To make the changes as above do this:
1.click on MY AOL
2.click on PREFERENCES
3.click on WWW
4.click on WEB GRAPHICS
5.Turn off use compresses graphics by
unchecking the box. Under your www settings you should also purge your local cache by "Delete temporary internet files".
Revised by - Bill Williams on 28 Feb 2002 at 18:51:03 | 
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