Charging for messenger? - Page 2

entwisi · 13-10-2005, 19:52

OK Tinks, in english

You currently use MSN Messenger. The program on your PC connects to a server program out on the big bad internet. You friends also connect to this server(or another one that is also connected to the one you use). When you send a message it travels to the server and is passed up to your friend. MSN is a set of servers owned and run by Microsoft. The program you use talks in a certain 'language' . Other people also have written a similar systems, AOL do one so do Yahoo. These are the big names on the internet. There is also a smaller system called Jabber. If MSN YAhoo and AOL start charging you just need to move to using Jabber instead. It will always be free. The only issue is that each system has its own 'language' hence MSN cannot talk directly to AOL or Jabber. You need to be on the same system to talk to your friends. GAIM is a program that understands all these languages so you don't need lots of programs to talk to all your friends on all these different systems.

The bit about my work is that I run a setup just like MSN only on a very small scale. It isn't available to people outside my team at work(albeit 4 of them are in the philipines, 4 are in Knutsford, 1 is in Poole). If I wanted to(and work allowed) I could tell it where to look for an Internet based Jabber system and I would then be able to talk to anyone in the world who uses Jabber.

The last bit is a website that gives out all the latest gossip to do with computers and large companies computer systems.

Hope that helps!

SPUGGIE J · 13-10-2005, 20:59

GAIM looks the most popular of the 2 so might give it a go.

entwisi · 13-10-2005, 21:15

I think you may still misunderstand,

Gaim is what we call a client program. Its the bit that you as a user uses to interact.

Jabber is what is called a protocol. Its the 'language' that the client programs use to talk to each other. GAIM is a client program that unlike MSN's offering that can only talk its own language is capable of talking in any of the languages.

You can switch to using GAIM now and continue talking to your MSN friends, You can also add AOL, Yahoo and any other IM 'protocols' . e.g. I have 2 seperate MSN accounts, a AOL account, a Yahoo account and a Jabber account. If I was to try and use all these at once using their own client programs I'd have 4 programs open, plus MSN don't like you connecting to two accounts simulatneously. With Gaim, I can have all the systems up an d running in a single program(that includes both MSN accounts).

Pauline01UK · 13-10-2005, 21:40

This is what I have found out about hoax emails pertaining to paying for MSN messenger... I copied and pasted for all to read. You can check the page out for yourself if you wish..

http://www.hoax-slayer.com/msn-petition.html

FW: Please Read THIS. IT IS VERY IMPORTANT

MSN is planning to take away MSN Messenger by September 14th, 2005. If you want to keep our MSN Messenger free of charge, send this email to everyone you know. It will be used as a petition. Each person you send this to counts as one signature. If this petition gets 500,000 signatures they will keep MSN Messenger. If they do not receive 500,000 votes you will have to pay £5.00 to have Messenger (per month). If you don't care about this then please for everyone's sake help out a little. Thank you for your time and consideration and please help MSN beat their vote PLEASE - Copy and paste this onto a new letter add you name below and send it to EVERYONE you know. I don't want to have to pay for it. Do you?

Commentary:
The message shown above is just the latest version of an aging hoax. Some person (read moron) has been kind enough to plug in a current date. Otherwise, the hoax is virtually identical to versions that have been circulating since 1998. MSN has not announced plans to start charging for its free MSN Messenger service. Even if the company did consider charging for the service, it certainly would not base its decision on how many times a particular email was forwarded.

The hoax message claims that the message "will be used as a petition" and that every person who receives the message "counts as one signature". However, the message does not say how these "signatures" will be counted. No central collection point for all the "votes" is specified. The implication is that the messages will be somehow reliably tracked over the course of many thousands of successive forwards. Such claims are pure nonsense and not even Microsoft could manage such a feat.