America On-Line local access number list in an easy-to-use application

                                              Version 1.0

                           Compiled by Brian T. La Rose
                  Main Electronic Addresses: AOL: Mangler1   CI$: 76366,2114

 Description:
AOL Drop List is a stand-alone application created with the wonderful Shareware product DocMaker 3.9 by Mark Wall.  A “Drop” is a local network access number. This program contains a current (as of May 1992) list of all of the America On-Line Local Access Numbers in the United States.

This file is comprised of five chapters:

Chapter 1: Introduction
  Information on the file, program and author

Chapter 2: Midwest
  Phone numbers for Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota, Nebraska, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin.

Chapter 3: West and Pacific
  Phone numbers for Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming.

Chapter 4: SouthEast and Caribbean
  Phone numbers for Alabama, Arkansas, District of Columbia (Washington DC), Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia and Puerto Rico

Chapter 5: NorthEast
  Phone numbers for Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont

I suggest that if you are running System 7 you put an Alias of AOL Drop List in the Apple Menu Items folder so you can call it up easily while AOL is running. AOL Drop List requires ≈400k of memory to run.

If you decide to print AOL Drop List, keep this in mind:

                   Introduction: ≈ 3 pages
                        Midwest: ≈ 8 pages
              West & Pacific: ≈ 9 pages
Southeast & Caribbean: ≈ 10 pages
                       Northeast: ≈ 8 pages  
                    Total Pages: ≈ 38 pages

What does the Future Hold?
Whether or not this product is updated depends on YOU, the user. If I get good response and feedback, as well as a relatively high download count, I´ll update it more often. If I get lousy feedback and a low download count I´ll drop it. America On-Line is a great service and I know they have a lot of exciting things in our future, and I know they will be expanding their service over time, including things like 9600 Baud access.

THIS PRODUCT IS E-MAILWARE.  IF YOU USE THIS PRODUCT, PLEASE SEND ME SOME E-MAIL. Comments, suggestions, accuracy reports, whatever. If you want to send me a few bucks for the time I put into this I won´t mind either… E-Mail me for my Snail Mail address. (I did have to register DocMaker, you know…) Please DO NOT call me voice.

IF YOU TRAVEL TO CANADA and would like to use something like AOL Drop List, please let me know and I'll compile it. You could help me by providing me with the US Postal Codes for the provinces...

How to use AOL Drop List:
There are three methods:

Best (& fastest):
• Go to the File menu and select Find
•  Type in the name of the city you are trying to find
•  Click Find
•  If that's not the right city, go to the File menu and select Find Again

Alternate (& pretty quick):
I have placed several major cities from each region in the Table of Contents, so if you travel to Chicago, Minneapolis, St. Louis, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington DC, Dallas, Boston or New York City frequently, your cities are right there! Just go to the Contents menu and select Table of Contents, then select your city.

Alternate (& slowest):
• Go to the “Contents” menu and select the region that you are in. (If you are unsure consult the list above)
•  Scroll down until you find the state you want, and then keep scrolling until you find the city.
•  When you find the correct city, write down the numbers and networks for the city you are in or nearest to. (Note- SprintNet is the same as Telenet)
•  Run AOL (notice the “Transfer” item in the File menu) and put the number and network in the setup area. You're all set!

Liner Notes:
This file was compiled because a client of mine that had a PowerBook wanted to use America On-Line to send messages back and forth to his company and his family while on the road. Rather than have him access the on-line Access Number Database every time he went to a different city, I wanted to give him a list on disk.

Initially I was going to use Display DA, but the database in raw form was over 60k, and Display DA has the standard Text Edit limit of 32k. Then I remembered about DocMaker and I sent a message to Mark Wall (the author) asking if his program was suitable for my purposes. Not only did Mark respond quickly, but he also wrote a HyperCard stack to help me in converting my data for use with DocMaker.

The actual phone numbers were collected from the “What´s New and Online Support” area, in the “Local Access Numbers” folder. The collection process, file assembling and conversion, processing of the data in FileMaker Pro and loading the data into DocMaker took a total of about 15 hours.

Author Notes:
OK, I didn't really “author” this beast, I just compiled it…

Anyway, I am a 22 year old Computer Support Technician working in Madison, Wisconsin. I am a charter member of America On-Line, and have been using modems and on-line servies since about 1984. My new wife and I are both Mac fanatics, and I only deal with MS-DOS because my job depends on it.

Semi–Legal Stuff:
I provide no guarantee of accuracy for any of the numbers included in this file. If you find an inaccuracy or have a comment, please let me know electronically (preferrably at the AOL address). I am in no way responsible for any losses or damages incurred by use or misuse of this product.