AOL is a really strange animal.
My advice: get rid of AOL and save money.
One of my friends just checks the scores, makes a few wagers on the internet, and sends an e-mail once in a while. He was using AOL and had nothing but problems. AOL, when it installs itself, puts its tentacles throughout your hard drive and screws EVERYTHING up.
I completely eliminated AOL from his computer and set him up with a discount dial-up ISP.
He has not had any further problems.
The browser in AOL -- well AOL says it will work just like Internet Explorer -- but the truth is -- browsing in AOL is slow and strange. Some web sites don't want to work with the AOL browser. When you deal with secure web sites, more problems.
My advice:
(a) get rid of AOL
(b) get a discount dial-up isp
(c) get a standard install of Internet Explorer
You can research discount ISP's at:
http://www.freedomlist.com
I am using
http://www.allvantage.com/
but depending upon your location, you may find better success with this or another ISP.
P.S.: There are several reasons why AOL is losing millions of customers -- and you have encountered one of the primary reasons -- you are not alone.
Hope this helps.
Dweeb