I got into the aol tech chat and asked the geeks there.

Their suggestion was to check the ISDN drivers which are working fine with every other application including AOL 7.0.

Why does it always go from bad to worse?

1. Open the "AOL system information" program. On my computer it can be found at: "C:\Program Files\Common Files\aolshare\sysinfo\sinf.exe"
Under the "utilities" tab, click the "uninstall aol adapter" (aol can't be running). When aol reloads, it will reinstall the network adapter--i think it then needs a reboot. This may help.

2. Delete temporary internet files, including all offline content.

3. If you're using IE 6; go to the add/remove program control panel. Bring-up the Microsoft Internet Explorer dialog, select "repair" and click ok.

If you have system restore "inactive" then try installing 7.0 again,