Foxwedge Chat

Claim your screen name

Pick something dumb. AIM sends your password over the internet in the clear — anyone between you and here could read it. Use something simple and throwaway that you don't use anywhere else, and never a password from your email, bank, or anything that matters.

One ticket, one name, used for AIM and the movie room. Nobody sees your password — not even Sean.

Getting an AIM client

Pidgin won't work. It dropped AIM in version 2.14.3 back in 2021 and there's no plugin to add it back — you need a period-correct client. The good news is they all still run.

Server
207.246.88.105
Port
5190
Screen name
your screen name

Windows

  1. Get AIM 5.9.6089 from oldversion.com and install it.
  2. Quit it completely — check Task Manager.
  3. Delete aimapi.dll from C:\Program Files (x86)\AIM. It won't start against a private server otherwise.
  4. Right-click aim.exe → Properties → Compatibility → run in Windows XP compatibility mode.
  5. Launch it, then Preferences → Sign On/Off → Connection and set the host and port above.

macOS

Use the AIM for macOS project — it's a modern rebuild that runs on both Intel and Apple Silicon, and takes the same host and port.

Linux

AIM 5.0–5.1.3036 runs well under Wine. Same install quirks as Windows above, same host and port.

Whatever you use: the connection is unencrypted, so treat it like a postcard rather than a sealed letter.

Movie nights

There's a little cinema too — one synced player, everybody's playhead follows whoever hits play or pause, and chat runs alongside it. Your account works there with the same name and password:

https://cinema.207-246-88-105.sslip.io

Whatever's queued up is what's showing — open the link when it's time and you'll drop into wherever everyone else is. Late arrivals start muted because browsers insist; there's an unmute button.

pnyx · a floor of dead protocols, still answering