Gaim is a unix version of AIM; however it has the ability to use Yahoo!, MSN, as well as ICQ.
To start gaim, type gaim & at the command line. You will see the following screen:
To start, click "Accounts" and you will be greated by the account editor.
From there, click "Add". Follow the screen down for AIM/ICQ. If you want to install a Yahoo! or other protocol, read below.
After you have entered in the necessary information, click "OK" and then select the account that you just created and then click "Sign On/Off".
Once you sign on successfully, click the "Close" button on the account editor.
To add other protocols, you can either click "Plug-ins" from the load screen or from "Tools, Plug-ins" from the buddy window.
Click "Load" and you will get a list of all of the available libraries. All protocol plug-ins look like libprotocol.so. For the purposes of this faq, we will install the Yahoo! protocol. You would select "libyahoo.so" from the file menu.
Then click "OK". The plug-in screen should now display information concerning the Yahoo protocol.
Click "Close". You've now successfully installed the plug-in. Now you need to install the account on gaim, just as you did for AIM/ICQ. Note: You can load the accounts menu from the load screen by clicking "Accounts".
From the buddy window, click Tools, Accounts. Click "Add" and answer all of the questions. However, for the protocol, you should select "Yahoo" for the protocol.
Note: Gaim is not supported by AOL. Gaim has been known to drop from the AOL network unexpectedly. If you continue to have problems, use the TOC protocol for AIM.
Last modified April 29, 2002