These are QUOTES from the vBulletin website with regards to problems you may have:
It's because AOHelL uses dynamic IP's which confuzzles the heck out of the calling web based application. Easy fix is not to use the AOL browser... simply log into AOL as normal, but then use IE or another browser.
Just an FYI, we've managed to resolve most of our issues, and you may want to forward this info to anyone who comes up with similar issues. This works strictly for users on IE6.
1. On your browser at the top select Tools, than Internet Options and click the Security tab.
2. Click on "Trusted Sites" (the green circle with the checkmark) and then click the "Sites" button below it.
3. Uncheck the "Require server verification (https" button if it's checked, and add the site URL to the "Add this Website to the Zone" field. Then click "Add".
4. Click "OK."
5. Next, click on the "Privacy" tab.
6. Down where it says "Web sites" click on the "Edit" button.
7. Add the bulletin board's domain and select "Always Allow."
8. Click OK twice, close your browser, re-open it and try logging on.
Worked for all but one of our users. The leftover had to remove his cookies and try it.
AOL9 uses IE and it tends to handle cookies better than previous version did
Actually the problem is with the AOL servers combined with their software and it only affects dial-up customers using their software. When you request a webpage, your computer's IP address is sent to the server and that is used partially in identification. Most computers send a single IP address, which they receive when they connect to the Internet, for a single connection session. AOL does it differently.
AOL's software uses a caching proxy server that changes your IP address with every page access even in a single session. Because of this, the user's vBulletin session is invalidated and they are forced to log in again.
There are three ways around this...
1) Use an external browser to access vBulletin based sites. While these use AOL's connection to the Internet they bypass the internal caching proxy and therefore operate like a regular ISP. All OSes come with at least one browser pre-installed so additional software will not be needed on the end-user's part. AOL actually requires Internet Explorer to be installed for its software to work.
2) Make sure the check box to be automatically logged in is checked when they log in. This will write their userid and a password hash to the cookie so they will log in invisibly on every page.
3) Upgrade to AOL's Broadband service.
You will have the same problems using AOL's software on any site that uses session based authentication which includes sites like Amazon, Yahoo and eBay.