ICQ and Lag

[jelinidas]

With all these recent lag issues it got me thinking. I try to run UO with nothing else running to help proformance. I play on a cheapo laptop on a wireless network over cell towers. Not the best setup, I know, but it works for now. I live in the boonies ie no cable.

My question for you great folks, Does ICQ slow you down and/or lag you up. I swear it does me, but my son says its my imagination.

Thought/comments?

 

[Phaen Grey]

ICQ absolutely does, I have a crappy computer also and I can see things slow down when messages come in, especially if I get several at one time. Being a guild leader though I can rarely turn it off during peak hours, so I tend to do dangerous things late at night.

 

[Mark Knotts]

Use Trillian.

 

[JC the Builder]

The newest version of ICQ is absolutely horrible. It is a far cry from what the program used to be about 10 years ago. Now they have all these awful extra features like games and dating whatever. It is so stupid. No wonder it isn't very popular anymore.

If you have an older computer (2004 or earlier) then it will definitely cause performance issues for you.

 

[MalagAste]

True unfortunately it does slow you WAY down... I would suggest you try trilion though I hate it...

 

[jelinidas]

Thanks All for the quick replies! Computers are all pretty new. We play on a shared network and I can tell when he is on Q or fires it up, I creep. Our connection is not great to begin with and sometimes up to 4 computers connected any little thing bogs it down. Thanks again!

 

[Cynth]

ICQ is a fairly low-bandwidth protocol that shouldn't, actually, cause any noticeable network latency. The client also shouldn't cause problems on any modern hardware.

There are better clients to use other than the default ICQ client, however. Clients like Miranda (http://www.miranda-im.org) and Pidgin (http://pidgin.im) allow you to connect to ICQ as well as MSN, AIM, YIM, etc. These clients are light-weight and remove the bloat of some of the normal clients.

These also allow you to consolidate several programs, if you use them, into one single program which will likely free up some resources.

 

[walter_mitty]

The newest version of ICQ is absolutely horrible. It is a far cry from what the program used to be about 10 years ago. Now they have all these awful extra features like games and dating whatever. It is so stupid. No wonder it isn't very popular anymore.

If you have an older computer (2004 or earlier) then it will definitely cause performance issues for you.

icq has dating im there like a rat up a drainpipe

 

[Nok]

ICQ is also the least secure of all IM clients. ICQ has more security flaws than all the other IM clients... combined.

 

[Cynth]

ICQ is also the least secure of all IM clients. ICQ has more security flaws than all the other IM clients... combined.

If you're going to throw claims around, at least ensure they're factual. This simply isn't:

http://secunia.com/advisories/product/14880/?task=statistics_2008

The client, currently, has no known unpatched vulnerabilities.

The ICQ protocol of old was quite insecure by its nature, not supporting authentication encryption among other issues, however these issues have largely been ironed out. ICQ now uses the OSCAR protocol; the same protocol that AOL Instant Messenger uses for communication.

 

[Uriah Heep]

I havent had icq on in a week, and still laggy as crap.

And i posted in another thread, my trace and showed where the problem was...and Icq wasnt running when I did it. This round of lag, can't be blamed on ICQ or any other comm program...

 

[Petra Fyde]

I don't find it lags me, unless I leave message windows open. However I do wish it was possible to opt out of some of the fluff and just have a basic, stripped down version.

 

[Mystikal GIL]

ICQ is not the reason the ping raises from 110 to 220.

 

[Cynth]

I don't find it lags me, unless I leave message windows open. However I do wish it was possible to opt out of some of the fluff and just have a basic, stripped down version.

You do have these choices; by using some of the clients discussed earlier in this thread. QED.

 

[Petra Fyde]

how safe are they?

My son installed Trillian for me, I didn't like it very much.

 

[Cynth]

The applications I linked to are both open source and secure. Pidgin is a staple install with most Linux-based systems as the default IM client. Miranda is a very light-weight IM solution also.

They're worth checking out, at the very least, if you're looking for clients that are designed purely for IM and contain none of the bloat typical clients of today seem to have. I wouldn't recommend Trillian either, but I do like both of the clients I've mentioned here.

 

[Jactiggy]

Or you could head over to http://www.oldversion.com/ and try one of the older versions of ICQ.
That's what i did when the newer ICQ used to lag my sound in UO.

 

[Cynth]

The problem with using older versions of software is that they lack the security patches and fixes which were implemented in the later versions. Several old versions of ICQ are affected by vulnerabilities which were left unpatched due to later versions superseding them.

You're better off running other clients which are still maintained by the vendors in order to avoid nasty exploits. This is particularly true in regards to applications which interact directly with networks.

 

[jelinidas]

ICQ is not the reason the ping raises from 110 to 220.

Oh no, that is not at all what im saying/asking. It was just all the lag threads and the constant battles with my at home ICQ user that made me ask your thoughts on Q.

From the traceroutes I have seen posted, it looks pretty clear where the bottleneck is.

Again, I was just asking if you think ICQ slows your machine, or my case, home wireless network down.

 

[Tina Small]

With all these recent lag issues it got me thinking. I try to run UO with nothing else running to help proformance. I play on a cheapo laptop on a wireless network over cell towers. Not the best setup, I know, but it works for now. I live in the boonies ie no cable.

My question for you great folks, Does ICQ slow you down and/or lag you up. I swear it does me, but my son says its my imagination.

Thought/comments?

We have a wireless network set up at our house. The router that runs the network also has four ports on the back of it to run cable to four computers (or other hardware, I guess). The router is connected to the cable modem that gives us our Internet access. I generally only play UO on one of the computers that sits close enough to the router to be physically plugged into it. The lag in UO is fairly noticeable if I pick up one of the laptops that is usually "hard-wired" to the router and take it into another room in the house and try to play with just a wireless connection to the router.

You might see if you can rearrange some of your network components so YOU, and not your son, get the hard-wired connection to the router, if that's how you have your network set up.

(Sorry for not using all the appropriate technical terms for everything. Not feeling all that geeky tonight. LOL)

 

[AdamD]

Hmm, so ICQ, Pidgin and Miranda have no known vulnerabilities, yet Trillian (The one I use, ack) has a few known/unpatched ones.

Guess I'll switch to something else then

 

[JC the Builder]

The lag in UO is fairly noticeable if I pick up one of the laptops that is usually "hard-wired" to the router and take it into another room in the house and try to play with just a wireless connection to the router.

The network must not be setup right. I play UO over a wireless network, well everything really, and there is no more lag than I would have on a wired computer. There is no difference between playing wireless or wired these days.

Well unless you are playing via satellite.

 

[Tina Small]

The network must not be setup right. I play UO over a wireless network, well everything really, and there is no more lag than I would have on a wired computer. There is no difference between playing wireless or wired these days.

Well unless you are playing via satellite.

I don't know, JC. When I'm at one of the computers that is physically connected and wirelessly connected to the router, the icon for the wireless network says the speed is 54.0 Mbps, while the LAN connection says the speed is 100.0 Mbps. I set up our wireless network a few years ago and have not changed out the router since then, so perhaps it's time for an upgrade. I'm sure my husband would love a faster connection when he uses his laptop computer to access the Internet over the wireless network. I know I'd like to stop hearing him complain about how slow it is.

 

[Wenchkin]

I haven't used the ICQ main client in years, used Trillian for a while but I'm now on LInux using Pidgeon. Works really well and I've not had any issues with it at all. I think even on a slow con you should get away with Pidgeon, I used to run Trillian then Gaim on my windows system while on 28k dialup, without a hitch.

It's worth checking everything you've got running on your system though, so it's running efficiently. When I used windows I used to run a program called the ultimate troubleshooter which would explain what each running process was, how important it was, any issues and how to nuke it safely. You could do everything you needed within the program, and also perform maintenance tasks like clearing out online histories. There are other similar programs out there, but I found that the clearest for spotting any resource hogs, telling me about them and pulling them safely. I often deactivated programs that were rarely needed, then it was just a case of going into TUT when they were needed and turning them back on again.

Wenchy

 

[Nok]

ICQ is also the least secure of all IM clients. ICQ has more security flaws than all the other IM clients... combined.

If you're going to throw claims around, at least ensure they're factual. This simply isn't:

http://secunia.com/advisories/product/14880/?task=statistics_2008

The client, currently, has no known unpatched vulnerabilities.

The ICQ protocol of old was quite insecure by its nature, not supporting authentication encryption among other issues, however these issues have largely been ironed out. ICQ now uses the OSCAR protocol; the same protocol that AOL Instant Messenger uses for communication.

Let's dance here one step at a time. I didn't say "ICQ 6.x", I said "ICQ". Specifically because many long time ICQ users do not all use ICQ 6.x... many long time ICQ users still use any old version of ICQ they can get their hands on and are comfortable with. Case in point...

Or you could head over to http://www.oldversion.com/ and try one of the older versions of ICQ.
That's what i did when the newer ICQ used to lag my sound in UO.

The problem with using older versions of software is that they lack the security patches and fixes which were implemented in the later versions. Several old versions of ICQ are affected by vulnerabilities which were left unpatched due to later versions superseding them.

You're better off running other clients which are still maintained by the vendors in order to avoid nasty exploits. This is particularly true in regards to applications which interact directly with networks.

Exactly. I agree with you. And knowing that many users will use older ICQ versions, there is no way to know on a forum exactly who is using which. So not knowing exactly which ICQ versions are floating out there amongst UO Stratics users... let's search Secunia by client titles. Let me copy/paste something for you... I'll update the links in it because Secunia has rebuilt their advisory database.

Not replying to anyone particularly, just thought it would be good to share this information. Everyone has their own interpretations, so make of it what you will.

ICQ @ Secunia - Found: 47 Secunia Security Advisories
AIM @ Secunia - Found: 6 Secunia Security Advisories
MSN @ Secunia - Found: 9 Secunia Security Advisories
YIM @ Secunia - Found: 18 Secunia Security Advisories
Trillian @ Secunia - Found: 13 Secunia Security Advisories

ICQ has one more (47) than all the others combined (46). And these issues don't even address other security problems with ICQ's OSCAR & encryption protocols.

Ever since AOL's purchase of Mirabilis (the publisher of ICQ), ICQ's development has continued to go down the toilet. This is a major reason why so many ICQ users continue to use old versions of ICQ, thus putting themselves and their fellow ICQ contacts at even further risk. There are web sites out there that cater to these users by archiving older versions of ICQ, little do these users know that some of these archives are little more than sources for hacked versions with backdoors.

No instant messenger is 100% safe. But users should always use the latest version of the IM they use. But also use only what you need to. AIM and ICQ are compatible with one another. As is MSN/WLM with YIM. Trillian is a multi-IM client that supports AOL/ICQ, IRC, Jabber, MSN/WLM, YIM, and more.

We all know about hardware & software firewalls to protect our computers (these are network firewalls), but there are other different types of firewalls too. Also consider an IM firewall to protect yourself through your IM client... like ZoneAlarm's IMSecure (only works with Windows 2000 & Windows XP though). The basic version is free and works with AOL/ICQ, IRC, Jabber, MSN/WLM, Trillian, YIM, and others.

Hope that helps.

Granted I only included the 4 majors and the most popular multi-IM, most people use one of those 5. Checked just for drill, Windows Live Messenger has 1.

The applications I linked to are both open source and secure. Pidgin is a staple install with most Linux-based systems as the default IM client. Miranda is a very light-weight IM solution also.

They're worth checking out, at the very least, if you're looking for clients that are designed purely for IM and contain none of the bloat typical clients of today seem to have. I wouldn't recommend Trillian either, but I do like both of the clients I've mentioned here.

Miranda and Pidgin are good IM clients too... not flawless either though. Miranda has 2 and Pidgin has 9 that have been found so far.

Most of my corporate and governmental clients have usage policies concerning instant messaging, the ones that even allow IM... are very specific about which IMs are allowed, but I can assure you ICQ is not one of them. ICQ along with certain other programs discovered, even on an issued laptop will get a user's network usage (even if one uses the VPN from home) flagged for monitoring.

Of course, not all IMs are the same... not all clients are the same. Your mileage may vary.

Hope that helps.

 

[AdamD]

Miranda and Pidgin are good IM clients too... not flawless either though. Miranda has 2 and Pidgin has 9 that have been found so far.

Good post
I think it's worth pointing out that only older versions of Miranda and Pidgin have vulnerabilities and current versions, at least according to that site, don't have any "known" ones.

Most Critical Unpatched
There are no unpatched Secunia advisories affecting this product, when all vendor patches are applied..

Trillian does, however

Unpatched 50% (4 of 8 Secunia advisories)

Most Critical Unpatched
The most severe unpatched Secunia advisory affecting Trillian Basic 3.x, with all vendor patches applied, is rated Highly critical

Must admit, I used to tell everyone how great Trillian was and how it was "secure", now I'm not so sure, given how old the "Highly critical" vulnerability seems to be.

 

[Sir Kenga]

I use ICQ client 2003b pro and it doesn't affect my gameplay anyhow.

 

[Lord Kynd]

With all these recent lag issues it got me thinking. I try to run UO with nothing else running to help proformance. I play on a cheapo laptop on a wireless network over cell towers. Not the best setup, I know, but it works for now. I live in the boonies ie no cable.

My question for you great folks, Does ICQ slow you down and/or lag you up. I swear it does me, but my son says its my imagination.

Thought/comments?

absolutly not, never had any issues with running icq and yahoo messanger at the same time as UO, along with them running is either teamspeak or Vent.
your son is correct, IcQ is not going to lag you unless your constantly sending messages ( like as in non-stop) or downloading/uploading a file.

any lag you might experiance is prolly from low system memory or slow internet.
video memory matters also.