Chapter 7. Im Annoyances

Instant messagingwhat could more useful? It lets you instantly get in touch with friends and family... and lets spammers from all over the world instantly get in touch with you, with fab offers for drugs, real estate, and diamond mines. It lets friends tell you about great sites you should visit... and lets malware writers plant Trojans on your PC.

If you'd like to reap all the benefits of instant messaging, and avoid the annoyances, this chapter is for you.

Note: throughout this chapter, you'll find coverage of the latest versions of AIM, Windows Messenger/MSN Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger, and ICQ Lite. (Covering past versions would require an entire book!) Most, if not all, of the solutions for ICQ Lite also apply to the larger (many would say bloated) ICQ Pro program, and the same goes for some older versions of the other IM apps covered here.