MSN clients parry October lockout | Drobe.co.uk archives

MSN clients parry October lockout

By Chris Williams. Published: 14th Sep 2003, 22:49:00 | Permalink | Printable

Full steam ahead!

As a follow up to the recent headline on MSN, it's time for news on some updates to MSN client software for RISC OS.

Firstly, a new version of Natter has been released which supports MSN and ICQ. Version 1.20 features sound effects, contact list and group management, chat logging and more. Natter is shareware and can be registered online, although a demo version is available. Natter is quite colourful and looks polished, if you ignore the infrequent spasms of flickering when scrolling the contacts list.

On the subject of the impending October lockout of the MSN messenger network, where Microsoft will attempt to deny unauthorised clients from connecting, Natter developer Russell Palmer had a few choice words on the matter.

"I am confident that the proposed changes will not cause a major hurdle for me to continue supporting the MSN protocol, and I hope to support the software long into the future", Russell told drobe.co.uk.

Russell also explains on the Natter website, "I will be focussing my efforts on updating natter to work with the latest MSN protocols, and see no technical reasons why natter will not continue to work after the changes are introduced. The new protocol is available on the internet (it doesn't take much searching at all to find it), so there are no technical barriers for me to get past (except for the challenge of writing a SSL library...).

The only way I will be prevented from maintaining support of the MSN protocol is for legal reasons. I am currently looking into exactly where I stand on this issue, but am confident that I will find a solution."

On the other hand, Philip Hardy has another approach to the MSN lockout worry. When we asked Philip about how he'll cope with the lockout, Phil explained that he had decided that it would be better to open source his client so that others who were interested could contribute.

This weekend Phil confirmed that he's released his MSNMessenger client under the BSD open source license. This means others can take Philip's code and adapt and improve it to help development of the MSN client.

Links

Natter MSNMessenger

Previous: RISCOS Ltd. AGM
Next: PCI is go for RiscPCs, A7000s

Discussion

Viewing unthreaded comments | View comments threaded by reply | Skip to the end

Doesn't RComp have an SSL library for programmers to use?

mavhc on 15/9/03 9:17AM
[ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

R-Comp certainly have a SecureSockets module which supports SSL 2, SSL 3 and TSL available to download and use freely.A public programmes guide for the module is also available from there website. -- Victor Shears, Maidstone

vshears on 15/9/03 9:39AM
[ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

Incidentally R-Comp's own communicatione client Grapevine is conspicuous by it's absense from your information on updates to MSN client software for RISC OS. -- Victor Shears, Maidstone

vshears on 15/9/03 9:42AM
[ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

We told Chris a while back that we're tackling this with a two-pronged approach, to cover whatever MS may do.

arawnsley on 15/9/03 11:05AM
[ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

IIRC Mike Curtis was porting OpenSSL for use in cURL. So perhaps look there? [link]

It's beyond me why people need a instant chat program. Isn't email or the phone quick enough?

Or is this program just for ppl stuck in front of their computer all day? ;-)

quatermass on 15/9/03 12:12PM
[ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

Phone costs money, especially if your friends are abroard. Additionally, instant messaging is "in your face", ie. it acts as a reminder to say hello to people, where perhaps you wouldn't bother to phone or write a long email. From my perspective, it has allowed me to catch up with a lot of old school friends with whom I wouldn't otherwise be in regular communication.

arawnsley on 15/9/03 12:53PM
[ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

Thought I'd give these a go. Natter seems okay, connects, etc. The other on the first download complained about the lack of a file in !PhileLib. This was cured by downloading again. Now it's complaining about there not being a file in "!MSN.Sounds" Which doesn't exist at all, and which I would like to disable but can't. Bah.

mikeg on 17/9/03 11:21PM
[ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

All of the above problems with !MSN should now be fixed. I've uploaded a new version.

Phlip on 18/9/03 6:20AM
[ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

Please login before posting a comment. Use the form on the right to do so or create a free account.

Search the archives

Today's featured article

NetSurf bags GBP10K investment from Google
Four uni coders lined up to improve web browser

35 comments, latest by tlsa on 24/11/08 4:19PM. Published: 21 Apr 2008

Random article

Disruption follows Manchester BT fire
STD, Finnybank affected

8 comments, latest by Col1 on 1/4/04 9:22PM. Published: 30 Mar 2004

Useful links

News and media:
Iconbar • MyRISCOS • ArcSite • RISCOScode • ANS • C.S.A.Announce • Archive • Qercus • RiscWorld • Drag'n'Drop • GAG-News

Top developers:
RISCOS Ltd • RISC OS Open • MW Software • R-Comp • Advantage Six • VirtualAcorn

Dealers:
CJE Micros • APDL • Castle • a4 • X-Ample • Liquid Silicon • Webmonster

Usergroups:
WROCC • RONE • NKACC • IRUG • SASAUG • ROUGOL • RONWUG • MUG • WAUG • GAG • RISCOS.be

Useful:
RISCOS.org.uk • RISCOS.org • RISCOS.info • Filebase • Chris Why's Acorn/RISC OS collection • NetSurf

Non-RISC OS:
The Register • The Inquirer • Apple Insider • BBC News • Sky News • Google News • xkcd • diodesign

© 1999-2009 The Drobe Team. Some rights reserved, click here for more information
Powered by MiniDrobeCMS, based on J4U | Statistics
"Perhaps drobe should just redirect people to riscos.org, so people get the real news"
Page generated in 0.1354 seconds.