I Need A Recommendation For A Messaging Client

moultano · May 2004

<div class="IPBDescription">Dead Aim is now unstable</div> Up until this point I have been using Dead AIM, which hacks AIM to remove the ads and adds functionality. With AIM updates however the version I have has become unstable, and updated versions of Dead AIM require payment. I'm looking for a new AIM client that satisfies the following set of criteria.

- Full AIM network support including <b> File-transfers, direct-connect,</b> and preferrably talk and video.
- Tabbed chat windows
- Conversation logging
- No ads
- Unskinned or with the ability to turn off the skin.
- Free

If anyone has any recommendations that fit these criteria it would be a great help. Thanks.

john_sheu · May 2004

I use GAIM myself, being a Linux/open-source zealot <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' />

It's nice and has some cool features, but it's not entirely mature; it support a whole crapload of protocols and works well with plain AIM, but file-transfer is a bit buggy. BTW it does have a cool tabbed-window feature; you can drag tabs off the window to make them into separate windows, or drag a window into another one to merge them as one tabbed window.

AllUrHiveRblong2us · May 2004

Trillian. 'Tis quite useful, it has all the features you're gonna need, and certainly all the ones I or most people ever do. It's free as well.

RuBy · May 2004

since gaimand trillian have been mentionned I'm gonna go ahead and suggest miranda along with that. Its a very nice IM client which supports any protocol you can find and has most features you'd want either built in or through its numerous plugins <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif' />

Quaunaut · May 2004

</div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (AllUrHiveRBelong2Us @ May 2 2004, 06:23 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> Trillian. 'Tis quite useful, it has all the features you're gonna need, and certainly all the ones I or most people ever do. It's free as well.  </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> 
Forget anything anyone else says- this is all you need.

OttoDestruct · May 2004

</div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Quaunaut @ May 2 2004, 08:46 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> </div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (AllUrHiveRBelong2Us @ May 2 2004, 06:23 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> Trillian. 'Tis quite useful, it has all the features you're gonna need, and certainly all the ones I or most people ever do. It's free as well. </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'>
Forget anything anyone else says- this is all you need.  </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> 
Except Miranda IM does exactly what Trillian does, and then some because of the plugins, and it uses less resources.

Zel · May 2004

www.trillian.cc

Mullet · May 2004

I use deadaim and it works fine..... <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/confused.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='confused.gif' />

moultano · May 2004

</div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Mullet @ May 2 2004, 09:12 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> I use deadaim and it works fine..... <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/confused.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='confused.gif' />  </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> 
I'm sure the newer versions do, but the version I have doesn't play well with the newer versions of aim.

Thanks for your help everyone. Can anyone verify for me whether Trillian works with the AIM direct connect protocol? I couldn't find anything about it on the site, and the fact that they mention every other protocol they support makes think that it doesn't.

AllUrHiveRblong2us · May 2004

/me looks at his own open trillian windows, sees the button marked "Direct Connect" in the corner.

Yeah, I think it supports direct connect.

Speed_2_Dave · May 2004

I'm going to be perfectly honest--I use trillian (FREE VERSION), and I use it a lot (over 10k hours). It has its quirks--it doesn't work with Y! messenger, your profile gets eaten regularly upon exit, and a few other quirks.

Direct connect works. Sometimes <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/confused.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='confused.gif' /> I have yet to figure out what causes it to work, or not work. I used to think it was AIM or something, but honestly, I have no clue.

I assume the for-pay version is slightly better updated than the free one. Just sayin'

Umbraed_Monkey · May 2004

</div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (OttoDestruct @ May 2 2004, 08:49 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> </div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Quaunaut @ May 2 2004, 08:46 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> </div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (AllUrHiveRBelong2Us @ May 2 2004, 06:23 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> Trillian. 'Tis quite useful, it has all the features you're gonna need, and certainly all the ones I or most people ever do. It's free as well. </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'>
Forget anything anyone else says- this is all you need. </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'>
Except Miranda IM does exactly what Trillian does, and then some because of the plugins, and it uses less resources.  </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> 
Actually wrong. Miranda does what you need it to. If you have no use for the other protocols (it sounds like you only need AIM), you can disable it. AFAIK, trillian loads everything (MSN, ICQ, AIM, IRC, Yahoo!) everytime it runs. So beyond the lower res use that Otto said, you can lower it further by turning off things.

Miranda is naturally unskinned. It also cannot be skinned unless you go out and find a rare plugin.

moultano · May 2004

I'm trying miranda at the moment and I'm having a few issues with it. I haven't found a way to read a person's away message, and it is impossible to click on links in someone's profile. I also can't find a way to tab the chat windows, and though it may be available in a plugin I haven't been able to find it. Do any miranda users know of fixes for any of these?

Leaderz0rz · May 2004

<a href='http://aimutation.com/portal.php' target='_blank'>http://aimutation.com/portal.php</a>

read the big bold letters on the site before u download

coil · May 2004

I'm a huge fan of Trillian; I use it for all 5 supported services (though Y!M is currently broken, but who actually uses Y!M anyway?). It supports multi-user chats, tabbing, direct connect, email notification, file transfers, and more. Logging is on by default, and there are a billion skins (including skins that emulate standard Windows, though I personally *highly* recommend "Microscopic").

It doesn't support:
- AIM directory sends
- Y!M (at the moment, anyway)
- IRC scripting (at least, not without plugins that I haven't bothered looking for)

I haven't been able to get Direct Connect to work through my router, but it used to work when I was on my university's network.

I've never had my profile "eaten" as Speed 2 Dave mentioned.

I currently use the most up-to-date version of Trillian Pro, which is not free, but all the above features were supported in the last version of the free client that I used. The only thing I've found that Pro offers and the free one doesn't is audio/visual highlighting.

I Need A Recommendation For A Messaging Client

Comments