Lots of people who use AOL seem to have problems connecting. I don't know of any simple answers. Have you seen AOL upgrade causing connection problems? Remember it's only wise to keep one firewall active since 2 can interfere with each other. Firewall configuration instructions (click on link) If you are using McAfee firewall or another then disable windows XP firewall (go to the control panel, double click on Windoze Firewall, check the disable box.)

Oh & re: earlier poster about search is too specific see Search is too Specific (click on link)