ichat signs me off when i close my pb

is there a way to keep ichat signed on when i close my pb? also is there a way to mute all sounds on ichat when i am away?

hope this is the right forum to ask these questions...

Well when you close the lid on your powerbook, it'll go to sleep - which also disconnects the internet (so iChat would quit too.)

I think the powerbooks can be configured to NOT sleep when the lid is closed, but I'm not sure on that one - besides you still couldn't really carry it around too much when it's running...

I don't think iChat can be set to mute automatically when you set your status to 'away' but AdiumX can (alternative IM client). www.adiumx.com

thanks, i'll check out Adium

Everything goes to sleep when you close the lid because PowerBooks and iBooks release most of their heat through the keyboard, if they remained on you could damage the laptop

Actually, whilst that's true for iBooks, it's not true for Powerbooks. Apple themselves say you can safely run a PB with the lid closed:

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=86286

It puts itself to sleep because there's no sense in it being awake... but if you plug in an external monitor, keyboard and mouse it will quite happily wake up whilst remaining closed.