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AOL Shuts Down 3rd Party IM Software?
David Gervais noted that AOL has begun shutting out third party IM software (among other things, breaking the Linux clones). Their error message is "AOL IMer Client: Gaim CVS Version.
09:24:11 AOL Instant Messenger: You have been disconnected from the AOL Instant Message Service (SM) for accessing the AOL network using unauthorized software." Can someone confirm this, or is Mr Gervais on something here? I've had several folks say they can get through just fine. Perhaps this is just a Gaim CVS bug? Update: 09/11 05:12 PM by C : Have tested AIM connectivity with Gaim v0.9.20 and Everybuddy 0.1.4 with no problems. Sorry for the scare.
AOL has had a linux beta out for a few months now. You can find it here
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Hello, All. Rob Flynn here, Gaim Maintainer and leader devleoper. We have, on some occasions, experienced this as well. It only happens, however, when using our experimental oscar support. Our Oscar support is based on a package called libfaim. This is a somewhat reverse engineered library that allows anyone to use the OSCAR server. AOL has recently started blocking libfaim. Note: They are not blocking the clients theselves it appears to only be this library. I spoke with several people at AOL and learned that the TOC servers would not be affected. (I guess we can still expect the occasional TOC-Burp that we all experience from time to time). If anyone has any questions on this matter, please feel free to let me know. Thanks and Take Care, Rob PS: Gaim 0.10.0 was released this morn' :-)
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Rob Flynn
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Rob Flynn
Pidgin
I don't understand what the big deal is here...why are so many linux clients using the AOL private protocol, when AOL relased a public protocol (TOC) that works just fine? Not only does the public protocol still work, it also supports storing buddy lists on the server, which is a very nice feature.
As far as I know, however, only tik and tac use TOC. All the other stuff uses the half-working, mostly-broken, half-implemented FAIM implementation of AOL's private protocol. Is everyone just crazy, or what?
I don't blame AOL for breaking support for their private protocol. Just use the public one. Its there, it works. What's the big deal?
Cool. Lets sue AOl and claim they are denying access for NON-handicapped Americans (ie. Not Windoze users).
Sig it.
But that trick never works!
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
If they only want their client to talk to their server, they are entitled. This may suck for everyone in the short term, but alternatives will prevail if they stay closed.
should bid on F*ckedCompany.com
Nuts .
For those who don't know the historical reference, pop open the nearest history book and flip to the WWII section. =) All this means is that now we're going to change the version the software reports and recompile. w00t, big deal, hardly worth a post to /..
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Yes, it's their right. But it is also our right, as consumers and users of their technology, to complain. Is there something wrong with that? Do we have to accept silently everything we don't like from money-grubbing corporations because 'it's their right' to screw us over? Well, that seems to be their party line and you're buying it. We have a right to demand standards and openness, and yes, they have a right to refuse. That's capitalism... they give us what we want or we find it somewhere else.
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Conclusions made here ... AOL is full of it, they want to make sure that they aren't next on the Monopoly lawsuit list and they'll blow all kinds of smoke and whistles to make it look like they're for the community.
AOL wants to get on my side ... they'll release the OSCAR protocol, not just TOC.
Ignore the "p2p is theft" trolls, they're just uninformed
There are lots of *nix versions of ICQ. However, it sucks too. Let me count (a few of) the ways...
ICQ transmits your passwords plaintext.
Messages are easily spoofable.
There's no third-party extensability.
You can't run your own server (at least, not and communicate with the rest of the world).
There's no support for encrypted or signed messages.
And finally, it's controlled by a commercial entity. Don't want these things? Use jabber (www.jabber.org). Jabber is actually an XML-based protocol, so there are lots of differenct clients which conform. Since it's largely serverside, new clients (and clients for different platforms) are easy to write, and once a client has stabilized it very rarely needs upgrading (even to add features like ICQ compatability -- it's all done serverside).
Try Jabber. You'll like it. And if you don't, come back in 6 months and try it again.
There are two AIM servers. One is called Oscar and one is called TOC. AIM, and the AOL client software use TOC. The other one, Oscar, is "available" to the world. If AOL really really wanted to shut down 3rd part AIM clients, they'd have to shut down Oscar. This is not what they did.
They just started looking for a client string in the network protocol. This is similar to the HTTP request header, or the MP3 stream ACK, or whatever. Find a copy of QuckBuddy (AOL's Java client), or if you're developing a client, change the name of the connect string so Oscar thinks it's getting a valid client.
If you want a IM provider that plays nice with linux, FreeBSD, MacOs and Windows, try Yahoo. I have been using their client for a few months on all of the above platforms and I'm very satisfied.
You have a choice, you don't need to feed the beast.
God forbid AOL be allowed to collect ad revenue from an instant-messaging service that runs on millions of dollars worth of equipment. Instant messaging is only "cheap" and "easy" to implement when you have a few thousand users.
This is one case where GPL'ed software isn't going to win out for at least a few years. Right now, a large IM system requires massive, massively-parallel directory and routing services, which require massive databases (read: not MySQL or Postgres 7) and massive servers with fast interconnect and low latency.
All of this costs money. If you open the protocol and the servers to all comers, where does that money come from? The GAIM team could build in support for AOL's ads, but the GPL would allow for patched or forked versions that strip out the ads. So it wouldn't do AOL any good to ask the GAIM team to support its ads.
For a bunch of Microsoft-skeptics, Slashdot readers are mighty easily swayed by Microsoft's PR spin on this. AOL isn't being anti-competitive by blocking 3rd-party clients. They're protecting a revenue stream that pays (they hope) for dozens of racks of expensive servers and millions of dollars in database licenses.Microsoft and Yahoo aren't fighting for freedom. They're fighting to convince naive courts that they have a "right" to strip out AOL's ads--on a service AOL is paying for in its entirety--and replace them with their own ads. If it goes to arbitration and MS and Yahoo are told they can make AIM clients as long as they give AOL's ads and ad-reporting mechanisms clear passage, you'll see MS and Yahoo lose interest in the whole idea mighty quickly indeed.
Massive peer-to-peer systems without central servers are a tough thing to do right now. Just ask the folks at Napster and the other filesharing projects. All of them are running clusters of independent servers. Sign on to Napster twice, and you'll see two sets of users and files.
When an equally massive, fully-distributed scheme for instant message routing and directory services becomes viable, those expensive central servers can go away, and so can the need for massive revenue. Seems to me something could be cobbled together out of a stripped-down version of OpenLDAP and ml.org-style dynamic DNS projects, so that any of your devices that are connected report their presence, and the lookups get farmed out over zillions of LDAP servers doing referrals.
By the time this happens, of course, text-based instant messaging may well be fading out in favor of IP telephony and videoconferencing, both of which all of the instant-messaging players are rolling into their clients as fast as they can.
Right here.
Ok, so it's not "official" per se - but it's the best client out there. Unlike gaim it only needs tk/tcl to run so it will work on Solaris/BSD/Linux/Windoze/...
I don't get it... AOL and Time Warner are trying to hook up, and realistically, they should be playing nice. I mean, couldn't this be seen as "Anticompetive"? AOL pretty much owns the IM market with IC and AIM, if they keep shutting out the community, and keep denying scoffing at standards, won't that look bad?
Of course, it's not like this will keep your friendly neighborhood hacker from releasing a patch to fix things...
From AOL's Open IM announcement site:
America Online is committed to extending the benefits of instant messaging technology to as many consumers as possible.
This wouldn't annoy me so much if they didn't keep flip-flopping on their strategy. I suppose that since AIM won't make them any money, they're focusing on brand dilution issues instead.
--Pete
It's not that simple. At least one version of AOL Instant Messenger used a deliberate buffer overflow that the AOL servers checked for. No buffer overflow - non-AOL client.
...phil
...phil
"For a list of the ways which technology has failed to improve our quality of life, press 3."
I'm using a freshly updated GAIM 0.10.0 right now, no problems...
It's their infrastructure, they can decide who gets to use the service and who doesn't. That's the end of it! Linux users shouldn't expect to be able to use AOL Instant Messenger (or its infrastructure) until after AOL for Linux has been released. (AOLinux?)
Refrag
I have a website. It's about Macs.
With the proliferation of many different messenger systems, all those AIMers are going to be cut off from their friends who use MSN/Yahoo/ICQ. The motivation to use AIM diminishes as other messengers take off. So instead of AOL joining the community at large, they are creating a substantial, yet isolated community. It is a stupid mistake in the issue of a greater diverse internet. A smart move in the issue of keeping a captive audience. But in the end, they are just shooting themselves in the foot because if you are using AOL, you really don't need AIM to communicate to other AOLers but you will need another messenger to chat with your friends on MSN.
AOL just has a large enough ego to think these companies are clamoring to gain access to their herd of people. That may be partially true, but I believe it is more about these other applications trying to give their users as much versatility as possible, something AOL should think about.
This is not the way to build a lasting empire.