XP Home with AOL 9.0 Broadband. I have read a lot of threads on the Forum concerning privacy and internet cleaners etc. and whether or not they are effective at deleting files beyond recovery. I am not so much interested in the privacy aspect but I've found a number of good tidying up programmes on this forum to get rid of the internet clutter. I use either Firefox, Mozilla, Opera, or K-meleon for browsing but when I first went on to the internet with AOL last year I used their own browser with Topspeed. If you are an AOL user and you use this browser, or have used it, go to My Computer\Tools\Folder Options\View and click on "Show hidden files and Folders". Navigate to C (or the letter of your hard drive)\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\AOL\Storage. Inside the Storage folder you will find a cache data base file. On my comp the size of this file was 256mb. I have spent a lot of time on google trying to find out what this file is for and I've come to the tentative conclusion that it is the cache for the Topspeed technology. I tried to open the file with Notepad but it is so large I gave up after a while and I'm not sure that Notepad is the correct application for the job. I have read that the maximum size of the Topspeed cache is half your ram when AOL is installed. I used to have 512mb of ram so that figure ties up. Again, I've read that if you have 256mb of ram or less then Topspeed does not cache anything. So, although I regularly clean up the internet clutter I had this massive file on my comp full of, well, internet clutter. After turning off Topspeed in "Settings\Internet (Web Browser) Settings", I copied the cache file to a cd and then sent the original to the Recycle Bin. I used Notepad to create a cache.db file with nothing in it and plonked this into the Storage Folder so at least there is a cache.db file there but with nothing in it. I've used the AOL browser since, with Topspeed turned off, and it works quite normally. I am interested in getting rid of clutter rather than any privacy concerns but, if you use the AOL browser with Topspeed turned on, then at least you should be aware that this file exists. I have been using the internet for less than a year so if this is of interest to anyone you should probably wait for one of the experts to confirm, or otherwise, what I've written before you go deleting anything.
You are the first person to tlwl me how to clean that stuopid thing. I went into the aol live help about 20 time altogether. They gave me isntrctiosn that could not be done beause the options they said to go into did not exist. They are completely useless. I like you turned that option off i even blocked it from accessing the internet to make sure.
According to AOL Help site....you are absolutely correct about the Top Speed cache....and I wished they would have had that service way back when we first had AOL. About TopSpeed™
Thank you Michael and Bubba. Thanks Bubba for clarifying the size of the cache. I had thought it was half your ram at the time AOL was installed but it is as you have stated.
Another issue with TopSpeed is that it runs as a server on your PC, accepting incoming connections from AOL. This can result in your PC failing stealth tests (since TopSpeed will open port 443) unless you configure your firewall to restrict incoming connections to those from AOL only (see AOL9 Opens Port 443).
Now that's not good, from my own observations most port scanning attacks that hit my computer at random are blocked by my firewall, and I observe that the port scanning thing usually attempts to hit port 443 on my computer and a few other ports. So, if this piece of AOL TopSpeed software OPENS port 443 on somebody's computer, it's opening up the computer to even greater risks. If the user has a firewall installed, they should be safe. No 100% foolproof protection. Those people who do not have a firewall are at extremely high risk. For your info: Port 443 is the HTTPS port.
