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Preferred Instant Messenger software?


kmack
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Yo, IM and IRC clients still use the same protocol (ICQ), dont they?

 

Not at all ! These are three different things.

 

There are several IM (short for instant messengers) : yahoo, msn, jabber... each one uses it's own protocol (it's a bit more complex for jabber, however).

 

IRC is a protocol itself. Xchat is a client for this protocol, but several clients are available for this protocol : bitchx, mirc, even kopete, etc...

 

I don't know a lot about ICQ, but it's probably the oldest IM (or the ancestor of IM).

 

All those protocols are incompatible : you can't create a "chatroom" with people from yahoo, people from msn, people from icq, people from irc. However, some clients (like kopete) implement all these protocols, so you can chat with people on IRC, on msn, etc... but you'll see them in different windows.

 

I guess the best for you is to get xchat and try (it's available for free under windows and linux). I think you'll get the concept very quickly. Maybe browse the web a little to help you out during your first steps on irc. I know the undernet network is also giving "courses" to newbies on IRC : see on their website www.undernet.org

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damn, thats news to me. I guess I was totally lost. anyway, I'm gonna try out Xchat and see how it does. I had trouble installing it last night cuz my compiler wasn't working right. but I think I can handle that. so Kopete can handle IRC also?

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IRC is a protocol itself. Xchat is a client for this protocol, but several clients are available for this protocol : bitchx, mirc, even kopete, etc...

 

I don't know a lot about ICQ, but it's probably the oldest IM (or the ancestor of IM).

Not even nearly! Who remembers Pow-Wow? From tribal.com (obviously not anymore - the domain changed hands ages ago) -> that was the first Instant Messenger I ever used. It had a lot of things that the new ones don't either - scetchboard, etc.... ah, the memories :woops:

 

Used to chat to my girlfriend overseas with it. Anyway, Pow-Wow was the great grand-daddy of ICQ, I'm not sure if there were IMs before it, can't remember.

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Good input and discussion... almost like the old days on this board! Yahooo! :D Thanks for everyone's input. I've been sidetracked doing some tsunami related tech stuff. Lots of good help from IBM and other big corps. Nice to see that!

 

Sorry I have not been updated so am slow to reply. For some reason the board no longer lets me know when someone is posting. I'll have to check my settings to see what is up.

 

Gonna play with my webcam shortly and see what I can get going. :P

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  • 2 weeks later...
I was under the impression they were compatible.

 

Yes they are : I have successfully set up a webcam conversation between netmeeting (running on a windows box) and gnomemeeting (running on a linux box). If your webcam is supported by linux, it's as easy as opening gnomemeeting, netmeeting and typing in the hostname of the other box in the adress bar.

 

Gnomemeeting is able to use H323 protocol. It's an "open" communication protocol which can be used for webcam communications (contrary to msn "webcam" protocol). This may answer most of your questions :

http://www.gnomemeeting.org/index.php?rub=...ndex.html#AEN21

 

You can chat with cool people using this protocol look at this : http://www.gnomemeeting.org/admin/screensh...g_In_A_Call.png :woops:

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  • 4 weeks later...
I don't know a lot about ICQ, but it's probably the oldest IM (or the ancestor of IM).

ICQ is like the father of AOL Instant Messenger. But recently, I think ICQ is now merged with the AIM Server (oscar.aol.com). So now AIM and ICQ clients are completely compatible. Heck, under gaim, ICQ and AIM are under the same option!

... I use Gaim for AIM. There are many better chat protocols out there, such as IRC, but everyone I know personally uses AIM... :wall: .

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