Among some internet users it's almost fashionable to hate AOL. However, that may be about to change. At the time of writing AOL appears to be about the only company offering a really sustainable flat-rate service in the UK, at £14.99 a month. Of course, you don't need the latest version of the software to use it, but that's what you'll get if you sign up.

Existing users will feel pretty much at home with AOL 6, but there are some changes, evident when you sign on and see the new Welcome screen.

As well as links to your mailbox and news, there's a new Calendar icon for the online diary. The email client is slightly improved too, allowing you to sort your online mailboxes by date, subject and author, and address book entries are automatically completed for you.

If you're not used to AOL, you'll find that the software is pretty straightforward, though in areas such as reading news and email it lacks the finesse of some standalone applications. You can run other programs through AOL's connection to the internet, but choosing to 'associate' AOL with your internet applications may cause problems when you want to use other ISPs.

Lurking under the hood is a copy of WinAmp, powering the AOL Media Player; you can play MP3s and plenty of other media types, including movies, directly within AOL, and you can build up play lists too. When broadband connections are finally widely available, the software will detect them and provide additional content automatically.

Not all the new features are restricted to people who have AOL 6; the new Groups facility, which provides a website and email list for members, and the AOL Calendar, both use web pages, so members who don't upgrade can access them too. The Groups facility is particularly useful: all members can make entries in a shared calendar, or add information to the web page, and you can add all the members of a group to your buddy list in one go.

No doubt die hard net users will say: "What's the point? You can get all of this elsewhere on the net." True, but AOL 6 includes, in one package, just about everything most net users will need, and all with a consistent interface.

One of the most useful aspects is the Parental Controls. Each AOL account has seven 'screen names', allowing enough for work, personal, spouse and kids. Each of those names can have different privileges, affecting access to the net as well as to AOL services. For parents, that alone could be a good enough reason to choose AOL.

However, there are some niggles. One is the pop-up messages from AOL Store, which offer you various shopping deals. You need to click these to make them go away. Also, if you want to use it simply to access the internet with the flat-rate deal, you'll find that the way TCP/IP is tunnelled over the AOL connection makes using some services fiddly, to say the least. But then AOL's not really meant for those people.

On the other hand, if you're a relative newcomer and you want something that's simple to use, with lots of information close to hand, and you appreciate having facilities like the ability to play MP3s built into a single program, not to mention a reasonably priced flat-rate deal, then AOL 6 is certainly worth a look.

Nigel Whitfield is the author of The Official AOL UK Handbook.

Contact:
AOL 0800 376 5588
www.aol.co.uk