Do IM bouncers/proxies exist?

August 13, 2005 5:36 AM

I've been using an IRC bouncer (more info for the uninitiated) for a bit now to allow me to connect from whichever computer I happen to be using - or even more at the same time. I'd like to do the same for the AOL and MSIM accounts I use. Googling AIM bouncer and AIM proxy don't seem to provide much direction though.
posted by Auz to Computers & Internet (8 answers total)

I don't know that such a thing exists. I have a friend who tries to simulate such a thing using naim and screen on a remote Linux host, which he logs into from his current location.
posted by grouse at 7:31 AM on August 13, 2005

On IRC it makes (some) sense to do this, but I don't see the benefits of doing this for IM. Why would you want to? The only benefit I can see is that you'd appear to be online all the time, but since you wouldn't get any messages while you're not 'really' on, where's the benefit? Or, are you expecting the IM bouncer to be somewhat like a IM answering service, and when you log on.. bam, you get all your messages?
posted by wackybrit at 8:27 AM on August 13, 2005

I've always wanted this so this for two big reasons.

For one thing, it would help me seamlessly move between computers that I use IM on. Right now, if I go from home to work for example, if I forget to turn off gaim at home, there's a window where messages to me are received at home that I can't get when I get to work. If there was a middle man that acted as a client to the main IM services but as a proxy for my real clients, then that proxy would keep the messages for me.

The other thing I really want is centrallized logging. Right now I have IM logs spread out between three systems. If I want to search for something I got at work, but I'm at home, I can do nothing about it.

I use screen + IRC to do this with IRC. But I've never found anything to do it with IM.
posted by cmm at 8:40 AM on August 13, 2005

cmm: naim, like I said further up on this page.
posted by grouse at 8:52 AM on August 13, 2005

I don't know about MSN, but AIM in recent versions lets you log on from multiple computers and still get all your IMs. Isn't this pretty much what you want?
posted by abcde at 8:59 AM on August 13, 2005

bitlbee does what you want.
posted by pixie at 9:02 AM on August 13, 2005 [1 favorite]

AIM allows you to login from more than one location. New messages are sent to all locations, and I think that once you reply, further messages from that same person only go to the location you are replying from.

That last feature might be client-specific, however.
posted by Mwongozi at 10:00 AM on August 13, 2005

you could use a jabber server to connect to these different networks, and switch to a jabber client.
posted by mosch at 3:42 PM on August 13, 2005