--- Date: Fri, 15 Feb 2002 09:42:24 -0500 To: politechat_private From: "B.K. DeLong" <bkdelongat_private> Subject: AOL officially blocking Trillian users Hey Declan - I'm not sure if anyone on Politech is a big fan of IM software but a while ago I found this great software called Trillian (http://www.trillian.cc) that would let me be logged into my ICQ and AOL IM account with the same interface at the same time. Not only that, but they had a SecureIM feature that would encrypt the traffic between users. And for the hell of it, (since I had a Yahoo account from all the yahoogroups I'm subscribed to and a MS Passport account for...well, god knows what) I added YahooIM and MS Messenger. You can even be logged onto IRC using it as well. Now it's a free program - they only ask for donations. When AOL "fixed" their gaming bug a while back, (http://www.aim.com/resolved.adp) it would not allow Trillian users to log into AOL. Trillian fixed the problem with an update and patch. Well, this morning AOL did it again. But this time, we got a blatant message before being disconnected: "[09:22] AOL Instant Messenger: You have been disconnected from the AOL Instant Message Service (SM) for accessing the AOL network using unauthorized software. You can download a FREE, fully featured, and authorized client, here http://www.aol.com/aim/download2.html ." Which is bullshit. AOLIM Doesn't have nearly the AOLIM features that Trillian has and I'm PISSED that AOL wants me to use a more insecure product over an innovative one that provided more of a degree of security, logging etc. This sooo smacks of anti-competitive practices. Am I right? Who's working on a anti-trust case against AOL? Sign me up, dammit. -- B.K. DeLong bkdelongat_private 617.877.3271 http://www.brain-stream.com Play. http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org Potter. http://www.attrition.org Security. http://www.artemisiabotanicals.com Herb. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice. Declan McCullagh's photographs are at http://www.mccullagh.org/ To subscribe to Politech: http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Fri Feb 15 2002 - 07:16:53 PST