How To Do Everything With Windows XP Home Networking- P7

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How To Do Everything With Windows XP Home Networking- P7 CHAPTER 10: Chat and Send Instant Messages Safely 279 IM services they support. The only problem is that few third-party clients will automatically download updates. That means you need to periodically check the web site for the client you use to make sure you still have the latest version. ■ Gaim While there aren’t a huge number of updates to Gaim, you will need to check back with the Gaim web site from time to time. The client application doesn’t offer any sort of automatic download of updates. ■ Miranda The Miranda IM client doesn’t have an automatic update feature, but the developers post announcements of new releases or updates on their message board (http://find.pcworld.com/43048). ■ Trillian Trillian doesn’t alert users of its free client that there are updates through the client, but you can expect to see them every two or three months posted on the front page of that company’s web site. Head to http:// find.pcworld.com/43050 to check for updates about every three months. Preserve Your IM Settings, Contact Lists, and Conversation Logs Logging your instant messaging client helps you remember the details of past 10 conversations—but they’re only useful as long as you keep track of them. When you need to back up your computer, you’ll want to keep a copy of your IM client’s settings, your contact lists, and these conversation log files, so you can have a smooth transition and not need to set up everything the way you like it from scratch. The following sections describe how you can accomplish these tasks. Back Up Your Contact List and Settings Every instant messaging client (and mIRC for chat) stores its settings locally on your hard drive. IM clients also store your buddy list/contact list on the hard drive. Usually, you can find the location of these files in the C:Documents and Settings (your login name)Application Data folder, inside a folder named for your instant messaging client. A few programs, like mIRC, store settings in the folder where you installed the program (in mIRC’s case, in a file called settings.ini). Anytime you back up your critical files, you should back up these settings and contact list(s), in case you ever need to reinstall the client software or if there’s a hard drive disaster and you lose your data. Backing up the contact list also canPlease purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark. 280 How to Do Everything with Windows XP Home Networking FIGURE 10-8 Trillian gives you a lot of options when it comes to logging chat sessions. help if you want to use the same client software on another computer, or in case you delete a contact’s name accidentally. Some programs, like Trillian, give you a lot of options for keeping logs (as shown in Figure 10-8). Determine If You Need to Log Your Conversations Most people find it handy to log the past 50 or so messages in an instant message conversation. If your boss sends you a link to an important work file, and you close the message window before you get the file, the message will stay in the message history or message log window for a while. Some businesses require their employees to keep logs of all business-related conversations held in an IM client, in order to comply with laws governing certain kinds of financial transactions. In that case, you’ll need to open the settings or preferences dialog for your specific client, find the log settings, and make sure the program keeps your logs indefinitely.Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark. CHAPTER 10: Chat and Send Instant Messages Safely 281 FIGURE 10-9 Compress folders containing IM or chat logs into Zip files, and then use Windows XP’s encryption to protect those files from snoops. Encrypt Archived Message Logs and Delete Old Logs Periodically, you may find it useful to clear out some of your older chat logs, just to save a little space. But chat logs can contain sensitive information, so if you plan to archive those files, you’ll want to comp ...