AIM help

[Bugsby]

I write on behalf of my dad.

He just got AIM after all this time, to communicate with people at his office. When he tries to log on from his company laptop, it's stuck on the "Connecting" step for about twenty seconds before it informs him that the AIM service cannot be reached. When we try to log on on that same account on the home computer, it works just fine. My first thought is its a firewall problem (pretty tight security in a tech company) but that wouldn't make sense since its his fellow co-workers who are using AIM and want him to get on the service.

What would you suggest to get this up and running again?

Alternately, is there some kind of service that can work with AIM but isn't AIM? I've heard rumor of these programs. Is there any truth to them? And if so, would they have a better chance of working?

[CDS]

I believe you can get gaim for windows

[Sharp-kun]

www.ceruleanstudios.com

[Lord MJ]

I write on behalf of my dad.

He just got AIM after all this time, to communicate with people at his office. When he tries to log on from his company laptop, it's stuck on the "Connecting" step for about twenty seconds before it informs him that the AIM service cannot be reached. When we try to log on on that same account on the home computer, it works just fine. My first thought is its a firewall problem (pretty tight security in a tech company) but that wouldn't make sense since its his fellow co-workers who are using AIM and want him to get on the service.

What would you suggest to get this up and running again?

Alternately, is there some kind of service that can work with AIM but isn't AIM? I've heard rumor of these programs. Is there any truth to them? And if so, would they have a better chance of working?

Probably a firewall problem with the default AIM port to oscar.aol.com being blocked.

This is easily fixed by modifying your aim connection properties to connect to port 80 on oscar.aol.com instead of the default port. Since normally port 80 is the http port, the company firewall wouldn't block it.

AIM should work fine within the firewall after that.

[CDS]

Probably a firewall problem with the default AIM port to oscar.aol.com being blocked.

This is easily fixed by modifying your aim connection properties to connect to port 80 on oscar.aol.com instead of the default port. Since normally port 80 is the http port, the company firewall wouldn't block it.

AIM should work fine within the firewall after that.

Ah, you'll be suprised. If that works, try (login.)oscar.aol.com:110 - for some strange reason if I use port 80 our firewall breaks it over here.
What I don't understand is how everyone elses's settings Just Work.