chat program

[ghost2003]

Every one I know tells me MSN is not safe, I dont know if its true or not and I dont care becaus I dont like MSN anyway so im looking for some other chat program. I used IRC only once to get a file but have never acctualy looked at the options or anything. I wanted to know what programs you could recomend, one that can go in pcmech channel and that lets me turn off all file transfer.

[reboot]

mIRC from www.mirc.com

[Iman74]

Personally, I never cared for MSN & ICQ. Currently I am an AIMS and Yahoo user, and my preferred choice of the two is definetly Yahoo.

[LittleGhoti]

Before you decide to use mirc you should read this:
http://www.daychanged.com/brit.txt

[Dswissmiss]

I'm not sure I understand, I always though you should use the chat program which all your friends use. I personally use trillian, it has msn, icq, yahoo, irc, and aol all in one.

www.ceruleanstudios.com

[reboot]

LittleGhoti, what does that have to do with mIRC?
The "Brittney.jpg" thing is pretty much eradicated, and was never a threat on irc anyhow.

[LittleGhoti]

patch.exe seems to be compressed with UPX, interesting strings can be found within.

0005 18E0 2F 2E 61 6D 73 67 20 68 74 74 70 3A 2F 2F 77 77 /.amsg http://ww
0005 18F0 77 2E 61 6E 67 65 6C 66 69 72 65 2E 63 6F 6D 2F w.angelfire.com/
0005 1900 63 65 6C 65 62 32 2F 70 69 63 73 78 2F 62 72 69 celeb2/picsx/bri
0005 1910 74 6E 65 79 2E 6A 70 67 20 3C 2D 20 75 75 68 2C tney.jpg <- uuh,
0005 1920 20 63 68 65 63 6B 20 69 74 20 6F 75 74 20 21 21 check it out !!

This is a command it sends automatically to mIRC. This causes mIRC to send the
exploit URL to all channels you are in.

It will replace/delete Windows system files. If that happens, you might get a
message of this sort: "Files that are required for Windows to run properly have
been replaced by unrecognized versions".

This is NOT the same thing as http://koti.phnet.fi/jonninen/mircworms/britny.txt.

[Miz]

mIRC requires you and the people you want to chat with to connect to the same IRC chat net. There are hundreds, if not thousands of them out there. A pretty good list of the IRC servers available is on this page.

I've been using mIRC since 1995 and never had a problem...but, then, I don't accept file transfers through mIRC from people I don't know and trust.

If that's not what you're wanting but, rather, an instant messenger, look into the free version of Trillian, It currently connects to AIM, MSN, ICQ and Yahoo instant messaging servers. It does not, however, support voice or video chat.

Any kind of chat is only as safe as you make it. If you accept file transfers from people you don't really know, if you broadcast your full name, address, phone number, etc., in the profile you fill out, if you don't go through the programs preferences carefully, making sure that your private information stays private...some of them display your IP by default and "hide my IP" must be enabled...then you are vulnerable to the "less desirable element" out there.

[reboot]

mIRC 6.12 (the latest) has plugged that exploit. It's a non-issue.
If you log in to undernet, you can mask your IP by registering, and using the proxy host.
Set DCC options to none/ignore, or prompt.
It's a lot easier to use than most people figure, and it is extremely customizable, with simple scripts.

[Lloyd45]

I use MSN sometimes, but mainly just to chat to friends from school who all use it...

... i do have Yahoo which si probably one of the best, but I personally think AIM is the best, even if the chat interface seems a bit dated compared to other chat companies

[ffish]

You can get a lot of text chat programs at www.iphone.shows.it some VOIP service also support text chat.