One of our readers, Glauco Cavalcanti, ORDSW, wrote in with the following suggestion: (thanks Glauco!)

HOW TO USE UNITED AT HOME with AOL 9.0

1. Go to INTERNET OPTIONS
2. Go to the last tab (ADVANCED)
3. Scroll down and UNCHECK JAVA (SUN)
4. CHECK ALL MICROSOFT VM
5. Check JAVA CONSOLE
6. Check JAVA Log in
7. Check JIT compiler
8. Go down and click APPLY, then OKAY.

I have not personally tested this procedure on all computer platforms, but hopefully this will help point people in the right direction.  Because of the large amount of e-mail coming in with technical questions, I'm going to have to direct everyone to please contact the cause the problem: AOL.  If you are experiencing any AOL or Unimatic connectivity problems, please contact their Technical Support: 1-800-466-5463 or their customer service at: 1-877-340-1014 (outside US: 1-703-476-0514).

Remember also that you must (unfortunately) have an AOL account in order to access home Unimatic.  The #1 e-mailed subject I receive daily is people thinking that all they need is a membership to Jumpseatnews and this will allow them Unimatic access!  If only that were true...

If, when speaking with AOL or whoever, you learn of any ideas or workarounds for this, feel free to send it in and I'll publish it in the Home Unimatic Help Center.

Another source of great AOL posted technical information is the BidPlus site.

Note: you do not need to upgrade to AOL 9.0 anyway to access Unimatic, it will work just fine on versions 7 and 8.