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direct connection/link up

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by lweinstein

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A friend of mine was IM'ing me the other day on an older PC and told me that they could not link up to me; Something about my software not being able to support direct connection. I was not on a network, but rather on a modem using AOL. How would they have been able to connect bing that I was on AOL. I pretty confused by the whole thing. Does this mean that it would not support streaming? Can someone explain this situation to me? Thanks.

3 replies

by brian

The best simple answer that i can think of is to say this. AOL does not give you your own IP Address. They have an IP and then route services such as web pages to you. To use certain programs a user is required to link to another computer using an IP address which functions much like your home address.

Using this analogy AOL is kind of like using a P.O. Box to get mail. This works for the Postal Mail but you can't get FedEx or UPS delivered to a P.O. Box. A P.O. box functions as an address but it is not always adequate for every service you might use.
Hope this helps!

by lweinstein

I figured it out. I was using an older verson of AIM which dooes not support streaming, images, etc. On the later versions you have the ability to do all kinds of higher quality and fun things. I knew that it was possible, I just didn't know why it wasn't possible for me.

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