Miranda IM

[Andrew]

Today I started to use Miranda IM. I was introduced to it a year ago, but did not use it as it seemed to have some "bugs" (stuff I didn't understand). But today I tweaked it to my liking, installing skins, plugins, and a lot of other stuff to add functionality. Literally everything is changeable/editable. The only drawback is installing the plugins etc which can take time. But once done and tweaked, well you don't have to again. Also from what I can tell is that you can change the directory of Miranda to anywhere, which leads me to believe you can put it on a USB stick and use it anywhere. It also uses little memory. Curently with a bunch of plugins installed it uses 5.5mb ram, while msn beta 7 uses 7 mb ram.

You can customize Miranda to be just like msn or icq in case you like those IM programs look/feel.

It is also available in many languages.

I was using MSN messenger, but it had ads and other junk that is no fun.

Miranda IM combines most IM clients into one (or you can use it for just one IM like ICQ or msn).

The attached image shows my current Miranda configuration compared to the size that I used msn messenger at. As you can tell Miranda takes up 1/6 the space that messenger does.

Currently Miranda has probably 200 more options than messenger (which has like 20?)

Highly recommend it. I am currently using the latest night build, which is supposed to be stable and better than the latest public release. It's odd to see opensource stuff like this be much better than corporate IM, when they spend money to build them, and when they do update them, they are no different (msn beta 7). Had a professor  from York University today talk about blogs and how the media is changing dramastically. Was interesting.

Pros:

Customizable in every way. Easy to install (easy as unzipping a file).

Cons:

Can be a hassle to customize, but since customization is not required...

10/10

http://miranda-im.org/

What IM do you use? why? any recommendations?

[attachment archived by Gobalopper]

[slaphapy]

sounds kool, but not sure if i want another IM progy... already using msn and AIM, but only because that's what most people i know use so... ya.

[Andrew]

But this program combines the use of the two programs you mentioned. Thus only requiring the Miranda program to be open to use contacts from both the programs you mentioned.

Should try it. You won't have to worry about having to start two programs when your computer starts. :)

This isn't a program where you have to sign up an account to use (like say hotmail or icq #), it just needs the account info that you already have with another IM program (email, icq #, etc) to run.

[slaphapy]

well that sounds good and all, but also i dont have msn signed in most of the time, mostly so people cant message me lol... so having them both in one would not really be in my specific interests, although i'm sure it would be to the liking of most people.

[Gobalopper]

Trillian works fine for me, I've been using it for years and looks a lot nicer in my opinion.

[Andrew]

Hope you weren't basing looks on my image. :P It can look any way you want it to.

This thread shows how some people have it customized.

http://forums.miranda-im.org/showthread.php?t=188

Although trillian does look good :).

well that sounds good and all, but also i dont have msn signed in most of the time, mostly so people cant message me lol... so having them both in one would not really be in my specific interests, although i'm sure it would be to the liking of most people.

You don't have to sign in to all the accounts at once. You can choose whether you are online, busy, away, offline, etc for each individual account (icq, msn etc).

[slaphapy]

kinda cool, maybe i'll give it a whirl... since its a SNOW DAY TODAY! (woohoo)

EDIT:  i'm having some problem adding my contacts list... ??? it keeps saying "the message protocol had an error in initializing the search. please try again" or something like that. wtf.

[Gobalopper]

http://www.trillian.cc/ ;)

[Andrew]

Sorry, I'm new to it and don't know too much about specifics. Which contact list are you trying to add? aim or icq?

Check the website or forum. Or do what gob said and try trillian.

Miranda seems like an advanced IM program. Not for people who want a simple quick fix IM program. ;)

We can all agree that these free programs are better than messenger or icq, you know the big corporate programs that tell you what you want it to be.

EDIT -

List of IM programs.

http://www.jabber.org/software/clients.shtml

[slaphapy]

trillian seems to be working for me, and it was really fast to set up (though i wouldnt mind the customizable options on Miranda)  But i even tried reinstalling, but for some reason it wouldnt find my contacts that i added (plus it would have taken forever to add all of them...)

[Andrew]

Hmm, Miranda should work. Maybe you didn't enter the right information.

Oh well, if you ever get lots of spare time you can always play with Miranda to see if it works.

Hopefully they will come out with a latest version in a month or two. As they havnt released a new version for a year (except betas).

[slaphapy]

well i know i did enter the right info, i mean i entered it exactly the same as i did on Trillian, and it found everything ok.  Plus i did it twice, now i screw up a lot, but twice in a row?

maybe i have some setting on my accounts that it couldnt work through or something... i dont know.

[erjin999]

I have already been using Miranda for a while, but only on my USB drive when I am on other peoples computers (which is a lot, as my work involves computers...lots and lots of em) it can run straight from the drive with no install/config.

When I first got it I looked at it and thought "ermm...yeah...what now ?". Within 2 mins I had sussed it and I was online (I wasnt too shure I was though!). It wasnt as easy as msgr to use, but it can log me into many IM protocols and without install, and it works well, so why not ?

I kept msgr and msn msgr at home so I can do voice and video and file transfer (it might be able to do those too ??).

All in all a nice little proggy for me, but I hardly use it to its potential.

[Andrew]

It has file transfer. Don't know about voice. Although there migth be a plugin for it.

[Andrew]

Hnmm. Only thing left to do is change my "chat" windows, and I have not succeeded yet. I tried installing the plugins but they don't seem to work. Even after I installed the themes/templates for it.

Here is my current setup

Report generated on: 23:21:29 of 18/03/2005 (day/month/year)

Operating System: Microsoft Windows XP [ver: 5.1.2600 Service Pack 2]

Installed RAM: 512 MBytes

Free disk space on Miranda partition: 48855 MBytes

Miranda IM version: 0.4 alpha

Build time: 18:12:47 of 11/03/2005 (day/month/year)

Nightly: Yes

Active Plugins:

awaysys.dll, ver: 0.3.4.3

changeinfo.dll, ver: 0.3.4.0

chat.dll, ver: 0.2.0.2

clist_nicer.dll, ver: 0.3.4.12

dbx_3x.dll, ver: 0.3.4.1

historypp.dll, ver: 1.4.0.0

historysweeper.dll, ver: 0.1.1.3

hostfile.dll, ver: 1.0.0.0

ieview.dll, ver: 1.0.1.10

import.dll, ver: 0.9.2.0

mplusa.dll, ver: 0.1.25.2

msn.dll, ver: 0.4.0.1

mtooltip.dll, ver: 0.0.1.4

newstatusnotify.dll, ver: 1.1.2.0

popup.dll, ver: 2.0.3.8

tabsrmm_unicode.dll, ver: 0.9.9.8

tweakui.dll, ver: 0.0.0.4

uptime.dll, ver: 0.1.1.0

versioninfo.dll, ver: 1.0.1.4

weather.dll, ver: 0.3.4.4

whoisreadingmystatusmsg.dll, ver: 0.0.1.0

Inactive Plugins:

clist_classic.dll, ver: 0.3.4.6

clist_mw.dll, ver: 0.3.4.5

icq.dll, ver: 0.3.4.5

srmm.dll, ver: 2.1.0.0

tabsrmm.dll, ver: 0.9.9.8

toptoolbar.dll, ver: 0.6.0.11

Highly reccomend getting Miranda Installer to install plugins. Makes life a lot easier.

I cant get List background+ to work right. It works, but there is still a background even when I trim the corners (transparent). Pretty sure this is the Clist_Nicer plugin. If I could get it to work properly my list would look nicer.

What my list looks like for me now.

EDIT - Changed the quoted text to my current version.

I must say there is so many options with this program I have no idea what to do :P

Could be 400 by now.

[attachment archived by Gobalopper]

[Andrew]

http://www.aus1.info/news.php

Has one of the latest builds of Miranda and installs it with several plugins. Probably recommended for people who don't want to do much work to get Miranda working.

I am mentioning it because I just tried it for the second time and this time I got tweakui transparency to work!!

This is important to me as I have been trying since I got Miranda to get it to work but it never has. I think tweakui transparency has not been working for me because of my former profile or something.

Now my contact list looks nicer.

Would post an image, but it doesn't seem to want to take a screenshot with Miranda in it.

EDIT - Finally found the problem with tweakui contact transparency. It requires 32 bit color and does not seem to support 16 bit. I swore I tried 32 bit before with no luck.

[Andrew]

Miranda has had some updates, and I've found more useful plugins.

http://www.aus1.info/

For an easy installation of the program with plugins.

or

http://www.miranda-im.org/ for main website. They are coming out with 4.0.1 soon.

Report generated on: 20:25:54 of 16/06/2005 (day/month/year)

Operating System: Microsoft Windows XP [ver: 5.1.2600 Service Pack 2]

Installed RAM: 512 MBytes

Free disk space on Miranda partition: 53500 MBytes

Miranda IM version: 0.4.0.1 alpha

Build time: 10:32:57 of 14/06/2005 (day/month/year)

Nightly: Yes

Active Plugins:

autoreplacer.dll - AutoReplacer [0.0.1.1]

autoreplacerimport.dll - AutoReplacerImport [0.0.0.2]

changeinfo.dll - Change User Details [0.3.4.0]

chat.dll - Chat [0.2.1.3]

clist_modern.dll - Modern Contact List [0.3.0.170]

contacts.dll - Send/Receive Contacts+ [1.4.2.0]

dbeditorpp.dll - Database Editor++ [3.1.0.0]

dbx_3x.dll - Miranda database - with AutoBackups [0.5.1.5]

extendedidle.dll - Extended Idle System [0.1.0.1]

findamsg.dll - Find A Message [0.2.1.0]

fontservice.dll - FontService [0.0.1.5]

historypp.dll - History++ [1.5.0.79]

historysweeper.dll - History Sweeper [0.1.1.3]

ieview.dll - IEView Plugin [1.0.3.4]

import.dll - Import contacts and messages [0.9.2.2]

irc.dll - IRC Protocol [0.5.1.3]

keepstatus.dll - KeepStatus [0.0.2.2]

metacontacts.dll - MetaContacts [0.9.10.5]

msg_export.dll - Message export [2.15.0.0]

msn.dll - MSN Protocol [0.4.0.4]

mtooltip.dll - mToolTip [0.0.1.5]

ncn.dll - NickChangeNotify [0.0.2.7]

newnr.dll - New "Sticky Notes & Reminders" [0.0.4.5]

newstatusnotify.dll - NewStatusNotify [1.1.2.1]

openfolder.dll - Open Miranda Folder [1.0.4.0]

popup.dll - PopUp Interoperability [2.0.3.9]

rss.dll - RSSNews [0.0.3.7]

seenplugin.dll - Last seen plugin [5.0.1.1]

sendss.dll - Send ScreenShot [0.2.0.5]

simpleaway.dll - SimpleAway [1.6.1.1]

smileyadd_tabsrmm.dll - SmileyAdd [0.1.4.5]

snapping_windows.dll - Snapping windows [0.0.1.8]

startupstatus.dll - StartupStatus [0.0.2.0]

stopspam.dll - StopSpam [0.0.0.23]

tabsrmm_unicode.dll - tabSRMsgW (unicode) [0.9.9.95]

tweakui.dll - TweakUI [0.0.0.4]

typingnotify.dll - Typing Notify [0.0.1.6]

uinfoex.dll - Extended UserInfo [0.1.0.1]

versioninfo.dll - Version Informations [1.0.1.5]

wassup.dll - Wassup [0.3.1.2]

weather.dll - Weather Protocol [0.3.5.0]

webview.dll - Webview Protocol [0.1.1.0]

Current plugins I am using. :P

EDIT - Miranda 0.4.0.1 was released today, Sunday June 19, 2005.

[Andrew]

Long time no posty. Miranda has come quite a ways since June. There are talks for a new release sometime soon.

Attached is pretty close to my current configuration (someone made a plugin that you could remove any personal info from the profile so you could share your config with anyone).

It is the latest nightly, with some plugins that I feel work best with msn. Explanation of the plugins included.

Miranda IM - VersionInformation plugin by Hrk, modified by Eblis

Report generated at: 21:57:14 on 06 January 2006

Miranda IM version: 0.4.3 alpha build #44

Build time: 19:27:24 on 05 January 2006

Profile size: 130.29 KBytes

Profile creation date: 17 Dec 2005 at 03:47:34

Nightly: Yes

Unicode core: No

Active Plugins (38):

AutoReplacer.dll v.0.0.1.1 [05 Mar 2004] - AutoReplacer

AutoReplacerImport.dll v.0.0.0.2 [30 Apr 2003] - AutoReplacerImport

-Both above are good so that if you know you mispell a word often, you can make it so that it replaces the mispelled word. also capitallizes first word of sentence, days of week etc.

BehindEdge.dll v.0.0.0.2 [21 Nov 2004] - Behind The Edge

-Puts the miranda contact list hidden in different place when mouse not over it. hard to explain but it works good.

chat.dll v.0.3.2.1 [06 Jan 2006] - Chat

-Comes with miranda

clist_modern_mod.dll v.0.3.0.203 [17 Nov 2005] - Modern Contact List Mod

-I like this clist best.

contacts.dll v.1.4.2.0 [13 Apr 2005] - Send/Receive Contacts+

-umm, dunno if I use this. send contacts to other contacts.

crashrpt.dll v.0.0.0.1 [23 Aug 2005] - Crash Report

-Good to use to help solve/report problems.

dbeditorpp.dll v.3.1.2.0 [19 Sep 2005] - Database Editor++

-edit the database, not recomended unless you know what you're doing.

dbx_3x.dll v.0.5.1.0 [06 Jan 2006] - Miranda database driver

the database (required)

extendedidle.dll v.0.2.0.0 [12 Oct 2005] - Extended Idle System

findAmsg.dll v.0.2.1.0 [01 Feb 2005] - Find A Message

FontService.dll v.0.0.2.4 [09 Nov 2005] - FontService

-Lets you specify what fonts you want to use everywhere.

gmailm.dll v.0.2.3.7 [25 Dec 2005] - Gmail Multiple Notifier

historypp.dll v.1.5.0.79 [24 Aug 2004] - History++

-conversation history viewer.

IcoLib.dll v.0.0.0.3 [28 Apr 2005] - Icons library manager

-change icons throughout miranda to whatever you want

ieview.dll v.1.0.4.0 [01 Dec 2005] - IEView

-used in conversation window to make it look pretty.

import.dll v.0.9.2.2 [06 Jan 2006] - Import contacts and messages

loadavatarsw.dll v.0.0.1.11 [10 Nov 2005] - Avatar service

-allows use of avatars

msn.dll v.0.4.1.3 [06 Jan 2006] - MSN Protocol

mToolTip.dll v.0.0.1.5 [03 Nov 2005] - mToolTip

-adds support for tooltips when you hover over contacts etc

mydetails.dll v.0.0.0.20 [05 Jan 2006] - My Details

-gives an msn messenger touch at the top of the contact list so you can change your nick, status, status message quickly.

ncn.dll v.0.0.2.9 [28 Sep 2005] - NickChangeNotify

NewStatusNotify.dll v.1.1.2.2 [14 Jul 2005] - NewStatusNotify

-above 2 notify you of nick and status changes of contacts.

openFolder.dll v.1.0.4.0 [19 Oct 2004] - Open Miranda Folder

-quickly get into your miranda folder.

png2dib.dll v.0.1.3.0 [06 Jan 2006] - PNG images processor

PopUp.dll v.2.0.3.96 [28 Nov 2005] - PopUp Interoperability [RC1] [ansi/unicode - 2in1]

-allows popups (for ncn, nsn, etc)

seenplugin.dll v.5.0.2.5 [09 Nov 2005] - Last seen plugin mod

-tells you when a contact was last online etc on your clist.

simpleaway.dll v.1.6.1.1 [13 Apr 2005] - SimpleAway

-good to use to change status, status message

smcn.dll v.0.0.2.10 [08 Nov 2005] - StatusMessageChangeNotify

smileyadd.dll v.0.1.10.4 [04 Jan 2006] - SmileyAdd

-adds smiley support

Snapping_windows.dll v.0.0.1.9 [30 Sep 2005] - Snapping windows

tabsrmm.dll v.0.9.9.99 [06 Jan 2006] - tabSRMsg

-used for convo window.

TypingNotify.dll v.0.0.1.6 [03 Jul 2004] - Typing Notify

-notifies you when someone writing to you.

updater.dll v.0.2.5.1 [21 Dec 2005] - Updater

-updates plugins every so often(you define).

uptime.dll v.0.1.1.0 [18 Mar 2005] - Shows Windows uptime

versioninfo.dll v.1.0.1.13 [15 Oct 2005] - Version Information

weather.dll v.0.3.5.8 [21 Sep 2005] - Weather Protocol

-allows you to get weather info

webview.dll v.0.1.2.0 [29 Sep 2005] - Webview Protocol

-allows you to check for changes in a website (html).

It is not a unicode version, they are currently rolling out some unicode core and plugins, which would be good if you dont speak english ;)

Picture of my config:

It allows the status message to be displayed below the nick, so more horizontal space saved.

To try my attachment, download, unzip wherever you want, open miranda.exe, folow instructions (if you get confused just say no no whatever) go to options->network->msn  input your msn info and it should work.

Don't think this config works on win98.

Download is 5mb. My current config running is 15mb ram.

Don't like something? Change or delete it. Missing something? check out the website or ask in this thread.

There are thousands of options and customization possible, so you can change it to your liking.

To get an idea of what you can make clist look like, go to:

http://miranda-im.org/download/index.php?action=display&id=82

and click on Screenshot: View

Fed2k upload folder is full, so get my configuration here:

link deleted

I know quite a bit now, so feel free to ask questions.

If you are a person that will not be switching to miranda, but still want an alternative to msn messenger:

aMSN new version was released last month. Supports most regular msn features.

[veK]

miranda is very cool... I use it for some time now because there are still people out there who communicate via msn/icq instead of getting on irc (instant messenger sucks, get on irc folks).

my miranda looks very simple, I removed everything I don't need and now currently it looks like this:

http://www.planetvek.de/pics/tech/desktop.jpg <-- in the lower right corner

[Andrew]

Miranda has come some more way. With the introduction of google chat within gmail, you can chat with users who are signed into their gmail account using Miranda (and other clients found here). This works the same as if they were on google talk client or any other jabber protocol. There is a mod of the protocol that can also check your gmail inbox for new emails.

I really like the chat feature in gmail. It's simple and easy to use.

My current miranda config which is different than before (click for enlargement):

Only 34 plugins running and one message window, taking up 13mb of ram (that's not much!) :)

Miranda IM - VersionInformation plugin by Hrk, modified by Eblis

Report generated at: 19:52:59 on 19 February 2006

CPU:              Intel® Pentium® 4 CPU 1.70GHz [x86 Family 15 Model 1 Stepping 2]

Operating System: Microsoft Windows XP [version: 5.1.2600 Service Pack 2]

Installed RAM: 512 MBytes

Free disk space on Miranda partition: 39857 MBytes

Miranda path: C:Miranda

Miranda IM version: 0.4.3 alpha build #47 Unicode

Build time: 21:41:44 on 10 February 2006

Profile size: 2,757.74 KBytes

Profile creation date: 11 Feb 2006 at 01:46:43

Nightly: Yes

Unicode core: Yes

Active Plugins (34):

AutoReplacer.dll v.0.0.1.1 [06 Mar 2004] - AutoReplacer

AutoReplacerImport.dll v.0.0.0.2 [30 Apr 2003] - AutoReplacerImport

BehindEdge.dll v.0.0.0.2 [21 Nov 2004] - Behind The Edge

chat.dll v.0.3.2.1 [11 Feb 2006] - Chat (Unicode)

clist_modern.dll v.0.4.1.24 [11 Feb 2006] - Modern Contact List (UNICODE)

crashrpt.dll v.0.0.0.2 [20 Dec 2005] - Crash Report

dbeditorpp.dll v.3.1.3.2 [11 Feb 2006] - Database Editor++

dbx_3x.dll v.0.5.1.0 [11 Feb 2006] - Miranda database driver

fontservice.dll v.0.0.2.6 [19 Feb 2006] - FontService

historypp.dll v.1.5.0.90 [18 Feb 2006] - History++ (2in1)

IcoLib.dll v.0.0.0.2 [15 Apr 2005] - Icons library manager

ieview.dll v.1.0.5.2 [20 Jan 2006] - IEView

JGmail.dll v.0.4.3.0 [19 Feb 2006] - Jabber Protocol (GMail) (Unicode)

loadavatars.dll v.0.0.1.14 [03 Feb 2006] - Avatar service - BETA

msn.dll v.0.4.3.0 [11 Feb 2006] - MSN Protocol (Unicode)

mtextcontrol.dll v.0.0.1.10 [09 Dec 2005] - Miranda Text Control [build #160]

mToolTip.dll v.0.0.1.5 [07 Feb 2006] - mToolTip

mydetails.dll v.0.0.0.36 [14 Feb 2006] - My Details

ncn.dll v.0.0.2.9 [28 Sep 2005] - NickChangeNotify

newawaysys.dll v.0.3.6.7 [12 Feb 2006] - New Away System [ Build #2257 ]

NewStatusNotify.dll v.1.1.2.2 [14 Jul 2005] - NewStatusNotify

openFolder.dll v.1.0.4.0 [20 Oct 2004] - Open Miranda Folder

png2dib.dll v.0.1.3.0 [11 Feb 2006] - PNG images processor

PopUp.dll v.2.0.3.97 [09 Dec 2005] - PopUp Interoperability [RC2]

rss.dll v.0.0.3.9 [07 Feb 2006] - RSSNews

seenplugin.dll v.5.0.2.5 [11 Feb 2006] - Last seen plugin mod

smcn.dll v.0.0.2.10 [08 Nov 2005] - StatusMessageChangeNotify

smileyaddw.dll v.0.1.11.10 [13 Feb 2006] - SmileyAdd Unicode

tabsrmm.dll v.0.9.9.99 [11 Feb 2006] - tabSRMsgW (unicode)

TypingNotify.dll v.0.0.1.6 [06 Jul 2004] - Typing Notify

updater.dll v.0.4.0.8 [19 Feb 2006] - Updater

uptime.dll v.0.1.1.0 [02 Mar 2003] - Shows Windows uptime

VersionInfo.dll v.1.0.1.17 [03 Feb 2006] - Version Information

webview.dll v.0.1.2.0 [18 Feb 2006] - Webview Protocol

I'll probably create a version of mine so that others can unzip it and sign into their msn account and have it do the same thing as mine (with the customizations).

EDIT:

Miranda also now supports Sametime IM protocol (Lotus Notes). Can be found Here

The webmaster at Apogee/3D Realms website (also a developer) has just switched over to Miranda from Trillian Pro.

see his blog about it here.

EDIT:

Put together a version of my miranda config. All you need to do is unzip, run it, enter msn info (and gmail info if you like) and it should run fine.

Andrew's Miranda config 5.48 mb zipped file. 12 mb unzipped. (link deleted)

[Andrew]

Updated my Miranda config.

Seems my last one was downloaded ~70 times. Think cause I posted it at miranda forum a couple times to help people.

Latest version of it can be found at

[link deleted]

This is set up mostly for MSN users, although gmail chat plugin is included (which alerts you to new gmail email as well as chatting with people signed into gmail) as well as some regular plugins I use.

4.66mb zipped, 11.2 mb unzipped. It's using the latest RC version nightly build that was released a couple days ago. I'm thinking in a month a new final release will be released. It will be a huge improvement over the last major release which was a year ago.

I actually used Miranda on my portable usb stick today at university, as I don't like to use msn messenger on those computer as I don't think it's as safe (some people actually leave their email address in it) :P.

[Andrew]

Updated it again :)

For msn users, go to option->network->msn and input email and password (like you normally would to sign into msn mesenger) and it should work.

http://www.mytempdir.com/568900

I changed some stuff, so if you downloaded it within 15 minutes of me originally posting this post, you can redownload it if you want. I just removed some redundant stuff and extra popup and skin themes

[Dunenewt]

Hmm I'm using my own version...if I just save the .dat file and transfer it across to your files, will it work for me?

[Andrew]

Hmm. I'm not sure. You're saying that you got msn to work?

I wouldnt think the .dat transfer would work too good, as you would have diff plugins/themes etc than my version. You can import history from your other .dat if that is what you want (otherwise, why would you want your .dat with my config?).

Well you could always try copying and pasting your .dat into my version and see if that works (just delete or move my current profile.dat somewhere else).

[Dunenewt]

I'm using the nConverse thing which seems to work quite well.  Need to work out webcam support, and how to change my fonts.