Aim And Pop Ups

[Virtual Imager]

I'm suddenly getting pop ups everytime the AIM ad for Travel Zoo appears in the AIM window. I've never had this before. Is this something new that AIM is selling to its advertisers? Can it be blocked? I have SP2 on my computer which is supposed to block pop ups. This is the only one that I get. While we're at it, can those annoying videos with sound that also show up as AIM ads (usually for movies) be blocked? Or should I just stop using AIM and try something else? I don't really want to do that as AIM keeps me connected to many family members at great distances. I doubt my 84 year old mother who lives by herself across the country would know how to install another IM program. She likes to know that she can talk to me whenever she wants throughout the day (thankfully she doesn't go overboard with it... yet).

 

Any advice?

[MikeJ]

My advice... use a different IM client for AIM. Trillian (www.trillian.cc) is one that many Windows users swear by (they have a free and a pay version). It supports AIM as well as other IM services, and you won't get any ads. They are also pretty quick to update their client if and when the different IM services try to block them.

[TCH-Dick]

Yup, give trillian a try, it works with AIM, Yahoo, MSN, IRC and ICQ.

[Virtual Imager]

Thanks.... I'll try it. What are the major differences between the free and the pay versions? Anyone have any strong feelings about either version?

[TCH-Bruce]

I use the free version, it works fine.

[LisaJill]

You could also try the open source Gaim. I preferred that to Trillian on the PC, and the backend of the program I use now runs with gaimlib (i use Adium on the Mac). It's a very good, flexible program and free. =)

[TCH-Dick]

I Honestly couldnt tell you the deiiference in the two. i started out using the free version and liked it enough to pay the $25 for the pro version

[TCH-Bruce]

Moving for organization

[TCH-Thomas]

A trillian-related question...

 

In "normal" msn messenger, a popup comes up from system tray when someone connects, is there one for trillian or will I need to have either trillian fully opened or have sound on?

[TCH-Bruce]

I've never seen a popup but I have it open and sounds on.

[TCH-Dick]

you can turn on tray alerts so that it will pop up a message saying so and so has logged on/off

[TCH-Thomas]

Thanks Mike.

I gave Trillian a new try today (3rd one or something). I never liked it before because I missed that function.

 

Trillian, you have a new user.

[TCH-Thomas]

The tray alerts doesnt work for some reason, or I am doing something wrong.

Where do I enable them?

[cajunman4life]

The only two things I missed from AIM are:

 

1) No HTML displayed in the profiles window (apparently this is available in the pay version, which is why I went from Trillian to GAIM, don't like the idea of paying for an instant messenger).

2) No typing notification for the AIM network (ie "so and so is typing...", usually the only way I know if someone is writing a novel or just ignoring me )

 

Just my $0.02

[Virtual Imager]

I like that typing notification too... it keeps you from talking over each other and ending up with two different conversatiions going... you answering one thought and he on to another. If I know someone is typing a reply, I can hold my next thought and stay with the program. Usually.

[JayFL]

To get the travelzoo out of your face, there is an option in the internet setting under tools, Manage Add-ons, click on shockwave flash object, under settings click disable.

It works for me.

 

Jay

[Virtual Imager]

Thanks Jay. I found that setting in Explorer and disabled it. Thing is... I hardly ever use Explorer... I use Netscape as my browser (pop-ups are blocked) most of the time. The TravelZoo stuff comes from an ad in the AOL Instant Messenger window. (I don't use AOL for internet, just have the IM capability on my machine) Apparently they must have received a lot of complaints because now when the ad appears, the pop-up only pops up if you mouseover the ad. I disabled the shockwave flash object thingie but I just tried it and it still pops up if you mouseover the ad. So now my question is: should I keep it disabled? Will that affect anything else? Probably not since I'm not using IE anyway. But if there is some reason to keep it enabled, please let me know and I will go back and enable it again.

 

VI