A little question

[Detox]

How safe is MSN Messenger? I use ICQ already and a friend of mine wants me to get Messenger to talk with them... Or are both of these things nasty proggies? hehe

[spy1]

IMO, a much better solution would be for both you and your friend to d/l and install Trillian: http://www.trillian.cc/ , since then you can both keep the chat program of your choice but yet you'll still be able to IM each other.

Learn to use all the features of Trillian and I'm pretty sure you'll start wondering how you ever got along without it. Pete

[luv2bsecure]

Detox:

I agree with Pete 100%! There is also the problem with spam with many users of MSN's Messenger. Trillian all the way.

John

[spy1]

And in reference to your other question, "Or are both of these things nasty proggies?", I'd say, if you're currently using ICQ, you better have gone to this page: http://www.icq.com/support/security/ and read/applied all the measures you can to secure itbefore d/l'ing/installing/using Trillian.

That page says it all: "The ICQ security and privacy features and options, may not operate according to the description provided throughout these pages or may not operate at all. " Quite a disclaimer, eh?

As for your friends' IM program (MSM Messenger), well, if MSMM or AIM were the last two IM programs on earth - I wouldn't be using one. Pete

[Detox]

Oh boy ICQ sounds a little worse than I thought also! I"m checking out this Trillian thing and definitely going to your link Pete! Thanks!

[Liquid_Fish]

I quit using ICQ as soon as they put that http server into the IM client. * Took me several months to discover that I was running a web server every time I logged into ICQ. *

[Gnostic]

I agree that Trillian is the best choice for instant messaging.
I never open MSNM, AOL or Yahoo. *I don't even have ICQ installed on my machine--not since two reformats ago ;D *Trillian has practically all the features of the separate clients without all their security issues. *Try it--you'll never go back.

[Technodrome]

Trillian is all that but it is also hungry for the memory!!!! It uses 16-17 MB on my computer.

The Big Nahh from me!!!

Technodrome

[Blacksheep]

I got lots o' memory for Trillian to use. Trillian is the only way to go. Doesn't install phone home loadqm.exe like MSN Messenger. :)

[Detox]

I tried MSN later on, for who-knows-what stupid reason...

And it kept trying to phone home like you said, so I used TrojanCheck 5 to remove the offending EXE that it had placed in Windows. When I did that, my browser (IE 5.0) performance went to the floor and my broadband connection was useless for surfing the web although my email and online games, etc worked perfectly. Another one of my observations where the connection is there although I don't know exactly what it is. Anyway I fixed the problem by being (as SPY1 pointed out) the last person on earth to upgrade to IE 5.5 sp2.

[Blacksheep]

All ya gotta do with M$ phone home loadqm.exe is run msconfig and uncheck loadqm.exe in start up menu.

[Paul Wilders]

Detox,

-{ Quote: "so I used TrojanCheck 5 to remove the offending EXE that it had placed in Windows." }-

Although TC offers this possibility, it's aimed at trojans in specific. Quite a harsh method you have been using here *:o. Be careful using this option from TC!

regards.

paul

[Detox]

-{ Quote: " Quite a harsh method you have been using here

" }-


Well I suppose you are right, but it's my personality ;-) I'm about to graduate with a law enforcement degree and am very seriously considering a masters, with my long term goal being SWAT here in Texas. So... I kinda like the "kick in the door approach! lol... on a more serious note Ihave taken your warning to heart, and will look for softer methods on my computers...

Hmmm now everyone's going to be apprehensive of me... Don't worry guys I'm the paranoid type too I just wanna do some good out there.