AMERICA ONLINE HAS been slapped with two more class-action lawsuits. The lawsuits allege that the latest version of AOL's Internet software makes changes to customers' PCs that make it hard, if not impossible, for them to connect to alternative ISPs.

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The most recent lawsuits were filed Wednesday in New Jersey and Tuesday in Oregon. They seek class-action status on behalf of all users in those states who installed AOL Version 5.0. They follow similar lawsuits filed earlier this year in Washington, Arizona, Virginia, Colorado, and Ohio.

The Virginia lawsuit is seeking $8 billion in damages.

The claims made in all of the lawsuits are similar, and relate to the most recent version of AOL's Internet software -- AOL Version 5.0 -- released in October of last year.

AOL failed to inform customers that installing the AOL 5.0 upgrade would make "dramatic changes" to their operating systems and would interfere with their ability to connect to competing ISP networks, according to a statement issued Wednesday by Hagens Berman, a law firm handling four of the lawsuits, including the two most recent filings.

"AOL 5.0 promised users 500 free hours of faster, better Internet access," Attorney Steve Berman said in Wednesday's statement. "But in reality many novice users found that once they installed AOL 5.0, removing the software was nearly impossible. This was a brazen attempt by AOL to hold these customers hostage as long as they wanted to connect to the Internet."

After filing the initial lawsuit against AOL in Washington, Hagens Berman claims to have received hundreds of phone calls and e-mail messages from disgruntled AOL users across the company prompting the law firm to expand the original lawsuit to the other U.S. states.

AOL did not immediately return a call on Wednesday about the latest lawsuits. In the past, the company has vehemently denied any wrongdoing, arguing that the features added to AOL 5.0 were requested by AOL members and are designed to provide them with more seamless access to the Internet.

Users must grant permission before any changes are made to their computer settings, and any users who agree to the changes inadvertently can find instructions in the AOL help area about how to change them back, according to AOL. The company maintains that users can use multiple ISPs with AOL Version 5.0.

The various courts have yet to approve class-action status for any of the lawsuits filed against the ISP, a spokesman for Hagens Berman said in a phone interview. He added that the approval process typically takes 30 to 90 days. The number of users represented in each lawsuit is expected to run into the tens of thousands, the spokesman said.

The four suits filed by Hagens Berman seek unspecified monetary damages. A different law firm that filed a similar complaint in January in the U.S. District Court, in Alexandria, Va., is asking the court for more than $8 billion in damages on behalf of users in that state.

In cases where several law firms file separate lawsuits alleging the same offense, the courts typically appoint one of the law firms to act as the lead litigator. The two lawsuits filed today were filed in Oregon Circuit Court in Multnomah County and New Jersey Superior Court.

America Online Inc., in Dulles, Va., is at www.aol.com.