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General discussion

AIM is acting up!

Nov 8, 2004 5:46AM PST

For the past couple weeks, AIM (AOL Instant Messenger) has been acting up. When I try to send an Instant Message, I type what I want then press send. It delays for about 7 seconds, then shows I sent it. During the delay, AIM doesn't respond.

Should I try Trillian, etc.? Please help.

In case it helps, I am running a Sony Vaio w/ a 3.2 GHZ Pentium 4, 512 MB memory, Win XP Home.

Discussion is locked

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Re: AIM is acting up!
Nov 8, 2004 5:50AM PST

One more thing, I have AIM version 5.9

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Re: AIM is acting up!
Nov 26, 2004 5:57AM PST

I have this very same problem on my parents' computer (which my 13-year sister is the primary user of) but not on my own PC or laptop. AIM 5.9 is installed on all 3 computers.

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Re: AIM is acting up!
Nov 27, 2004 4:41AM PST

Do you know what to do? I've tried 'downgrading', but the same thing still happens...

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Re: AIM is acting up!
Nov 27, 2004 8:53AM PST

I like Yahoo Messenger a whole lot better than AIM!!
Try itHappy
Glenda

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Re: AIM is acting up!
Nov 28, 2004 4:41AM PST

AIM does a lot of back and forth data transfering between AOL and you, the end user, so it is possible that a delay could be on either end.

I would recommend GAIM instead regardless of your issue. GAIM is free, no ads, and it supports yahoo, aim, msn, icq, and a few others I'm forgetting at the moment. It also has great plugins for secure messaging, etc. http://gaim.sourceforge.net

You are running up-to-date antivirus software on your system, right? Two friends of mine caught a nasty virus from using AIM and had similar difficulties in communicating... but more significantly just browsing the web. PC-Cillin is my favorite scanner, and it is one of the cheapest. Panda is also very good, but it conflicted with my email client (Bloomba from StataLabs). The two formentioned also come with firewalls, but then again so do Norton and McAfee these days... for a few hundred dollars more. Happy

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Re: AIM is acting up!
Nov 29, 2004 5:40AM PST

Yes, I've tried GAIM, but it doesn't support some features I like.

Yes, I definitely have up-to-date antivirus software...

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Re: AIM is acting up!
Dec 7, 2004 5:54AM PST

I have been experiencing problems with my AIM connection, as well. I am signed off about every 10 minutes and then automatically reconnected. I used SpyBot & Spyware Doctor and am running the most up-to-date Norton Anti-Virus. I think I remember finding a virus or virus related item with spyware doctor a few weeks ago when this problem started... could it be a result of that? Heard of others having this problem?

It's really quite annoying.. and I consistently miss IMs.

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I don't think it's a virus
Dec 19, 2004 2:26AM PST

I don't think the issue is virus related, I've ran AVG, Norton, McAfee, PC-Cillin, all with the latest definitions, each has cleared out a new virus each time but the problem with AIM/AOL never gets better. Anyone got ideas?

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Found the problem!
Apr 1, 2005 11:24AM PST

I recently read reviews of Microsoft AntiSpyware (Beta) and decided to try it out. After a couple of scans, it found some adware and spyware, and, naturally i decided to delete it (Not expecting it to have anything to do with AIM). I signed on and talked to people...and it was INSTANT!

So my guess is that it had something to do with some kind of spyware/adware?