Instant Messaging??

I know there is an application to download where it is JUST instant messaging to the people on your SL friends list, but I don't know where to find the application to download. Can anyone help me out with this??

-gypsy

Anyone?

The SLim client maybe? I haven't tried it...
https://blogs.secondlife.com/community/features/blog/2008/10/29/new-first-look-for-slim

This is something I've been struggling with for some time.

There are a few. You can go through the web with AjaxLife at

http://ajaxlife.net/

when it works, it's great, but you can loose your connection without realizing it, so you keep talking and never know what your friend actually heard.

And for one-off messages, you can use zonkster:

http://www.zonkster.com

There are others, but I have never been able to get them to work, since my office has a firewall that blocks some of the ports used by SL. So here are some links, but I cannot vouch for them:

SL Messenger http://sl-messenger.com/

Gnomiverse http://www.gnomiverse.com/

and others.

Linden Labs makes a spectacularly useless thing called SLim, which is supposedly an IM client, but in order to make it work (last time I looked), you have to download a special SL viewer to use instead of the ordinary one, you need to download the SLim client, and you need to get an account with Vivox, which is a voice provider, even if you do not and will not use voice. AND you can only use SLim to IM to people who also have the same crazy setup.

The reason I find this idiotic is that most ppl who ask this question about IMs do so because they can't log in to SL for some reason. So setting up a secondary IM system like SLim that only works when you CAN log into SL misses the market entirely. It's like welding a mountain bike to your car - the only way the bike can go is if the car is running.

There is one more way, and it is the BEST way, I think:

If your IMs go to email when you're offline, you can reply to the email within the space of a couple of hours. There is a limit to how much you can type, so make sure you don't quote their message to you. And use plain text, no formatting. You can carry on a reasonable conversation in this way, but someone inworld has to start it.

Is that the correct spelling of it? It doesn't seem to be working (connecting).

Yes, it's right.

Maybe it's down.

Like I said, when it works, it's great, but it's not always up and it doesn't always work.

AND, like I said, I've been struggling with this for a while. There isn't a good solution. At least if you're behind a firewall that blocks SL.

I tell some of my friends to IM me when I'm not inworld, and a few do, and then I can talk via email. That really is the best solution I've found.

Plus you're giving your SL password to third party. I have no reason to believe the AjaxLife folks are scoundrels, but the ToS does say you're not supposed to be doing it.

http://jira.secondlife.com/browse/SVC-419

You can use Zonkster to tell them to start a IM conversation with you - I have done that.

And SOMETIMES, you can reply back up to a day or so after receiving an IM to Email.



In my experience, AjaxLife spends more time down than up.


Your other option is to have your friends get a gchat or yahoo account and chat that way. I use gchat a lot during the day. Though many work places will also have any type of IM/Chat blocked.

Clever!

I use MSN to talk to my best friend, but that too conked out on me lately.

IM is like a poor cousin.

SLeek is an old non-graphical interface that you can use to chat and IM. It's not longer being supported but I found a copy here:

http://code.google.com/p/sleek/

You will also have to have Microsoft's .NET Framework 2.0 or higher installed. That's a free DL from Microsoft.com.

My biggest problem is that work has pretty much everything blocked, so I remote back to my home pc and then gchat with folks from there. But of course that is not great performance, so I do not run much that way.