[jrhanley]

Just loaded vesichat trail and wanted to start IM with people that I know use Yahoo and also AOL. I am being asked for a ID and password to log on to 4 differant systems.

Do I have to register with each of these IM systems and get a ID in order to talk to people who use those systems?

[syngian]

yes you do need to have accounts with each Instant messenger service on top of the username/password that the blackberry IM program needs.

[jrhanley]

So is there URL's for each IM service that everyone goes to or just google them. I assume you will need individual ID and Passwords for each of thiese systems? What a pain.

[Mark Rejhon]

syngian, I need to make a correction. There's no central account in Verichat like there is for WebMessenger. Plus it is not necessary to be on all four systems. So you only need one username and password at the minimum to use Verichat. (Just the IM system, there's no such thing as a central Verichat account like there was for WebMessenger)

You don't need all the systems -- If you only want to chat on AIM or MSN, you only need to register on AIM or MSN. Also, if you have a Hotmail account, that's your MSN username and password! Remember...If you don't know anybody else who are on the IM networks, you don't need to bother signing up for all networks. Just sign up for MSN for now.

You don't need username and password for all 4 different systems. Just keep the username/password blank and disable the "Login Automatically".

Due to your question, I have now added another section to my
BlackBerry Instant Messaging FAQ

I Don't Have Instant Messaging Accounts. How Do I Sign Up?

Here are the signup links for each Instant Messaging Network:
MSN: MSN Messenger
AIM: AOL Instant Messenger
ICQ: ICQ Instant Messaging Service
Y!: Yahoo Messenger

Some of the IM software programs support all networks simultaneously. If you have never used instant messaging, you do not need to sign up for all the networks. The most popular networks are MSN and AIM respectively. If you wished, you could just use MSN, just because it is included with Windows XP.

Also, did you know that if you have a Hotmail account, you can just use your Hotmail username and password to logon to the MSN Messenger system? So that means you've already got an account on MSN if you are a Hotmail user!