AOL question

[JimmyK]

Does anyone know if emails etc from old screen names can be recovered from the "organize" files in AOL? I cancelled one of my screennames and someone else now has it so I cannot recover the emails by acquiring the name again.

I suspect there must be some encrypted files that prevent old organize files being selected instead of the current screennames.

Before you ask, I havent asked aol, they dont make it easy so I suspect they have some wierd reason for not making it easy.

[gucciman]

go into the aol keyword "tech chat" and ask them your question

[JimmyK]

hi gucciman,

thanks for the reply: your suggestion is the obvious answer, but as I said, aol does not make it easy to do this. when you create a new screenname, you lose the old one (naturally): however, they do not offer an option to save all the old stuff. yes of course they only allow a limited number of screennames, but to deny access to archives from the old ones is a bit much in my eyes!

the stuff is still there in the organize folder, but starting aol only allows the current names to be viewed.

so, any hackers out there, is there an (encrypted?) file that lists the current screennames that could be modified to sort this for use offline?

its not the end of the world, nothing like that, but if anyone knows a way I would love to hear it (I would love to hack it myself, just for the hell of it, but am just not clever enough)

[Kendo]

As far as I was aware,if you cancel a screen-name,aol hold it for six months if you want to re-activate it.If you don`t I thought it got permanently deleted and that nobody else would be allocated the same screen name.This stems from the case of the sacked AOL employee having databases of screen names

[JimmyK]

Hi Gucci interesting answer, I admit I was going on second hand info that someone else had the name, I haven't tried to revive it as all my others are used up anyway and I don't want to delete them temporarily. I hadn't heard of the bit about the sacked employee, sounds like something an employee might try tho!

so anyway, does any programmer/hacker out there have any ideas about doing it offline, just to recover emails etc?