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Instant Messaging w/out iChat

C

cranwinks

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I work in an office with about 10 macs running osX panther linked via Ethernet with internet accessed via DSL. I'm trying to figure out a way to send immediate messages to the other computers without using AOL or iChat (because of the cost). We just want to be able to type a quick note and have it pop-up on another in-house computer. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks! —jim
 
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what? the cost of ichat? or AIM? its free...

but search Versiontracker.com for something like "chat" or "Instant messaging" and about 100 will pop up.
 

dtravis7


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What Graphite said and also, an AIM account is free. iChat uses either AIM or .Mac. .Mac does cost but not AIM. You can set that up and it will work fine. There are many other multi chat clients for the Mac like Adium, Fire, ETC but iChat using AIM would do just what you need and for free.
 
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What about Bonjour? That is in iChat and you dont even need an AIM or .Mac account, plus it only shows the people on your network.
 

dtravis7


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good suggestion! I am told you can also run google chat with iChat also but never tried it as I use Adium for that. You set it up using Jabber.
 
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Im assuming you can use almost anything with google chat.. so long as you set the server and stuff right.
 

dtravis7


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another vote for adium
 
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i have a question. Being that Adium uses multiple im clients, which one do you guys suggest me using (ie MSN account, Aim account, Yahoo account, etc). I used to use MSN and Yahoo, but i only used them rarely. Any suggestion would be helpful. thx.
 
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well, most of the people i know use aim, i don't really know too many people that use those other services
 
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honestly, I like iChat because it's... almost a Mac Pride sorta thing for me, I wanna say. But, I guess for multiclient Adium. All of my friends who use Macs use Adium, and I'm actually trying it out as we speak.

Edit: okay seems to be good, i think the duck quacks can be kinda annoying
 

dtravis7


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BlindingLights said:
honestly, I like iChat because it's... almost a Mac Pride sorta thing for me, I wanna say. But, I guess for multiclient Adium. All of my friends who use Macs use Adium, and I'm actually trying it out as we speak.

Edit: okay seems to be good, i think the duck quacks can be kinda annoying

Sometimes those Quacks get to me also! :spook:

You can change the sounds in Adium by the way.
 
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There is another client called fire, ive never used it but i hear its good.

Also, on a more interesting note, i heard you can send messages to another mac via terminal, anyone know how that works?
 

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