AOL has had various issues for sometime now. Ever since AOL went to "Port Magic" as well as the installation of the "Root Ware" port management things have changed. In some ways its good, others bad.
I dont like the idea of rootware at all from an ISP as its nearly impossible to remove unless one is a programmer (I am). In many cases one must write custom code to remove rootware vectoring basically and even at that it can be very troublesome to get rid of.
AOL instituted these "features" for protection of users (though I assume there is more to it as well such as effective connection load balancing resulting in the ability to scale down connection servers based on demand and save $$$). AOL will rotate connection and thus "IP" as well. This is good if your being subject to varied forms of spyware or other "IP" related security threats/attacks.
It can however result as well in connections slowing/speeding, varied software simply not functioning proper etc.
Last I knew AOL's browser was still using the Microsoft "Web Control" (ActiveX) for the browser window.
There are issues in the way the AOL Rootware works especially when they are working on changes to the lowest levels of the code.
For example, there was a time when no matter WHAT browser you were running and no matter whether you were logged into AOL or not your local connection went through their software.
In other words whether you used a Cable Modem from Time Warner or DSL etc. If you had AOL installed the data connection still went through the AOL Rootware.
Again, good and bad. Bad in that the extra levels of code could impact speed (slightly) direct. Bad in that if AOL's servers were bogged so was your speed. Good in that it offered protection as noted above.
Essentially you can think of it as AOL being a Proxy. Your web browser sends a request to AOL for a web page. AOL's server(s) get the web page and then send it back to your browser .vs. you going direct to a given website.
Perhaps AOL has made recent changes so now ONLY if you are logged into AOL or using AOL's software it goes through their "proxy" (if you will). Would'nt surprise me as again it'd save money.
I had to set up a PC last year for someone using Lavasofts Adaware and Firewall. Adaware's no sweat but due to the way AOL was operating pertinent to web browsers it was a pain trying to get the Firewall to actually protect the PC. In fact in the end I believe we just went with the McAfee Firewall AOL was providing.
McAfee loves to eat up CPU cycles and will happily slow up any PC considerable like on a full install.
If Auctiva has a slow down you'd see GOBS of people complaining. When you do not see GOBS of people you should suspect your connection, your PC and/or services. For example there is a good amount of malware that will essentially hijack your connection. Additionally alot of these malware types of programs will NOT readily be detected by virus scanners or even many of the traditional anti-spyware/computer security tools.