Alternate Instant Messanger

[Pboro13]

What are the best Instant Messanger programs out there besides AIM, Yahoo, or ICQ? I'm just lookin for a basic one, no fancy GUI or ads or anything.

[dverma75]

try easy message http://easymessage.net/

or trillian http://trillian.cc

[MoonMan]

Well, trillian's skin can be changed and it supports using all three of the instant messengers you listed above.

[shawners]

i heard trillion was good.. now days alot of them will have ads.. YAHOO For one.

[PhR34x0r]

the best IM out there is Miranda. U can add plugins for any network. Its open source, so no ads, no spyware, its free and it ROCKS. -> http://www.miranda-im.org/

[zaphodiv]

Idle on an IRC channel with your friends 24/7/365

[condorloco]

have you tried GAIM it connects to popular IM

[RACKnRAIL]

I'll second Trillian. I use Trillian Pro and have so for a couple of years. I use MSN and Yahoo on Trillian and my kids use it for ICQ and MSN. No ads or nags!

[mcovey]

If you really want simple and light, try easymessage. It's got no ads, and you can turn off the "today" window that pops up with user-updated news in it. Gaim runs a little slow for me, and I can't say anything about trillian because the last time i tried it was right after it came out, but i found it had too many features for what i wanted. Miranda is a bit difficult to get going but it's probably the smallest/lightest of all, not even requiring an installation (avail. as zip).

[cjules13]

noob question - who knows how to get trillian through a firewall? The basic menus aren't helping me out - and ever since I got a router I can't connect...

[McMaster2x3]

trillian also connects to MSN messenger

[McMaster2x3]

hehe, msn kicks ass

[Lehk]

I have to second the motion for Gaim, it connects to all standard networks (AIM,MSN,Yahoo,ICQ) as well as jabber, groupwise and gadu-gadu (don't ask me what the last to are, i never heard of them either) Gaim integrates the accounts nicely and makes it easy to select which accounts automatically connect, if any.

[RACKnRAIL]

noob question - who knows how to get trillian through a firewall? The basic menus aren't helping me out - and ever since I got a router I can't connect...
I use Trillian with a Netgear router and Sygate firewall. I never had to forward any ports with my router. I simply granted access to the Internet via Sygate and that was it. I suspect your router needs to be configured for it. Try here: http://www.ceruleanstudios.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=47362

[GoogleThis]

Miranda is the only way.

[mountain_rage]

If you often use webcam I would highly recommend eyeball chat it works great

[g-smooth2k]

Trillian Pro is good to go with.

anyone used Odigo, Miranda, Easy Message, or Jabber????

[mr.jip]

ive used miranda and easy message,

miranda is decent,but in the chat screen its hard to tell text from user names as they are on the same line as opppose to screen name on one line and teh text on the bottom,

easy messenger, is the one im using atm..but i can have my flat eric smillie on it :( !

[tlogank]

is there a plug-in for Miranda that allows it to do tabbed messaging?

I currently use Aim w/DeadAIM @ home, and GAIM @ work. I have tried Trillian, it was so so. Also, I was wondering if EasyMessage supported tabbed messaging?

I find tabbed messaging the most convenient feature a service can offer.