www.AOL.com is free if you have broadband.
It is not like the old AOL that you pay for, it is a bit different
but as long as you can connect to the internet you can go to
www.aol.com and it is free.
Also
www.yahoo.com, and
www.hotmail.com are free for e-mail (as far as I know) ..
I still have the paid AOL service because I am used to it and find it easier also.
But I use broadband to connect to the internet. Have not used dial-up in ages!