Top IM (instant messengers)

                                                   

Digsby (Windows, Free)

Digsby's widespread popularity has recently taken a few lumps after they began including crap ware.  in their installer and offering affiliate money to users who help them spread said crap. Despite these two moves, which have left quite a few users grumbling, Digsby is still a chat client with quite a lot to offer (and you can skip the bloat with the right download). Digsby supports multiple chat networks and allows you to merge your friends' multiple usernames into one unified entry on your contact list. When you have Digsby minimized to the system tray, you'll receive notification-style pop-up bubbles when messaged that you can reply right in. Digsby also supports email notifications for popular web-based email services through IMAP and POP3. Social networking isn't left out, either, as Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and LinkedIn can all be viewed and updated via Digsby.

Adium (Mac, Free)

Adium is an open-source chat client for Mac OS X. Adium supports multiple chat and social networking services like AIM, MSN Messenger, Google Talk, Yahoo! Messenger, MySpace, and Facebook, among others. Thanks to integration with the Mac OS, Adium can pull from your address book to populate your contacts list, use system themes, and issue system notifications including Growl notifications. Adium also has support for all kinds of plug-ins and the hundreds of "Xtras"—Adium's label for customization packages. If you'd like to keep things private, Adium also supports encrypted chat via Off The Record Messaging and is the only client in the Hive to have native support for it—though Pidgin and Trillian can take advantage of it via plug-in.

Pidgin (Windows/Linux, Free)

Pidgin is another open-source offering with a great feature set and support for popular chat networks such as AIM, ICW, Google Talk, and MSN Messenger, among others. You can download a variety plug-ins to enhance your chat experience by keeping spam away, encrypting your conversations, connecting to social networks, and more. Pidgin doesn't have the most bells and whistles of the clients represented in this Hive, but its open-source code, cross-platform availability, and portable version keep many people coming back to use the streamlined tool. If Pidgin is the apple of your IM eye, be sure to check out our ten must-have plug-ins to power up Pidgin.

Meebo (Web-Based, Free)

Meebo is a web-based instant messaging solution. Rather than requiring you to install a client on your computer, you handle all of your instant messaging affairs through the Meebo web site (although they do have a lightweight system tray notifier available for Windows users). Registration is optional if you're using a single service like AIM, Yahoo! Messenger, Google Talk, or MSN Messenger; you can simply use your credentials for that service to log into it through Meebo. If you want to build a more fleshed out profile that logs into multiple services at once, you'll need to sign up for a free Meebo account. One bonus for people behind a corporate firewall, assuming that your firewall isn't blocking the actual Meebo site, is that as long as you can use secure web sites (those with the https:// designation), you can connect to all your favorite chat services.

Trillian Astra (Windows, Basic: Free, Pro: $25)

Trillian seemed to all but disappear from the instant messaging scene for a while there, but it's come back in full force with the beta-release of Trillian Astra (which most were suspecting may have been vaporware).  Trillian Astra has an extensive feature list,  although some of the juicier features are disabled after 30 days if you don't upgrade to the Pro edition. Trillian supports the regular customers like AIM, Google Talk, ICQ, and MSN Messenger, as well as Facebook, MySpace, Skype, IRC, and Twitter. While video and audio support are notably lacking from most of the entries in the Hive, Trillian circumvents the problem of trying to play nice with 3rd party protocols by sporting its own video and chat service that is run through the Astra network.



 5 Online Instant Messaging Services to Chat with Buddys...

Meebo

Meebo is the most popular of the Web IM choices, and with good reason. This online instant messaging service works with AIM, Yahoo, MySpace, Facebook, MSN, GTalk, ICQ, Jabber, and even Flixster.
Meebo also offers group chat, a great mobile version (for iPhones and the like), and even access in your Firefox sidebar. There’s support for file-sharing, video chat, and much more – it’s as fully-featured, if not more so, than most desktop IM clients.
My experience with Meebo was that it works best with Facebook chat, and is definitely one of the simplest to use. It’s also incredibly well-funded, which means it’s likely to stick around for a while.

Whether you use it on the site or embed it on your own website, Meebo’s a terrific IM client.

**Nimbuzz

Meebo’s not my favorite, though; that prize belongs to Nimbuzz. Nimbuzz is mostly making a name for itself as a client for your cell phone or iPhone (and it’s a great one), but it offers a fabulous Web-based messaging client as well. You can make calls, group chats, send files, and do anything you’d want to do with an IM.
Instead of logging in each time to every one of your networks, you can put them all into an account with Nimbuzz instead. Then, every time you log in, just enter one username and password, and log in to all your IM networks. You can put your buddies into groups, view them by network, or just lump them all into one list.
Though Nimbuzz only has a couple of unique features – like the friend locator, to see where people are – its simplicity of use and gorgeous interface make it my IM application of choice (on every platform – but let’s stick with the Web for now.)
The feature that really sold me, though, was Skype integration – nothing else has it, and Nimbuzz does it very well. It’s a great VOIP client, a great Instant Messenger, and the application to start with in my opinion.

imo.im

imo is a relatively unknown player on the Web IM scene, but is beginning to make some waves, and with good reason. My favorite things about this online instant messenger are within your buddy list, you can star buddies you talk to most, re-name and re-order buddy lists, search through your buddy list, and even upload pictures of your buddies to the imo interface.
There’s support for voice and video chat (fingers crossed for Skype soon), some great keyboard shortcuts, and a simple-to-use interface.
If their project list is any indication, there’s some spectacular stuff coming soon from this already-great client, so keep this one bookmarked.

KoolIM

KoolIM is the niche-IMr’s tool of choice. In addition to the standards (Yahoo, MSN, AIM, GTalk), it supports ICQ, Gadu-Gadu, Xfire, Jabber, and more.  If you’re a user of a small network, KoolIM may be your best – or only – choice.
KoolIM offers two options for chat – an embedded client, available right from within the browser window, or a popup client, which looks and feels a bit more like a desktop application, acting outside of your browser (but still as a browser window).
You can log in to one account at a time, or all of them by creating a KoolIM account. KoolIM also claims fame as functioning behind a firewall, which some other applications can have trouble with.
KoolIM’s simple, not particularly feature-rich, but is uniquely network-friendly among IM clients.

eBuddy

eBuddy supports a huge number of IM services – MSN, Yahoo, GTalk, ICQ, MySpace, and promises Facebook is coming soon.
When you load eBuddy, it opens a new window for you to chat in. Your chats and contacts are tabbed, and there’s even a chat history for your recent conversations.
eBuddy offers a bunch of client versions, including great ones for your cell phone. Much like Meebo, you can also embed eBuddy directly into your own website. eBuddy’s feature list really explodes when you create a free “eBuddy ID,” which gives you tons of fun and useful features – faster login, more emoticons, saved settings, and access to other premium features.
All of these applications and others do the basics well – they send and receive messages, notify you of new ones, and generally remove the need for a desktop application. If all you want to do is chat, any of these five will do – pick the prettiest one.  Each one though, has a few unique features that make it the winner for specific people.


 More About Messengers:

Pidgin

Our rating:

10

Gizmo's Freeware award as the best product in its class!

Product type: Runs as a stand-alone program on a user's computer

Pros:

Easy to use, cleanly designed and very functional. Non-commercial, open-source software and available for multi-platform.

Cons:

Nobody's going to be blown away by its styling.

Developers website: http://www.pidgin.im/

Download page: http://www.pidgin.im/download/

Version: 2.10.3

Download file size: 8.96 MB

License type: Unrestricted freeware

Portable version available: There is no portable version of this product available.

System requirements: Windows, Linux, Mac OS X

Additional information:

Supports AIM, ICQ, Google Talk, MSN Messenger, Yahoo!, IRC, Jabber, Gadu-Gadu, and Zephyr IM networks.

  Miranda IM

Our rating:

9

Product type: Runs as a stand-alone program on a user's computer

Pros:

The application is very extensible through plug-ins.

Cons:

Native User interface is minimalist, Complicated Preferences

Developers website: http://www.miranda-im.org/

Download page: http://www.miranda-im.org/download/

Version: 0.9.50

Download file size: 3.11 MB

64 Bit compatibility: 32 and 64 bit versions available

License type: Unrestricted freeware

Portable version available: A portable version of this product is available from the developer.

System requirements: Windows 2000 to 7

Additional information:

Supports Gadu-Gadu and Jabber in addition to the networks supported by Trillian. Also connects to the Google Talk network with a little plug-in tweaking.

i  mo

Our rating:

9

Product type: Is a web service or web application

Pros:

Log in to various different protocols with the capabilities of using those protocols on mobile devices.

Developers website: https://imo.im/

License type: Unrestricted freeware

System requirements: Web Application, no installation required.

Additional information:

Supports MSN, Yahoo, AIM, G-talk, Facebook, ICQ, MySpace, Steam, skype, Jabber, VKontakte, and Hyves.

  Trillian

Our rating:

8

Product type: Runs as a stand-alone program on a user's computer

Pros:

Flashy interface and designed to be very user-friendly, light on resources.

Cons:

Installer includes toolbar and third party software, advertisements pop up in conversation windows

Developers website: http://www.trillian.im/

Download page: http://www.trillian.im/download/

Version: 5.1.0.18

Download file size: 20.3 MB

License type: Unrestricted freeware

Portable version available: There is no portable version of this product available.

System requirements: Windows 2000 to 7, Mac, iPhone, Android, Blackberry and Web

Additional information:

Supports AIM, ICQ, IRC, MSN and Yahoo networks.

  Ebuddy

Our rating:

8

Product type: Is a web service or web application

Pros:

Log in to various different protocols with the capabilities of using those protocols on mobile devices.

Cons:

Only supports a few protocols.

Developers website: http://www.ebuddy.com/

License type: Unrestricted freeware

System requirements: Web Application, no installation required.

Thank you for Reading..! 

How to Secure Your Gmail Account with a Password and Your Phone

          ** Note: If you enable this feature.. All IM (instant messengers) are not working

 

     Your Gmail Password is long and silly, difficulty to guess; your every computer is protected from malware and key-loggers that could snoop on your typing that password as you log on to Gmail. Still, more protection is better and two codes better than one — especially if one can only come through your phone, right?

With two-step verification, you can set up Gmail to require a special code for login in addition to your password. The code comes through your phone and is valid for 30 seconds.

Secure Your Gmail Account with a Password and Your Phone

To have Gmail ask you for a remembered password and a code sent to your mobile phone to log in for enhanced security:

• Click your name or photo in the top Gmail navigation bar.
• Select Account from the menu that comes up.
  • If you do not see your name or photo,
  • click the Settings gear in Gmail,
  • select Settings,
  • go to the Accounts and Import tab and
  • click Other Google Account settings.
• Go to the Security category.
• Click Edit under 2-step verification.
• If prompted, enter your Gmail password under Password: and click Sign in.
• Click Set up 2-step verification.
• If you use an Android, BlackBerry or iOS device:
  • Select your phone under Set up your phone.
  • Install the Google Authenticator app on your phone.
  • Open the Google Authenticator app.
  • Select + in the application.
  • Select Scan Barcode.
  • Click Next » in your browser.
  • Focus the QR code on the web page with the phone's camera.
  • Click Next » in your browser again.
  • Enter the code that appeared in the Google Authenticator app for the email address you just added under Code:.
  • Click Verify.
• If you use any other phone:
  • Select Text message (SMS) or voice call under Set ujp your phone.
  • Enter your phone number under Add a mobile or landline phone number where Google can send codes..
  • Choose SMS text message if your phone can receive SMS messages or Automated voice message to have authentication codes read to you.
  • Click Send code.
  • Type the numerical Google verification code you received under Code:.
  • Click Verify.
• Click Next » again.
• Click Next » once more.
• Now click Print codes to print offline verification codes that you can use to log in to your Gmail account when your phone is misplaced; keep the codes separately from the phone.
• Make sure Yes, I have a copy of my backup verification codes. is checked after you have written down or printed the offline verification codes.
• Click Next ».
• Enter a backup phone number — a landline, for example, or a family member or friend's phone — under You can have codes sent to your backup phone number if your primary phone is unavailable, lost, or stolen..
• Pick SMS text message if the phone can receive SMS messages or Automated voice message.
• If your backup phone and friend are handy, use (Optional) Test the phone to send an authentication code to it.
• Click Next ».
• If you have add-ons and applications access your Gmail account:
  • Click Next ».
• Now click Turn on 2-step verification.
• Click OK under You are turning on 2-step verification for this account..
• Enter your Gmail address under Email:.
• Type your Gmail password under Password:.
• Click Sign in.
• Enter the verification code received under Enter code:.
• Optionally, select Remember verification for this computer for 30 days., which will not have Gmail request new phone verification for a month.
• Click Verify.
• If you have add-ons and applications access your Gmail account, you may have to set up specific passwords for them:
  • Click Create passwords.
  • Set up passwords for applications that do not work with enhanced 2-step verification (such as email programs that access your Gmail account using POP or IMAP).

Disable Two-Step Gmail Verification

To turn off enhanced two-step verification for your Gmail account:

• Go to the Google 2-step verification page.
• If prompted, enter your Gmail password under Password: and click Sign in.
• Click Turn off 2-step verification….
• Now click OK. 

_ Thank you for Reading..!

 

How to create FTP via IIS

How to setup and configure an FTP server in IIS

The first thing you’ll need to setup your own FTP server in Windows is to make sure you have Internet Information Services (IIS) installed. Remember, this only comes with Windows XP Professional or Windows Vista Business or higher.

Click on Start, Control Panel and go to Add/Remove Programs. Then click on Add/Remove Windows Components.

In the components wizard, scroll down until you see IIS  in the list and check it off. Before you click Nextthough, make sure you click on Details and then check off File TRANSFER PROTOCOL  (FTP) Service.

Click OK and then click Next. Windows will go ahead and install the necessary IIS files along with the FTP service. You may be asked to insert your Windows XP or Windows Vista disk at this point.

Setup and configure IIS for FTP

Once IIS has been installed, you may have to restart your computer. Now we want to go ahead and open the IIS configuration panel to setup our FTP server. So go to Start, then Control Panel and click onAdministrative Tools. You should now see an icon for INTERNET INFORMATION SERVICES.

When you open IIS for the first time, you’ll only see your computer name in the left hand menu. Go ahead and click the + symbol next to the computer name and you’ll see a couple of options like Web Sites, FTP Sites, etc. We’re interested in FTP Sites, so expand that out also. You should see Default FTP Site, click on it.

You’ll notice after you click on the default FTP site that there are a couple of buttons at the top that look like VCR buttons: Play, Stop, and Pause. If the Play button is greyed out, that means the FTP server is active. Your FTP server is now up and running! You can actually connect to it via your FTP Client software. I use Smart FTP, but you can use whatever you like best.

Open your FTP client software and type in LOCAL HOST as the host name and choose Anonymous for the login. Connect and you should now see an empty folder.

Ok, so that’s step 1! Now where the heck is this folder that you are currently viewing? Well the default FTP site is actually located in C:\Inetpub\ftproot. Open this directory and dump some files into it.

Now refresh on your FTP client and you should now see your files listed!

So you now have an up and running FTP server on your local computer. Before I show you how you can create separate folders that are stored in a different directory other than the default Inetpub folder, let’s first connect to our FTP server from another computer on the network.

In order to do this, you’ll have to open up the Windows Firewall to allow FTP connections to your computer, otherwise all external computers will be blocked. You can do this by going to Start, Control Panel and then clicking on Windows Firewall. Click on the Advanced Tab.

Under the Network Connection Settings section, make sure all of the connections are checked in the left list and then click on the Settings button. You’ll now be able to open certain ports on your computer based on the service your computer is providing. Since we are hosting our own FTP server, we want to check off FTP Server.

A little popup window will appear with some settings that you can change, just leave it as it is and click OK. Click OK again at the main Windows Firewall window. You have now opened up the firewall for FTP connections. Now try to connect to your FTP site from a different computer on your network. You’ll need to get the IP address of the computer first before you can connect into it from a different computer.

Go to Start, click Run and type in CMD. Type IPCONFIG and jot down the number for IP Address:

In your FTP client on the other computer, type in the IP Address you just wrote down and connect anonymously. You should now be able to see all of your files just like you did on the FTP client that was on the local computer.

Now that the FTP site is working, you can create as many folders as you like for FTP purposes. In this way, when a user connects, they specify a path that will connect to one specific folder.

Back in IIS, right click on Default FTP Site and choose New, and then Virtual Directory.

When you create a virtual directory in IIS, you’re basically going to create an alias that points to a folder on the local hard drive. So in the wizard, the first thing you’ll be asked is for a alias name. Make is something simple and useful like “WordDocs” or “FreeMovies”, etc.

Click Next and now browse to the path where you want the alias to refer to. So if you have a bunch of movies you want to share, browse to that folder.

Click Next and choose whether you want it as Read access only or Read and Write access. If you simply want to share files, check Read. If you want people to be able to Upload files to your computer, choose Read and Write.

Click Next and then click Finish! Now you’ll see your new virtual directory below the default FTP site. You can connect to you using your FTP client by putting in the Path field “/Test” or “/NameOfFolder”.

Now you’ll only see the files that are in the folder we had browsed to.

And that’s about it! You can create as many folder as you like! The only thing other thing that you would need to do is to give out your public IP address to anyone who is connecting from outside of your internal network. If you want users to connect from anywhere in the world, you’ll have to give them your public IP address, which you can find out by going to http://whatismyipaddress.com/.

Finally, you’ll need to forward the FTP port on your router to your local computer that is hosting the FTP server. Port Forward  is a great site to show you how to forward ports on your router to computers on your home network.

_ Thank you for reading..!

HOW TO CONFIGURE MS OUTLOOK

1. Install Ms Office on your system
2. Open outlook 

• (If First use... one dialog box appears you. Out look 2007 start up click next... 
• Email account information.. Click on Yes then Next
• Add email account (Do not configure here..) Click on Manually Configure Server Settings or Additional Server Types Click Next
• Choose Email service : Put click on Internet Email Click on Next
• Give User Information 
• Account type is "POP3" for Gmail , "IMAP" for Yahoo.
• In coming server name : mail.google.com
• Out going server name : mail.google.com
• Put right tick on Require log on using secured password authentication (SPA)
•  After complete this action... Do not click on Next button
• Click on TEXT ACCOUNT SETTINGS 
• Here outlook checks the data is correct or not.. if correct it send an E-Mail to your account.
• If errors shown once again check the data is correct or not.
• Finally click ok. Your account configure to MS Outlook.

---Thank you for reading...!

SKYPE NOT WORKING..?

        Popular telephony service Skype currently has some issues working properly and is more likely to crash than a rogue bumper car, but there's a little trick you can use to make it behave long enough for a few chats. Here's what you need to know.

Windows XP

1.    Close Skype.
a.    Right-click the Skype icon in the system tray (at the bottom right of the screen)
b.    Choose Quit.
2.    Ensure that “Show hidden files and folders” is switched on.
a.    Click Start and then Run…
b.    Type control folders and click OK.
c.    Select the View tab and ensure relevant entry is enabled.
3.    Locate the shared.xml file.
a.    Click Start and then Run…
b.    Type %appdata%\skype and click OK.
c.    Delete the shared.xml file.
4.    Restart Skype. The shared.xml file will be recreated. 

Windows Vista and Windows 7

1.    Close Skype.
a.    Right-click the Skype icon in the system tray (at the bottom right of the screen)
b.    Choose Quit.
2.    Ensure that “Show hidden files and folders” is switched on.
a.    Click Start, type run and press Enter.
b.    Type control folders and click OK.
c.    Select the View tab and ensure relevant entry is enabled.
3.    Locate the shared.xml file.
a.    Click Start, type run and press Enter.
b.    Type %appdata%\skype and click OK.
c.    Delete the shared.xml file.
4.    Restart Skype. The shared.xml file will be recreated.

Mac OS X

1. Quit Skype.
2. Go to the folder ~/Library/Application Support/Skype/
3. Delete the file shared.xml (it will be recreated once you open Skype again, this is fine).
4. Start Skype.

Please note that the ~ sign means your home folder. You can find your home folder by opening Finder and selecting Go > Home from the menu bar or pressing Command (Apple), Shift and H keys at the same time.

Thank you for reading..