Is there an alternative?

[thain]

So far the only IM service I have used is Yahoo, and it's crap. It crashes at least twice a day; it can't cope with a sentence of more than about five words; and the video is jerky and sometimes useless.

Does anyone know how reliable the alternative IM services are? I'd pay good money for a service I could rely on.

thain

[Ughster]

I use MSN messenger, it has most of the same features as yahoo, as well as some extras...

Alternatively, you can try downloading a program like Miranda or Trillian, which allow you to access yahoos servers with a differnt program, so you can talk to the same people without having to use yahoo messenger.

[thain]

Thank you for the suggestion. I had wondered what Trillian did? Now I know. :)

How stable have you found MSN? Yahoo IM crashes about twice a day here, although everything else on this machine is rock solid. Can you leave MSN running 24/7 and still find it working a week later?