TEST Multi-protocol messengers
Global chat from A(OL) to Y(ahoo)
Some chat programs are able to communicate not just with one specific protocol but with several different ones. PC Professionnell has tested six such programs, which tear down the borders between the MSN, AOL, ICQ and Yahoo messengers.
Ingo Böhme, Rüdiger Pein

Chatting is the new black. While e-mails still seem like quasi-official letters, the constant back and forth of chat messages is more like the banter that comes in between. It's all thanks to instant messengers, a particular type of online tool. Internet browsers will show you websites, which are static, and you never know when or even if your e-mail buddy is going to reply, but with a messenger, everyone is connected online. You can get an immediate answer to any question, surf the net together, discuss websites and make your feelings known - if not through what you type, then via so-called emoticons, combinations of symbols which are automatically replaced by smiley images. If you have a microphone or webcam installed, you can even supplement your nattering with audio and video.

Use in the workplace

Instant messengers aren't the sole domain of the home user, however; similar applications are also used in companies to facilitate communication between employees. Rather than ringing accounts and finding yourself talking to the departmental voicemail, all you need to do is send a quick message to the intended recipient, one that you know they'll get as soon as they log in. Even the news agency Reuters uses their own messaging network, which famously fell victim to the Kelvir worm in April 2005 and had to be closed down for a short period. The best protection against online attacks is a combination of a firewall and a virus scanner equipped with an active protection that runs in the background and deals with any infected data you might receive.

The success of chat programs


Official messengers bombard the user with flashing adverts - another reason to change
Instant messengers first started to become popular in 1996 with the introduction of the much-loved ICQ program. It stood out because of the way it allowed people to communicate in a manner that, compared to e-mail, was very direct: running in the background as an autorun application, ICQ scans for users from a personal contact list and lets you know as soon as they log on to ICQ, whereupon the users could immediately start chatting. The English spelling of the program name, ICQ ("I seek you") is a direct reference to this search function.

In addition to ICQ, which has since been acquired by AOL, the most-used chat clients today are the MSN and Yahoo messengers and AOL's instant messenger, AIM, with the beta version of Yahoo Messenger 7.0 (de.beta.messenger.com) throwing interesting VoIP functionality into the mix, while both Internet Relay Chat (IRC), now a venerable 17-years old but still very popular, and Jabber, an open source platform that's particularly prominent in the US, provide two other ways to chat with the rest of the world.

One program, many protocols

The main problem with instant messengers, however, is that friends, family and work colleagues are often connected to different networks, and installing all the programs you need to chat with them all is an exercise in tedium and uses up far too many resources. Multi-protocol messengers are a better solution, making it possible for the user to simultaneously chat on AIM, ICQ, Yahoo and MSN and also to remove the now-obsolete proprietary messaging clients, with their countless embedded adverts and flashing windows, from your system. You can also remove Windows Messenger, which is bundled with Windows XP - just use the free XP AntiSpy tool, available for download from www.xp-antispy.org (avoid www.xp-antispy.de at all costs, however: the site installs a dialer that costs nearly €30 a time!)

Web Messengers
If you're in a net café or on your work computer, stricter user rights or firewalls often make it impossible to install or use messenger clients. Nearly every computer comes with a web browser, however, and you can use these to chat without having to install special software first.

AOL's instant messenger, AIM, has an online version called AIM Express, which requires a Javascript-capable browser. ICQ2GO needs both Javascript and Flash Player 7 to be installed. MSN Web Messenger only works if you deactivate your popup blocker, and right at the bottom of the Yahoo Messenger website is a link to a web-based version, but it requires a Java-VM installation to be present.

But multi-protocol messengers are taking off on the web, too. English site www.e-messenger.net (not the corresponding .de domain) has a web interface for AIM, MSN and Yahoo. To use this you need to turn off your popup blocker and activate both cookies and Javascript.

The Web Jabber project at sourceforge.net/projects/webjabber hosts a free Jabber client that can be installed on your own website, however it is currently only available in English and Chinese. The service can be accessed directly at www.webjabber.net:8080/im.

Search for a multi-talented star

The most important factor when choosing the multi-protocol messenger for you is how well it supports the various messaging networks. To that end, PC Professionell has tested six multi-protocol messengers for Windows to see which ones work best with the four big networks, AOL, ICQ, MSN and Yahoo, looking at all the important and frequently used functions.

The primary requirement for test candidates was to be able to connect to these four networks, which ruled out T-Mobile's Messenger, as while it does work with ICQ, MSN and Yahoo, it can't connect to AOL's instant messenger, AIM. Pure Jabber clients were also excluded: although Jabber allows connections between messaging providers via Jabber servers, only a small proportion of those servers support such functionality, and at the end of the day, it is not the messaging programs themselves that integrates the four networks but rather the servers they connect to. See the boxout on page 130 for more on the advantages and disadvantages of Jabber.

Our test winner, Trillian, was the most comfortable to use of the programs tested and had the best functionality support when communicating on the four networks. Even the free basic version passed the test with flying colours. The program was easily comparable to commercial chat programs in terms of its operation and user interface, but without the annoying ad banners. Only users who want features such as video chat and encryption need bother with the professional version, which costs $25 to register.

Accessing global messaging

Messaging accounts are easy and free to set up - the official clients have the functionality built in. However, multi-protocol messengers can also take you through the relevant steps, or at least point you in the direction of the appropriate registration website. If you want to register your username and password directly, though, the sites are:

AIM: my.screenname.aol.com
ICQ: www.icq.com/register
MSN: registernet.passport.net
Yahoo: yahoo.edit.com/config/eval_register

ICQ gives each user a unique ID that everyone can contact them with. With MSN, the username is the e-mail address provided.

Registering for alternative services

No registration is necessary for IRC: just find an IRC server to connect to, e.g. irc.freenet.de. All of the tested messenger programs allow you to enter your nickname, i.e. the username you want others to see, in advance, although you can also do it whenever you connect. Many messengers also let you specify an alternative, in case the nickname you choose is already taken. There is a list of public IRC servers at http://irc.tu-ilmenau.de/all_servers and a comprehensive introduction to IRC can be found at http://oswaldism.de/chat/irceinfuehrung. Jabber users can register on a decentralised server such as jabber.org or jaim.at. The list of available servers at www.jabber.org/network also shows which servers can connect you to AIM, ICQ, MSN, Yahoo or IRC.

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