Sadly, although I don't blame them. I've definitely seen a significant increase in such traffic, however, along with users on slow connections--though typically better than dial-up.
Some parts of Canada are still stuck with ADSL for wired connections and it's always a crapshoot as to how much bandwidth you'll get with it. My last ADSL connection was rated at 1MB up and 6MB down but I was lucky to get half that most of the time. So there's definitely still a middle ground between dialup and actual fast connections.
@Mendalla I was thinking more around the 128-512 kbps range. Prior to 2020, there was already a lot of growth in countries where cell service is the primary way to access the internet--ADSL isn't even an option. During 2020, I've also seen an increase in registrations from users in the US who only have cell service (no wired internet), often with cheap devices. Those devices can technically handle higher speeds, but bandwidth is often costly, given the low up-front price of the device. Both of those situations are likely comparable to what we're seeing here--bandwidth, device age, and device power are all possible factors. I don't think the issue is the AOL browser itself, assuming it's actually that newer Chromium-based one.
The extension installed with the AOL browser claims to provide some odd security benefits, so it's possible it's blocking necessary resources or interfering in some other way, but I wasn't able to reproduce that.
The extension installed with the AOL browser claims to provide some odd security benefits, so it's possible it's blocking necessary resources or interfering in some other way, but I wasn't able to reproduce that.
