Getting buddy-buddy online

Posted by arlene

To send a message to someone, double-click the buddy’s name to open a message window, type the message, and click the Send button. AIM pops up a window on the recipient’s machine, plays a little song, and you and your buddy can type back and forth. When done, close the message window.

Unless you are a very fast typist or your friend lives in Mongolia, a highly effective thing to type is “What’s your phone number?” and call the person on the phone — or follow the instructions in the next section.

El;‘) Talk

Making noise With NM

After you establish a conversation using AIM, you can switch to voice (assuming that both parties have computers equipped with microphones and speakers). Click the Talk button and click Connect. Your friend sees a window asking whether (s)he wants to make a direct connection with you. Clicking Accept in that window displays the Talk With window. Click Disconnect when you are done talking.

Buzz off

AOL evidently has a lot of ill-mannered users, because AIM has a system for warning and blocking users you don’t like. If someone sends you an annoying message, you can click the Warn button. With enough warnings (about five), a user is blocked from sending instant messages for a while. If you find a sender to be totally objectionable, click the Block button to refuse all messages from that person.

You can fine-tune who you let send messages to you: Click the Prefs button to display the AOL Instant Messenger Preferences window, then the Privacy category. You can limit messages to people on your Buddy List, permit specific people access, or block specific people. You can also add or delete people from your Block list. We recommend choosing Allow Only Users on My Buddy List unless you like being contacted by total strangers at inconvenient moments There is no escape

When you exit from AIM by clicking its Big Red X, the program usually doesn’t stop running. Instead, it changes into a tiny icon in your Windows notification area, on the right end of the Windows Taskbar, near the clock. AIM continues to run so that if one of your buddies wants to contact you, it can respond and pop up the incoming message. You can sign off or exit from the program by right-clicking the icon and choose Sign Off or Exit.

Windows Messenger, alias MSN Messenger

Windows XP comes with the latest instant messaging program, called Windows Messenger. Microsoft noticed that this was a niche in which they didn’t have the dominant program, and so decided to issue everyone a copy of theirs. Windows XP nags you to sign up for a Microsoft .NET Passport, a free account that you use to log in to Windows Messenger, the Hotmail Web site, and other Microsoft Web sites. We don’t see the advantage of Windows Messenger over the other instant message programs: It has far fewer neat features than Yahoo Messenger. It does support voice and video, but only with one person at a time.

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