Aim Hates me with a fiery hot passion...

Thegreatcow

Ahoy there folks, I was hoping I could pick all of your brains (nomnomnom) with regards to a problem that I've been having literally non-stop since I moved back home.

Namely, AIM (latest version have it up to date etc) has this niggling issue where it will randomly disconnect and reconnect almost instantly throughout the day, with no rhyme or reason as to when it happens. I'll actually have someone who's aimed me when I was away from my computer and I'll have this long line of disconnect and re-connect messages on their window. Suffice to say it's really annoying and I'm getting tired of my friends reminding me what a shitty connection i'm running on.

To sum it all up here's what I know:

• I'm currently using AT&T DSL
• I'm routing said DSL through a Netgear WGR614 with firmware version 5.0
• I've ruled out general network niggles as this issue DOES NOT crop up if I plug my machine directly through the cable modem, but it happens when i'm hooked up to this specific router, which leads me to believe it's router related
• My Router is set to dynamically get IPs from my ISP, however for some odd reason last time I talked to the tech when we were having connection issues, they specificed for us to use specific DNS server addresses, of which two are currently entered.
• Router is currently set as a DHCP server
• Router is NOT currently set to use a dynamic DNS service, and I thankfully did NOT try the stupid thing of setting my computer as a default DMZ server either. (I've heard of the horror stories of trying that.
• Aim seems to be the only program that has this issue, even my bittorrent utorrent doesn't have this problem.
• I've tried setting up port forwarding in the router login settings page, by having aim assigned the port ranges that are on their website, but that doesn't seem to help.
• I've also had my particular screename for several years now (I think I got it when ebay first partnered with aol where they automatically let you create an ebay account with your aim screename (mid to late 90s) somehow I heard somewhere having a really really old sn has this issue crop up but I doubt it.
• Neither AIM's help page nor netgear's tech support has done anything to help and keep bouncing me back and forth claiming "it's the other programs' fault"

I would desperately appreciate any help here guys, I know I don't post here much but I'm hoping it's literally some stupid small setting I've overlooked and maybe I can finally deal with this BS instead of having to sneak my connection directly into modem like some digital Oedipus complex....

Gah that came out wrong din't?

Ah well, any help would be deeply appreciated folks.

I'm willing to provide pics of my router info page to see if this helps

shadydentist

Download pidgin and see if that works.

Brodo Faggins

Or digsby.

1ddqd

When I used AIM only, exclusively, back in the day, I had the same problem. Trillian did the same thing. Finally, I used Gimp (now Pidgin) and it all went away. Pidgin is VERY lightweight and VERY solid. Give that a shot.

autono-wally, erotibot300

Miranda
If you ever think you want it to do something, there's probably been a plugin for years that does exactly that
For example, integrate skype
edit: plus, who can beat a 960 Kb memory footprint minimized, 5.6 Mb maximized? :P

1ddqd

autono-wally, erotibot300 wrote: »

Miranda
If you ever think you want it to do something, there's probably been a plugin for years that does exactly that
For example, integrate skype
edit: plus, who can beat a 960 Kb memory footprint minimized, 5.6 Mb maximized? :P

Miranda is the only other "freebie" program I recommend. It's really worth a look, and skinning/plugins are cool, but you can get REALLY carried away with the plugins if you use obscure protocols.

Thegreatcow

Thanks for the replies folks. I'm giving Pidgin a shot now and so far I'm really liking it. Heck the default sounds are certainly much more soothing than aim's ever were. I'll update this in case I start having the same issues again.