Difference between AIM and .Mac account?

julianbntn · Post by **julianbntn** » Wed Apr 13, 2005 7:46 pm

I have been using iChat for awhile but now I am trying Adium. I understand all of the other accounts (MSN, Yahoo, ICQ, etc.) but I am confused by why there is a AIM and a .mac. Doesn't someone using iChat use AIM, since AIM is the actual service and iChat just a client? Apple doesn't have a IM service I am not aware of do they?

Julian

Wengero · Post by **Wengero** » Wed Apr 13, 2005 7:59 pm

if you sign up for .mac sevices you get a .mac username for a .mac account

ravijo · Post by **ravijo** » Wed Apr 13, 2005 8:01 pm

ICQ, AIM, and iChat all operate on the same basic protocol. It's called OSCAR. ICQ and AIM are both under AOL-Time-Warner-Netscape, etc. who OWN OSCAR. In many cases, ICQ and AIM work interoperably (and I think they are moving to further this interoperability). All the while AOL-Time-Warner-Netscape had been offering a petty, not good version of their protocol for the public to use (so that devs could make AIM compatible software) called TOC. This evolved into TOC2, but was pretty much feature defficient, and really made you want to switch to an official OSCAR client.

So, a bunch of open-source devs started to reverse engeneer OSCAR, which is apparently legal, brown-trouser day for AOL. Then, Apple wanted to release an AIM compatible chat client, iChat. But apple, as always wanted there to be something special. They wanted to have it such that for .mac members, iChat was part of your service, and there would be some interaction. They then said hey: we are paying you for the use of your servers and the OSCAR licence, why don't you simply allow us to register all our users under their name and end with @mac.com. There is little difference in features between the two, other than when using iChat .mac accounts slightly more smooth. And to prove this all in some way, open up your ICQ, and add the ICQ number into your ichat as a SN... voila!

BTW, the reverse engeneering is complete and is what Adium now uses.

Oh, yeah... I forgot to remind EVERYONE that MSN still sucks!

ravijo · Post by **ravijo** » Wed Apr 13, 2005 8:05 pm

Almost forgot to speculate whether Apple has something up their sleeve with respect to some sort of jabber server and @mac.com.

iChat 3 IS afterall a jabber client, and the servers that .mac is hosted on will therefore have the jabber server software on it.

just a thought

mystery girl · Post by **mystery girl** » Wed Apr 13, 2005 8:19 pm

So I just added my .mac account to Adium, and I'm connected.
...Now what?

wunderwood · Post by **wunderwood** » Wed Apr 13, 2005 8:32 pm

mystery girl wrote:So I just added my .mac account to Adium, and I'm connected.
...Now what?

You can add AIM, ICQ, and .Mac accounts to your contact list and talk to them. For more details see this post.
http://forums.cocoaforge.com/viewtopic.php?t=1744

mystery girl · Post by **mystery girl** » Thu Apr 14, 2005 12:21 am

I've been using adium for a while, mostly on AIM. I just don't understand the functionality of having the .mac account connected.

Tipo 61 · Post by **Tipo 61** » Thu Apr 14, 2005 12:26 am

Well, you have an AIM account. Some people might not, and they would use the .Mac account to talk over aim

julianbntn · Post by **julianbntn** » Thu Apr 14, 2005 2:05 am

OK, I understand why there are both a .mac and an AIM account. Interestingly, it appears that if both are enabled, then the AIM account takes precidence when sending and receiving IMs.

Is this intentional?

Also, I notice that since I have both a AIM username and a .mac user name, if I only log in my .mac account, I will receive IMs from people sending to either username, but if I have only the AIM account logged in, then users can only get me at the AIM username. Now is this due to the way AIM handles the two different names or is it that I am a special case since both of my "names" are the same except for the @mac.com?

AIM: julianbntn
.Mac: julianbntn@mac.com

I like clean solutions, so right now it seems that there is no reason for me to have a .mac account enabled in Adium since the AIM account will handle both types of users. Am I correct in this?

zaudragon · Post by **zaudragon** » Thu Apr 14, 2005 2:14 am

julianbntn wrote:OK, I understand why there are both a .mac and an AIM account. Interestingly, it appears that if both are enabled, then the AIM account takes precidence when sending and receiving IMs.

Is this intentional?

Well that's the order in the Accounts window, I believe.

julianbntn wrote:Also, I notice that since I have both a AIM username and a .mac user name, if I only log in my .mac account, I will receive IMs from people sending to either username, but if I have only the AIM account logged in, then users can only get me at the AIM username. Now is this due to the way AIM handles the two different names or is it that I am a special case since both of my "names" are the same except for the @mac.com?

AIM: julianbntn
.Mac: julianbntn@mac.com

I like clean solutions, so right now it seems that there is no reason for me to have a .mac account enabled in Adium since the AIM account will handle both types of users. Am I correct in this?

Yup. Correct. AIM would work with both. But I would use the .Mac one instead since you can still receive messages to your AIM account.

julianbntn · Post by **julianbntn** » Thu Apr 14, 2005 2:30 am

zaudragon wrote:
julianbntn wrote:OK, I understand why there are both a .mac and an AIM account. Interestingly, it appears that if both are enabled, then the AIM account takes precidence when sending and receiving IMs.

Is this intentional?
Well that's the order in the Accounts window, I believe.

Actually, I thought of that but changing the order didn't make a difference.

zaudragon wrote:
julianbntn wrote:Also, I notice that since I have both a AIM username and a .mac user name, if I only log in my .mac account, I will receive IMs from people sending to either username, but if I have only the AIM account logged in, then users can only get me at the AIM username. Now is this due to the way AIM handles the two different names or is it that I am a special case since both of my "names" are the same except for the @mac.com?

AIM: julianbntn
.Mac: julianbntn@mac.com

I like clean solutions, so right now it seems that there is no reason for me to have a .mac account enabled in Adium since the AIM account will handle both types of users. Am I correct in this?
Yup. Correct. AIM would work with both. But I would use the .Mac one instead since you can still receive messages to your AIM account.

Thanks, thats what I meant I just typed it backwards.

Post by **The_Tick** » Thu Apr 14, 2005 2:38 am

We received a lot of feedback about confusion from those using iChat looking for a .mac account in the drop down. We had AIM/ICQ/.MAC in it, but still. So that's why it is the way it is.

David Munch · Post by **David Munch** » Thu Apr 14, 2005 12:42 pm

The_Tick wrote:We received a lot of feedback about confusion from those using iChat looking for a .mac account in the drop down. We had AIM/ICQ/.MAC in it, but still. So that's why it is the way it is.

Why not just rename it to "AOL/ICQ/.Mac"...?

Post by **The_Tick** » Thu Apr 14, 2005 2:07 pm

David Munch wrote:
The_Tick wrote:We received a lot of feedback about confusion from those using iChat looking for a .mac account in the drop down. We had AIM/ICQ/.MAC in it, but still. So that's why it is the way it is.
Why not just rename it to "AOL/ICQ/.Mac"...?

Did you not read what I typed? I explained why not, right in the text you quoted. Seriously, go back, reread it, and if you are confused ask.

cocoaforge

Difference between AIM and .Mac account?

Difference between AIM and .Mac account?

Did some testing....

Re: Did some testing....

Re: Did some testing....