Staying Connected with America
Online!
(How to Prevent
AOL Disconnects by killing timers with Stay Connected!)
Introduction
Due to heavy demand from America Online subscribers requesting our
product Stay Connected! to work with America Online, we've decided to take
the opportunity to enhance our product to support AOL users as well.
Problem Domain
The problem domain is that, when there is no activity from the user
interacting with AOL browser, AOL actually pops up a message informing
users that they've been idle for a while and users will be disconnected
automatically if they don't respond by clicking "OK" or "Yes" button. When
we mention "no activity", we need to stress a point that AOL actually goes
ahead and disconnect users even if they're doing something else like downloading
large files, surfing the net with Netscape browser, or chatting with their
buddies on IRC, without the need to go into AOL browser to do something.
After the disconnection, attempting to dial-up to AOL becomes Mission
Impossible especially during peak hours.
The ride was rough when we decided to tackle this problem. It took us
quite a lot of in-house development/debugging with our Engineers as well
as remote debugging with the help of a number of die-hard fans from AOL
to solve the problem. In the following we'll be listing the problems we've
encountered. Hopefully you'll be able to understand the problems and various
steps we've taken to cross the hurdle.
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Latest Updates and Announcements
News Flash (Jan 18th, 2001) Stay Connected! v3.1 now works with AOL 6
and below.
News Flash (Sept 5th, 2000) Stay
Connected! v3.0 with its new configuration wizard makes for easier configuration
for AOL and CompuServe 2000 users. No change in AOL's timers.
News Flash (Feb 22nd, 2000) Stay Connected
v2.5 is now capable of closing all kinds of pop-up windows that come up when you
login.
News Flash (Sep 6th, 1999) Stay Connected
v2.3 is now capable of handling the new timer controls in the latest AOL browser i.e.
v4.0 170.24 and above including v5.0. Please refer to item #13
for a snapshot of the new timer.
News Flash (Apr 12th, 1999) Stay Connected v2.2 is released.
This version handles the new timer with no timer title as well as NetZero timers.
News Flash (Apr 5, 1999) Stay Connected
goes into final testing and is being prepared for release.
News Flash (Mar 17, 1999) Beta
testers have reported limited success with the new revision. As we are
also enabling compatability with NetØ we decided
to release a new version that takes care of the new timer as well as NetZero.
News Flash (Feb 26, 1999) Reports
that AOL has once again changed their timer. This new timer apparently
does not have a timer title and is currently only affecting certain regions
of the country. We are currently investigating this new timer and preparing
to release a new revision to handle this. Please refer to item #12
for a snapshot of the new timer.
News Flash (Mar 19, 1998) Stay
Connected! v2.0 is released. This release features new options for AOL
users like automatic sign on and launch of web browser and more.
News Flash (Jan 08, 1998) Stay
Connected! v 1.33 is released. This release fixes the incompatibility with
AOL address book, AOL clock and other AOL "OK" buttoned windows. Please
read item #11 for more information.
News Flash (Jan 03, 1998) Stay
Connected! v 1.32 is now compatible with AOL 4 preview release. Please
read item #10 for more information.
News Flash (Dec 22, 1997) New AOL
patch released less than 48 hrs after confirmed reports. Please read item
#9
and for more information.
News Flash (Dec 20, 1997) Confirmed
reports that AOL has again changed the timer. Please read item #8
for more information.
News Flash (Apr 26, 1997) Please
read item #5, #6 and #7 below titled "Development History"
for more information regarding the latest issue with AOL.
For more product information and screen shots, please
visit our product pages.
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Development History
1. Initially AOL was displaying a relatively simple screen to inform
users to log-off when there isn't any activity going on with the AOL browser
(see Figure 1). This wasn't too hard to solve, we managed to add the routine
to help AOL users stay connected by clicking the "Yes" button.
This routine was added to our v1.2 release on Mar 12, 1997.
Figure 1
2. So we thought the problem was solved. Nope! Figure 1 only pops up when
you're connected to AOL via TCP/IP. We did not realize that there are more
screens we're not aware of until we've been yelled by a few AOL users that
the program DOES NOT WORK!
3. Fine, we requested users to send us proof via bitmaps and they gladly
did so. Please see Figure 2.
Figure 2
4. Now we're really surprised to see this. All our engineers don't see
this screen! How are we going to debug this problem? So we attempted and
none of our effort worked. We have to turn our help to those people who
can see this screen and tell them tons of technical details and steps to
take in order to capture Figure 2's hidden information. Million thanks
to these die-hard AOL users, we were able to find the problem after attempted
to debug remotely no less than a dozen of times. Finally the problem was
solved and we released v1.2a on Mar 21, 1997.
5. Everything worked out fine and we had a lot of satisfied
AOL users until Apr 24, 1997 where AOL browser decided to change the TITLE
of
Figure 2 (please refer to Figure 3).
Figure 3
6. If you compare Figure 2 to Figure 3, you'll notice that AOL actually
changes the TITLE from "America Online" (shown in
Figure 2) to "America Online Timer" (shown in Figure 3), thus breaking
all previous releases. We were flooded with frustrated users complaining
that Stay Connected isn't working as promised. Headaches, time to get back
to work even on the weekend.
7. With our release, v1.3, we've fixed this "title inconsistency" problem.
On top of that, we've also added a screen to customize the TITLE
just in case AOL decides to change the TITLE again (shown
in Figure 4):
Figure 4
8. AOL has changed their timer title from "America
Online Timer" to "America Online". As a result, Stay Connected ceased to
work with your AOL browser.
Figure 5
We anticipated this previously, that is why we put the option to set
the timer title in version 1.3.
Initial reports were that the timer change cannot be done or was not
working. We were scratching our heads as we thought AOL has got us this
time! As we worked through the long night going through hundreds of feedback
from users. We discovered it was a bug on our part that the timer title
option on Stay Connected! did not update itself. But the timer change to
the program has been made internally. Also, the "Apply" button (Figure
4) was not enabled in this version, causing more confusion. We apologize
to all users who experienced this confusion.
9. It's the last week end to Christmas but all our
staff volunteered to stay in till late, taking turns going out for supper.
The bug fix was almost done, we just need to prepare for the release. The
AOL patch and Stay Connected! v 1.31 went on line in the early hours
Monday morning, less than 48hrs since the timer change was confirmed. Then
its a long day ahead as the engineers double as support staff to answer
the ever flooding mails coming in from AOL users.
10. Its been a challenge staying connected with AOL.
As more and more AOL users try the preview release of AOL 4, our mailbox
get flooded with more and more users requesting compatibility with the
AOL beta. This time, we wanted to stay a little ahead of AOL to ensure
a smooth transition for users who will eventually upgrade to AOL 4 (Figure
6). So back to the drawing board and our beta testers. Some of our engineers
celebrated the New Year in the office.
As of version 1.32, Stay Connected! is compatible with AOL 4
beta releases and we hope it will be the same for its final release.
Figure 6
11. We understand how important Stay Connected! is to
AOL users. In our haste to rush a fix for the new AOL timer and provide
compatibility for the new AOL 4 preview release, a bug was introduced
in Stay Connected! 1.32 in which Stay Connected! will click the "OK" buttons
on AOL address book, AOL clock and other "OK" buttoned windows. This bug
is fixed with version 1.33. Again, we apologize to all AOL users for the
inconvenience caused. Our servers are overloaded during this period due
to the huge surge of mails and download traffic. We will attempt to update
our global mirror sites as soon as possible to ease the traffic congestion.
This has been a very hectic period for all our staff. (3 releases in one
month!). inKline Global gratefully thanks all its staff members and beta
testers for their extra efforts during this period. inKline Global also
wishes to thank all AOL users for their understanding and patience.
What's next? Some overdue Christmas/New Year time off and back to the
drawing board again. We're working on a new version of Stay Connected!
with more features and options. Stay tuned! Stay Connected!
12. The new AOL Timer with NO timer title.
Figure 7
13. AOL has released another timer control in their browser
version 4.0 revision 170.24 and above. This version as you can see has no timer
control title and have changed from having 'OK' to 'Yes' and 'No'.
Figure 8
We hope that there will not be anymore problems coming up in the future,
though we suspect AOL is not going to stop here. However, rest assure that
we'll try our best to tackle and solve any of these "features" that AOL
put up in a timely manner. Please bookmark this page and check back with
us when you run into problems with staying online continuously with AOL.
We'll place any latest information available on this screen to inform you.
Once again, thanks to all those who helped us along the way to develop
this program. We like to take this opportunity to thank the following people
who has spent numerous hours patiently with us to make this utility come
true:
Steve Pettengill
John
Walter H. Danny
Doug Elliot
Kayboon Tan
Dina Isaac
Carolyn Wold
Doug
Ted A. Nichols II.
Gary Bowles
Mike
Bob
Marty
and many others who has helped out but we were unable to thank them
personally.
Cheers,
inKline Global Development Team
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