[TobiasMar]

Well, as for me, Yahoo! Messenger, which I got today. Its alot like MSNM (which used to be my favorite), exept you can leave messages for offline contacts unlike MSMN, and its kinda conveniant, so yeah.

[l3lueMage]

Sorry, You forgot one >_> TRILLIAN whcih has all the messengers in 1, and it has all the functionalities of all the messenger plus 10x more emoticons, PLUS u can leave away messages in msn yahoo all of them in just one click and u can even do the /me thing so it says something like:
Matt thinks trillian is better
instead of
Matt says:
thinks trillian is better
u just put /me at the beginning of ur sentence ^^

[TobiasMar]

Oh, sorry, I never heard of Trillian

[Neon]

Trillian is cool, but it has it's flaws. If you're using it primarily for MSN, like I do, it's better to just use the real MSN messenger. Trillian screws a few things up, and MSNM is perfect for everything that messanger can do.

If you have friends over several messenger networks. Trillian is perfect for you. I always use it when I'm on IRC and MSN.

[Nobody]

I would vote for Yahoo messenger, but MSN is more popular, so I think it is the best, overall.
Anyway, this "Trillian" messenger sounds somewhat like ICQ; you can IM ICQ and AIM users; a very convenient thing, especially with the recent update of AIM terms of service.

[l3lueMage]

ICQ is in trillian also, oh and also the good thing is u can log onto multiple accounts at once, I have logged onto 3 yahoo accounts at once, gets kinda confusing though <<
but msn limits u to 2 @@

[Nick Presta]

Besides Trillian, I think that Kopete (IM for Linux, similar to Trillian) comes in a close second, with MSN messenger is the best [single platform] messenger.

[~RangerOfFire~]

Gaim is similar to Trillian. (gaim.sf.net)

And Gimli, you can leave messages for offline contacts in MSN, just download MSN Plus! .

[Blink]

Trillian, but AIM is nice too...well, sorta....

[l3lueMage]

oh, and u forgot another Xfire >> its a messenger that tells you what game your friend is playing, and u just double click to join their game and server, its cool actually

[Valistrix]

I like MSN Messenger best, simple enough to use, I like the layou of it aswell.

[Power Piers]

I'd have to say MSN is the best. I also use AIM, but only because some of my best friends only have AIM. MSN has good features, like audio chat, it's not choppy sounding, its smooth. And the webcam feature works pretty well.

[TobiasMar]

Well, i recently tried Trillian, and IMO, it sucks, too hard to keep your contacts organized >.< My brother likes it though.

[Izar]

Trillian is not a messenger, it's just a way to package them together. I use it, and it works great. I use AIM, and I'm gunna get msn messenger.

[Andross]

I prefer Gaim over Trillian. Trillian's UI isn't very good, IMO. It may be sleek, but it isn't clean and functional.

If you mean messenger service, rather than program, I suppose MSN simply because of the extra features and more reliable backing.

[Nick Presta]

Yes, Trillians GUI sucks. Kopete is much better and I haven't had a chance to use gaim although I suppose I could try it if you convinced me.

And mess.be has a ton of msn extensions and whatnot.

[Ravenblade]

I think all of them have parts that are appalling but MSN is the one i tend to use most. It's used by most of the people i would care about speaking to and the only flaw is that the Beta version sometimes self destructs (Hence being a Beta) and that recently thy've been blitzed by various problems. I use YIM if MSN goes down but thats about it.

[l3lueMage]

I also mainly use MSN, i sometimes use trillian but rarely, I also use Xfire. I never use YIM except to talk to relatives, and AIM is just well I dunno lol I sign on for like 5 minutes every once in a while ><
I do have a buddy on it but he dissapeared wonder why o.O(not that im never on or anything )

[Nobody]

I usually use Trillian, unless someone tries to use a feature the Trillian doesn't support. But even then, it's usually only a "partial" disconnect.
I already voted, and I'm not changing my mind about this.

PS: Does anyone have ICQ? I have no ICQ contacts on my list ><

[l3lueMage]

I had ICQ, but I hated ICQ, its virus Prone also, easy to recieve viruses from it(the originall messenger not Trillian plugin) and also random people can find your name and message u, it kept hapening to me.

[Tachyon360]

I just use AIM. Even if AOL eavesdrops, it's not like I'm doing anything that really requires privacy (on a corporate level, at least - I doubt they care much about my daily life).

Ventrillo is pretty good too. It's vaguely along the lines of voice IRC. Useful for games and such.

[Crimson Barrel Knight]

l3lueMage, on Mar 12 2005, 11:46 PM, said:

Sorry, You forgot one >_> TRILLIAN whcih has all the messengers in 1, and it has all the functionalities of all the messenger plus 10x more emoticons, PLUS u can leave away messages in msn yahoo all of them in just one click and u can even do the /me thing so it says something like:
Matt thinks trillian is better
instead of
Matt says:
thinks trillian is better
u just put /me at the beginning of ur sentence ^^

Actually, Trillian's not really considered an messenger program, since, like you've stated, it's just all the messenger programs combined into one. It doesn't really make a difference, except for some bugs and strange problems, that it should be called a messenger itself.

[Tachyon360]

Trillian is considered a messenger program. Just because it doesn't use it's own, unique network doesn't mean it's not a messenger. What you said would only be true if it were nothing more than a program that provides a common interface to different messengers installed on your PC.

[l3lueMage]

Trillians network with send/recieve files works better for me then msnm, msnm keeps catching onto my firewall and slowing it down.

[Ravenblade]

Or sometimes it fails midway through for no readily apparent reason. I must say i dislike MSN's reliability in that field. YIM is better for it IMO.

[Andross]

Actually, I think mIRC is faster (if not the fastest)...I think nick commented to me that he transferred a large file in a few seconds (usually takes a minutes on others).

Trillian isn't the only one that can do those things (which are rather trivial and basic). There's Gaim for example, which is Sourceforge supported, meaning open source and possibility for custom addons and skins (if you know how to code). I'm not sure about Trillian, but it allows panel docking, an addon to have encrypted, private conversations (or supposedly; I'll check it out), and as I've said, I like the UI more, mainly because it is cleaner and straightforward (unlike Trillian, which is more about looks).

[Tachyon360]

Well, Trillan Pro uses (I believe) XML for skinning, it features a panel dock mode, and supports encryption where the supported networks use it. The interface isn't anything special, though - it's mostly similar to AIM's. IRC with Trillian Pro has been a little awkward, in my experiences.

[Crimson Barrel Knight]

Tachyon360, on Mar 15 2005, 03:18 PM, said:

Trillian is considered a messenger program. Just because it doesn't use it's own, unique network doesn't mean it's not a messenger. What you said would only be true if it were nothing more than a program that provides a common interface to different messengers installed on your PC.

But Trillian is a common interface to different messengers. It gives all the messengers abilities, and has nothing more to do with that. Simple as that.

[l3lueMage]

Andross, on Mar 15 2005, 02:54 PM, said:

Actually, I think mIRC is faster (if not the fastest)...I think nick commented to me that he transferred a large file in a few seconds (usually takes a minutes on others).

Trillian isn't the only one that can do those things (which are rather trivial and basic). There's Gaim for example, which is Sourceforge supported, meaning open source and possibility for custom addons and skins (if you know how to code). I'm not sure about Trillian, but it allows panel docking, an addon to have encrypted, private conversations (or supposedly; I'll check it out), and as I've said, I like the UI more, mainly because it is cleaner and straightforward (unlike Trillian, which is more about looks).

if you are going for transfer speed, IrcSpy aka Mirc is the fastest, I agree wtih what Andross said, but only problem is Mirc is used for illegal stuff and most of the time isnt good quality(movies), for good quality Bittorent is the best.

[Andross]

I've never used mIRC, I use BitTorrent or Limewire when needing to, um, do stuff :rolleyes:

And TrillianPro costs money. Well, you don't have to pay...but Gaim is free and open-source anyway, so I don't really see many advantages when it comes to Trillian.

[l3lueMage]

Limewire gave me like 10 viruses, and yes they were all in the directory of Limewire, I only Use bittorrent, if its not for bittorent then im not getting it...

[Tachyon360]

Crimson Barrel Knight, on Mar 15 2005, 07:43 PM, said:

But Trillian is a common interface to different messengers. It gives all the messengers abilities, and has nothing more to do with that. Simple as that.

No, it's not a common interface to different messengers. It doesn't require the programs to be installed (ie, you don't need AIM so long as you have an AIM account and Trillian, to give an example). It is therefore a standalone app and not a simple launcher.

What it does is provide the basic functionality of all the most common IM clients and utilizes a number of different IM networks, but it is independant of any of them.

Andross, on Mar 15 2005, 10:23 PM, said:

And TrillianPro costs money. Well, you don't have to pay...but Gaim is free and open-source anyway, so I don't really see many advantages when it comes to Trillian.

Meh, I was just pointing out some features. It's not like I use it anymore anyway. I was thinking about trying GAIM, though.

As for P2P, I'd suggest Shareaza. It uses eDonkey 2000, Gnutella (Limewire's network), and Gnutella 2, as well as providing a torrent download feature.

l3lueMage, on Mar 15 2005, 10:30 PM, said:

Limewire gave me like 10 viruses, and yes they were all in the directory of Limewire, I only Use bittorrent, if its not for bittorent then im not getting it...

The free version of Limewire installs some minor adware, but the only way you could get viruses off of it would be to get the installer from a shady non-official source or downloading infected files.

[Andross]

Limewire .exe downloads (most of them at least) are viruses I think. Or Limewire acts like they are, and won't run them/says they're corrupt so it can save/open. But .exe downloads are rubbish anyway, for any p2p. Always get a .zip or .rar or any other compressed file.

[TobiasMar]

Andross, on Mar 15 2005, 04:54 PM, said:

Trillian isn't the only one that can do those things (which are rather trivial and basic). There's Gaim for example, which is Sourceforge supported, meaning open source and possibility for custom addons and skins (if you know how to code). I'm not sure about Trillian, but it allows panel docking, an addon to have encrypted, private conversations (or supposedly; I'll check it out), and as I've said, I like the UI more, mainly because it is cleaner and straightforward (unlike Trillian, which is more about looks).

Well, I really do want to try Gaim, but my brother just keeps uninstalling it because he says its 'too complex' when he could always see the Help files. But, if its complex, then I suspect it may have some good, advanced features.

[Kite]

Gimli the Great, on Mar 20 2005, 02:15 AM, said:

Well, I really do want to try Gaim, but my brother just keeps uninstalling it because he says its 'too complex' when he could always see the Help files. But, if its complex, then I suspect it may have some good, advanced features.

Trillian = Gaim.
Gaim is seriously like, the same thing as Trillian but when it comes to features and looks, it is totally different FYI.

[Nobody]

Gaim is way too hard/complicated to use, and it always fails to log in to MSNM and YIM. As good as Gaim may look, it has serious flaws. Gaim<Trillian.

Also, something odd I noticed with Trillian and MSNM: Auto-replies will work with MSNM on Trillian if you install the Messenger Plus! ( http://msgplus.net ) add-on for MSNM. Quite strange, yet convenient.

[TobiasMar]

Well, next time I download it, I'll look at the help files and see the problem if it doesn't work for me.

[Elliott]

I've used:
ICQ, AIM, MSN, YIM, and Trillian.
MSN > All of them

Better interface, features, look, feel, style, everyone at my school, and all my online friends use it.

[Kemosabi]

MSN, hands down. However, I like YIM's smilies better. :P The fact that everyone I know uses MSN is the main reason that I use it, besides it just being a great program. The whole not able to connect thing kinda presses my buttons sometimes, though.

- ^_^ -

[Someone Else]

MSN by a longshot.

I only have AIM and MSN. The only reason I have AIM is because all my friends like it better than MSN for some reason, which I really don't understand. =/

I suppose AIM is good for messing around with friends (with all the fun games and all) but MSN has more features, and looks better too.

[Nobody]

Wind Dude, on Mar 20 2005, 09:26 PM, said:

The only reason I have AIM is because all my friends like it better than MSN for some reason, which I really don't understand. =/

I suppose AIM is good for messing around with friends (with all the fun games and all) but MSN has more features, and looks better too.

I have AIM for almost the same reason. Note how my AIM screen name is my (real-life) name. XD

[TobiasMar]

Well, my AIM s/n is also my real-life name. I mean, it's pretty good, I just find MSNM and Yahoo better. I also have it because my real-life friends have it, so I can keep in touch. I do like the custom emoticon sets for it, however.

[el_Sethro]

I voted MSN because that's the one I use, but I really can't say it's the best as I haven't ever used the others

[TobiasMar]

Well, I'll show you the download pages.

AOL Instant Messenger: http://www.aol.co.uk/aim
ICQ (I don't use it though): http://www.icq.com
MSN Messenger: http://messenger.msn.com
MSN Messenger 7.0 (Beta): http://messenger.msn.com/beta
Yahoo! Messenger: http://messenger.yahoo.com

NOTE: If you are using MSNM version 6.2 or under, it is imperative that you download MSNM 7.0 Beta because it doesn't have a critical security flaw that MSNM 6.2 has. I hear that it allows remote code execution on your computer, which is not good. Details about this security flaw are here: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/...n/MS05-009.mspx

This post has been edited by Gimli the Great: 22 March 2005 - 04:23 PM

[Yokutai]

I Say MSN Messenger, because I have tried AIM and that didn't really have much features, then yahoo just bugged the crap out of me, and Finally Gaim just had too many errors and bugs with MSN accounts.

[TobiasMar]

Ah, well, I don't blame you, Yahoo! did seem a bit weird at first to me, but when I learned how to use it, I thought it was my favorite messenger. However, it isn't as popular as MSNM or AIM.

[Wiflewood]

I use MSNM, and just got MSNM7, its pretty good, and they have this 'nudge' thing where it makes your contacts screen buzz and the conversation box vibrate. apparantley its used to get people to talk to you, but it seems a bit dodgy to me...

[TobiasMar]

Well, due to MSNM Plus, I guess I've changed my mind about Yahoo! being the best, but its still rather good. MSNM 7.0 Beta + Messenger Plus! = Best Messenger ever. Heh.