IT consulting and tech support blog
How is AOL Still Earning Most of its Money from “AOL Connect” Subscribers?
Published April 10, 2013
I remember when I received my first “internet capable” computer; it was a long time ago on my birthday in July. If you know anything about July in the southeast, you know it’s typically hot, humid and sticky. This weather is far too miserable to spend any real time outside. And until receiving my first computer, there was no reason to hide inside during the summer, other than to catch a brief reprieve from the heat and bask in AC. But that all changed the day the Internets came to my house. In fact, not only did the Internet fairy come to my house, it came to my own ROOM! I felt like Steve Jobs, who was once quoted as saying, “I'm very excited about having the Internet in my den.” And I agree: One of coolest things ever!
I had a great time learning how to navigate the new and endless amount of information at my fingertips. Thanks to AOL I had means of connecting to the web back then. I remember how awesome it was to get email and hear “You’ve Got Mail!” out of my little desktop speakers. I also remember how insanely slow the connection was and the amount of time it took to download ANYTHING!!! The end of the world didn’t seem nearly as scary as it did when a landline telephone call would boot me offline and stifle all of my patiently awaited downloads-in-progress. At 56k max download speeds, it took a long time to download anything larger than a text document. The bigger the file, the longer it took, and the greater the chances that someone would call and muddle it all up!
Ah, those were the good ol’ days: when the Internet was fresh and new and MTV still played music videos. But that was a long time ago. With blazing fast Internet connection speeds available now to most people in major parts of the world, dial-up Internet and AOL seems like a thing of the distant past. But wait…could it be…is AOL still around? Are there STILL people out there that readily pay AOL a regular subscription fee to connect to the Internet? Well contrary to popular opinion it’s true. Not only is it true, is seems that AOL still has some meat left on its bone in the “AOL Connect” market. Unfortunately, in this case, any meat left on the bone is too much.
Recently, AOL posted its fourth quarter financial results and it was a shock to find out that they are still earning most of their money from subscribers who are still, for whatever reason, actually paying to connect to the Internet using AOL. Worse, some people pay for AOL services while paying someone else for Internet. Do people not realize that they can just get an Internet connection bundled with their cable or phone service provider? Or do they simply love the outdated, glitch and slow AOL browser/toolbar combo, plastered with ads and worthless celebrity gossip headlines? Apparently some people purposefully choose AOL, or they don’t realize contemporary avenues for more sophisticated accessibility.
Amazingly, according to the financial news site Business Insider, AOL Connect subscribers are still one of the biggest reasons AOL is staying profitable. They reported that in the fourth quarter, the company earned $176.7 million from its “Membership Group,” which is more than company’s overall $133.1 million profit. I find this shameful. AOL makes a pretty underhanded and dishonest move by misleading their customers into thinking that the company holds the magical key to the Internet. In no small way, AOL is blatantly lying to customers and stealing their money.
There are longtime AOL customers that I’ve spoken with over the past few years that still think that AOL exclusively allows online access, web browsing and email. I thought that this population was very small, with only a few pockets of people scattered throughout the U.S. But I was wrong – there are many more AOL subscribers out there than I initially thought. Fortunately the tides are slowly turning. People are becoming more technologically savvy each day by learning that Internet service isn’t nearly as complex and fixed by primary providers. Furthermore, the masses are learning that AOL isn’t the only email service that exists and that there are much better email services nowadays to choose from.
Don’t get me wrong; most of us recognize that AOL was useful (and fantastic!) in its heyday. But those days are gone for the better. Lucky other areas of the AOL corporation seems to be slowly growing since those “old school” subscribers aren’t going to stick around and line their stockholders’ pockets forever. If they don’t get it together and start focusing on new and honest ways of generating revenue, then the useful existence of AOL as a whole could be a thing of the past entirely…just like MTV.
Ribbon cutting ceremony at our new office
Published March 17, 2013
New River Computing would like to thank everybody who was able to join us and help make our ribbon cutting ceremony a success.
Our guests included NRC clients, representatives of the Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce, fellow Corporate Research Center tenants, local IT professionals, friends and family. We appreciate the support of all those who attended and are thankful for such a great turnout.
As part of the celebration, CEO Jeff Wynn gave a brief speech recognizing members or the NRC team, our clients, and family members and all those who have NRC grow as a company.
Guests enjoyed refreshments and the chance to socialize and network after the formal ribbon cutting took place.
If you want see more photos from the ribbon cutting celebration, check out the New River Computing Facebook page!
Our move to the Corporate Research Center
Published February 26, 2013
What a difference a weekend can make! Over the weekend, New River Computing moved from our Hubbard Street location to the Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center to help alleviate some welcomed growing pains. On Friday evening, despite hours of work setting things up, our new offices looked as if Godzilla had wreaked havoc in our workspace. However, thanks to the tireless (okay, we actually were REALLY tired when all was said and done) efforts by the NRC staff, we’re proud to start showing off our new primary work area.
This is how our work room looked on Monday after a weekend of setup and cleanup.
And this is what the main work room looked like on Friday evening (you don’t even want to see what it looked like Friday morning).
We’re not the only ones who are happy with our new office. We also had some visitors come by on Monday to admire the new workspace from the outside windows!
New River Computing featured in the Burgs
Published February 17, 2013
New River Computing was recently featured in The Burgs section of The Roanoke Times. NRC's Jeff Wynn and Hansen Ball were interviewed by Roanoke Times reporter Travis Williams to get some background about New River Computing's past, present, and future. The Q&A covers the beginnings of NRC, the company's commitment to serving the community, and the keys to the business' success. Wynn and Ball also discuss what they enjoy most about NRC and operating a business in the New River Valley of Virginia.You can check out the full article at The Roanoke Times online.
Q: How did you get into this business?
A: Wynn: After I got my master’s degree, I took a system administrator job in Harper’s Ferry, W.Va., for the Appalachian Trail Conservancy. I have a master’s in environmental engineering and was going to do that for a few years nonprofit. I did that for five years and just fell into doing odd consulting gigs on the side and came up here to Tech … and worked at Tech for a few years and started doing consulting gigs on the side. In ’99, Gay and Neel in Christiansburg was my first business client. After I left that Appalachian Trail Conservancy job, they hired Hansen [Ball]. So he moved up there and worked there for five years as their system administrator. In the meantime, I was down here doing these consulting gigs with Gay and Neel and then with Lester and Gillespie. So I quit my day job and started doing it full time. I became an L.L.C., and started doing things the right way. In May 2006, Hansen joined us, … and we’ve grown organically since then — up to its current nine employees.
Q: What is the key to your success?
A: Hansen Ball (company’s chief operating officer): I think it’s really building long-lasting relationships with our clients. We get to know our clients, and they get to know us, and we get to work together for the long term, both to understand their business and to relate to them on a personal level, so that we’re a little bit more than just hired guns, but at the same time trying to maintain a level of trust that they’ve given to us and keep that going.
A: Wynn: It started out, of course, as ‘if there’s a problem, give us a call,’ and that sort of morphed into this ongoing playing the role of a fully fledged IT department for smaller businesses. We’d like to think that we’re the guys that if you pick up the phone, you can get ahold of us. Whereas, a lot of times you think with an IT guy, you call and you leave a message and they’ll get back to you.
Q: What do you enjoy most about this business?
A: Ball: I enjoy getting out to different clients. We have engineering firms and accounting firms, lawyers, dentists; a bunch of nonprofits that we serve at reduced rates. It’s fun to go out and see what everybody is doing because everyone has some pretty neat stuff going on. It’s interesting to see what people are doing and then to be able to come in and help with the particular problems that they’re having or to improve some of the processes they’re using so they can be more productive.
A: Wynn: My favorite thing, without a doubt, is bringing on a new client that hasn’t been served well because we can really … get them from being in a really frustrating situation, … and then in pretty short order, we can turn them around … and at least let them function well.
Q: In what ways does your company give back to the community?
A: Ball: We serve nonprofit organizations at what we tried to calculate being our cost as opposed to making a profit off of them, and in some cases, we donate some services to particular nonprofits.
A: Wynn: We probably are active on 1,000 computers. Of those, I’d say a good 200 or so are nonprofits.
Q: What do you like best about having a business in the New River Valley?
A: Wynn: This is a great place to live, raise kids. There’s not a lot of churn in our community. We talk to people who run businesses in places like Atlanta and whatnot, and it’s sort of cutthroat, whereas here we really get to know our fellow business owners and employees.
A: Ball: What brought me back was leaving Northern Virginia and the 45 minute to an hour commute in order to come back here and have a five-minute commute and be in a much more pleasant place to live to begin with.
Microsoft Report: Most Common Malware on Operating Systems
Published February 17, 2013
It’s a commonly held opinion among IT professionals that the reason Windows is so prone to virus and malware attacks is due to its popularity. Windows powers approximately 87% of the world’s computers. While this is true, Windows’ vulnerabilities can be attributed to more than just the operating system’s popularity. Windows attacks have a lot to do with the basic architecture of the operating system itself. With each new version, the Windows operating system [typically] tends to become more secure than previous versions but, that’s not to say that the newest versions are 100% bullet proof.
Here are the most recent malware infection trends for various Windows operating systems according to the Microsoft Security Research team.
Still running Windows XP SP3 in your environment? If so, be aware that end of support for Windows XP SP3 is April 8, 2014. If you are still using Internet Explorer 6, you haven’t been receiving security updates for your browser for quite some time. It’s very important that you start planning out a migration strategy to move your systems to Windows 7 or Windows 8 within the next year. In the meantime, if you are running Windows XP with IE6, it’s critical that you upgrade to a version that is currently supported. You can download IE8 for XP here.