Alot of people have been
asking.. How do I create my own aim chatroom?
The answer is: It's really
not hard to do at all.
With a simple program, and
some common sense, you can do it too. Follow the steps below...
When you own a chatroom, you
have the ability to kick users out, and ban users from coming back, until
the aim chat servers reset, which typically is once every few weeks.
If you use AIM to do this,
you are using the AIM software to control and run the room. If you use third
party program(s) such as Ultimate AIM, or Uccom. You can secure a room, and
give other screen names and users the ability to help control, and run the
room.
With Ultimate AIM, you can
own a chatroom without running AIM altogether. It also gives you the option
of giving what we call 'Operator Status' or 'Op' privileges to other users,
which gives them the ability to control the chatroom. They can then
depending upon the privileges given, add other users to Op status, or kick
and ban users. There are also other interesting controls and features, such
as immune, auto ban, time ban, and word ban, not to mention ban lists. These
have been extremely helpful in dealing with bots, spammers, and flooders.
I'd first like to mention for
those that don't know, the different types of chatrooms.
- There are three different types
of AIM chat rooms. We will call them exchanges, and each exchange can be
either public, private, or a host chat.
Exchange (4)
= Private - This room can hold only 36 people, and once it is full no one
else can join it.
Exchange (5)
= Public - This type of room can also hold 36 people but will carry on to
other rooms, with a number following the name of the room once it is full.
The original aim chat rooms are all public rooms, and use an exchange 5.
Exchange (16)
= Host - This is the rarest, and not too many people use this exchange,
however it is similar to a private room, once it is full no one else can
join it however it can hold up to 48 people!
aim:gochat?roomname=roomnamegoeshere&exchange=4
would be an example of a link
to a private aim chatroom.
In order to make it a
public or host room, you just change the exchange to 5 or 16.
•
Immune - This privilege, when given by an operator, prevents you from being
banned, or kicked from a room. It can also be locked, so other unknowing
operators cannot remove your immune status from you.
•
Auto Ban - This feature is used to ban any user that joins the room. It
creates a safe environment from unwanted, annoying users. Anyone who you
want to join your room then must be previously immuned to kick and ban.
•
Time Ban - When dealing with annoying users, this kick is essential. It's
not always a good idea to ban, when a user doesn't deserve it. But for
example if they don't stop soliciting themselves you can put them on a time
ban for lets say 20 minutes, to prevent them from coming back in and then in
20 minutes it will automatically unban them.
•
Word Ban - This is an interesting feature, that comes in handy sometimes,
and is other times annoying. It automatically bans a user when they say a
specific word that you specify. It can come in handy if you perhaps own a
public room that is frequented by spam bots, that use the unique phrase of
'18/f' or 'hot cams'.
•
Ban Lists - This is a list of screen names that have been banned from your
room. You have the ability to save this list, and import it or export it
each time you use the program to prevent these users from ever coming in
your room again. Most cases it's used to prevent spammers, and chat
takeovers.
|
Ultimate AIM 2.0 FAQ
This FAQ contains information on Ultimate AIM that will help you use it to
its potential. This Frequently Asked Questions documentation is a copy from
the author of Ultimate AIM who calls himself Bizkit047. Questions can be
answered below, scroll down for them.
CONTENTS
1. Connection
How do I connect with Ultimate AIM?
What do the other two textboxes below the Screenname and Password textboxes
mean?
Can Ultimate AIM login AOL accounts?
2. Usage
•How
do the settings files work with Ultimate AIM?
•Can
I load Uccom Elite settings?
•Is
there any easy way to tab through the Panels?
•Does
Ultimate AIM work in other Exchanges other than 4?
•So
I logged in and joined a chat. How do I ban?
•What
does "Immune" mean in the Immune Panel?
•I
own a chat, and someone is botting it, and I want to ban them easier. How do
I do that?
•What's
the deal with the Eject Lists?
•How
does Unban All work?
•What
do the Parital checkboxes mean?
•What
do the Chain checkboxes mean?
•What
is Current User used for?
•What
is a Ban Pause and why should I use it?
•How
well do Custom Chatsends save?
•What
are Universal Perms?
•What
are IMComs and how do I use them?
•How
come IMComs don't work for me?
•I
already did that, how come IMComs still won't work?
•Does
Ignore/Unignore work?
•How
does Auto-save work?
•What
are the stats for?
•How
does Clear Message and Ban Queue work?
•What
is Auto Owner?
•What
do all the checkboxes on the Connection Panel do?
•What
do the Auto Rejoin checkboxes do
•How
do I open a chat console in the UA 2.0 versions?
•What
is Close Chat and what does it do exactly?
•So
how the heck do I remove ops/imm/abs/etc?
•What's
this "Op Permissions" section I'm seeing?
•So
how exactly does this eject list panel work?
•What
are the features of these new eject lists?
•So
if stats aren't stored with settings, how ARE they stored and referenced?
•What's
this "Auto Ban on Unrate" feature?
•So
what do these auto unrate features do?
•How
does the Internal Command textbox work?
•What
is the "trigger" used for in the ccoms form?
•What
does the "Allow Ccom Comments" option do?
•What
do the locks mean and do?
•I
heard the UA 2.0 versions can do multiple commands for a ccom in one
chatsend. Is this true? If so, how?
•So
how does Time Ban work?
•Is
detecting ownership with AIM 100% accurate?
•I'm
still confused, how do I own a chat room?
•So
if someone owns a room I want already, how do I get it?
3. Ccoms
Op
Unop
Imm
Unimm
AB
UnAB
AW
UnAW
Kick
Ban
Unban
Gban
Status
Info
Bl
Rejoin
Bp
Lop
Uop
Limm
Uimm
Lban
Uban
CB
SC
ICQ
Uinfo
Tban
4. Misc
What is this "Rate Limit" I keep seeing /hearing about?
Is there any chance ops can message rate my screenname like with ecAdmin?
Does Ultimate AIM lag easy?
5. TroubleShooting
Will Ultimate AIM work with Windows Vista?
Will Ultimate AIM work with Windows 2000/98/ME?
I got a runtime error while using this, what do I do?
After I get 2000 bans, it seems my screenname won't leave if I hit "leave"
on Ultimate AIM. It also doesn't show it join after that, is something wrong
with the program?
CONNECTION
Q: How do I
connect with Ultimate AIM?
A: It is very simple to connect with Ultimate AIM. First you make sure
you're on the Connection Panel. Then you enter in a screenname you wish to
use in the "Screenname" textbox, and then a password in the "Password"
textbox. Then you can simply connect by clicking "Sign on" to login your
screenname. It will tell you if the login failed or went through.
Q: What do the
other two textboxes below the Screenname and Password textboxes mean?
A: The first textbox in the second row is an Auth Server for Oscar. It is
used to authorize your connection to the main BOS Server (which you don't
get to choose). I allow you to choose which Auth Server you want in case of
a rare event where the main Auth Server (login.oscar.aol.com) goes down. The
second textbox in the second row is the Port number. You can use any port
you want, but by default, just like AIM, it is 5190. You can enter in a port
number between 1 to 65535. This is also useful if you have a strict Firewall
that limits the amount of ports you can use.
Q: Can Ultimate
AIM login AOL accounts?
A: It can login your AOL accounts just as if you logged them in on AIM. The
old issue with not being able to login AOLs should be resolved. If it still
says invalid password, try turning off "MD5 Login".
USAGE
Q: How do the
settings files work with Ultimate AIM?
A: I created the settings files to work by letting the user choose the
settings file name to store, and even where to store it. It saves data such
as ccoms, chatsends, ops, immunes, bans, checkboxes, etc. Unlike some other
programs, these settings do not load or save automatically. You will have to
do them manually. They are in the "File" menu bar, and on the "Other" panel.
In the 2.0 series of UA, the file extentions are restricted to .uas for
settings files to prevent common users from screwing up the settings file or
not knowing what to load.
Q: Can I load
Uccom Elite settings?
A: Yes. However, not ALL the settings will carry over, such as perms. You
can also attempt to load other Uccom mod's settings files, but it's not a
gaurenteed to work if the person who modded it changes the file too much.
Q: Is there any
easy way to tab through the Panels?
A: Fortunately, yes. Every single option in the Menu Bar has a shortcut key.
For example, in the "File" Menu, Ctrl + N starts a new settings file, while
Ctrl + L loads one, and Ctrl + S saves one. The others were set up by
incrementing letters, such as the first Panel being Ctrl + B. I tried to
make sure not to use any universal shortcuts, such as Ctrl + C, X, V, P, and
A.
Q: Does Ultimate
AIM work in other Exchanges other than 4?
A: For those of you who know what different exchanges are and how to get to
them probably are wondering if Ultimate AIM can join them and work. It does
in fact work in other exchanges just fine. It can join any exchange an AIM
screenname can access.
Q: So I logged
in and joined a chat. How do I ban?
A: First of all, you have to make sure your screenname has ownership. My
program should detect if you own the room or not just fine. If it says you
do own, that means you next have to go to the "Ops" Panel. Op is short for
Operator, where you can give other users the ability to control the ccom,
with custom permissions to access certian ccoms. After you enter in a user
to op, that user can easily ban a person by typing "ban %n", where %n is the
user you want to eject. If it bans the user, the owner will chatsend a
confirmation that the user was succesfully ejected, else it will chatsend an
error message. Please note that you cannot ban a user in a chat someone ELSE
owns. So save yourself the embarrassment of trying.
Q: What does
"Immune" mean in the Immune Panel?
A: Ops have the ability to ban any user, except the room owner. If you want
to ensure certain users don't get banned by these ops, you give them the
immune status. Any user on that list is immune to any form of being banned
by an op. This is why the "Auto Immune" checkbox on the ops panel is a nice
choice.
Q: I own a chat,
and someone is botting it, and I want to ban them easier. How do I do that?
A: There are a few ways to ban bots easy. Pay attention, because this will
save you some embarrassment. There is an "Autoban/Autoword" Panel. There,
you can choose how you want the program to ban users. Autoban will ban a
user depending on if their screenname matches what is on the list when they
join the chat. Autoword will ban a user depending on what text they type to
the chat.
There are three modes for Autoban. There is None, Selected, and All. None
will not autoban any users, no matter what is on the list. Selected means it
will go by the list, which is the normal setting to autoban users. As a last
resort, or just to have fun, you can turn on All, which autobans all users
that join. So how do you add a user to the list to be banned? Let's say your
attacker has a bots like, "Bot1-Bot50". If you add "Bot1" to the list, it
will autoban "Bot1" when it joins. That's fine, but I'm sure you don't want
to have to add 50 bots to the list. To autoban easier, simply add "Bot*" to
the autoban list. The asterisk at the end means it will ban any user that
has part of that word in their screenname. So as a result, "Bot*" will mean
any screenname with the word "bot" in it gets banned. Very useful during bot
floods.
Autobaning by the list is nice when trying to ban attackers with bots, but
what if every bot name is random and too hard to autoban by the asterisk?
Such as random character screennames. Well, let's say the bots are scrolling
a sentence saying "I am botting the chat". You can use the Autoword Panel to
the right of the Autoban to ban by text. For example, if you add "botting"
to the autoword list, it will ban anyone who says "botting" in their
message. I added a small feature to include HTML, just in case you want to
autoban any user with a yellow font color. You could add the hex of yellow,
which is "ffff00" to the list. Note that autoword messages are examined by
removing spaces and cases.
In the UA 2.0 versions, there are new autoban features. One is ICQ ban. This
will ban any ICQ screennames (the screennames that are only numbers). This
was an extremely popular request since ICQ was allowed to enter the AIM
chats. The second feature is Character Ban. This feature will ban
screennames of the same length as the number in its textbox. So if you hate
those random 3 char screennames, set it to 3 and enable it. :)
Q: What's the
deal with the Eject Lists?
A: Unfortunately, unlike AOL, AIM does not send an eject list on chat join.
Because of this, all the ejected users have to be done on the client's side.
This means, there's no easy way to keep track of bans. The UA 2.0 versions
will keep track of eject lists for whatever chat you ban a user in. This is
a great improvement over the previous versions. The only downside is if the
chat is re-owned by you, the bans may still show up on there even if not
banned. You can simply right click a chat name and choose "Remove Selected
List" to get rid of that eject list to start new.
Q: How does
Unban All work?
A: Unban All will unban ALL the users on the Eject List selected. However,
there are a few things you need to know. First off, unbanning a user can
rate you, just like banning. (read below if you don't know what rating is).
In the new UA, because of the ability to store an unlimited amount of eject
lists, there's no easy way to unban all without going out of the way to make
it work. So for now, it will instantly attempt to unban all until it rates.
If it rates, it stops attempting unban.
Q: What do the
Parital checkboxes mean?
A: The Partial checkboxes mean exactly what it implies. It allows you to use
partial when using the given command. For example, let's say you want to ban
a user from the chat. If the checkbox "Partial Ban" was unchecked, you would
have to type the entire screenname out to ban them. With it checked, it
looks for users in the chat room that matches the user you try to ban. So
let's say you're trying to ban "Bot" from your chat, when it's really
"Bot1-50". Just typing "ban bot" will ban all of those bots in one shot.
Pretty useful. Note that this similar with oping/immuning/infoing a user in
the chat. However, note the next question.
Q: What do the
Chain checkboxes mean?
A: Chain works like Partial. The ONLY difference is that instead of only
going after one user, it still continues grabbing users in the chat, even
after it found a match. This is extremely useful if you wanted to immune all
YOUR own bots in one shot. Note that banning defaults as a chain ban, which
is why it's not there. An exmaple would be if you wanted to immune your own
bots, which are "MyBots1-50". Simply typing "imm my" with the Chain Imm
Checkbox checked will immune all screennames in that chat with "my" in it.
Q: What is
Current User used for?
A: Current User is simply used for other user to identify who you are by
your owner screenname. It adds the text you enter to the profile at the
bottom. For example, setting the user to "Bob" would show up as "User: Bob".
HTML is not allowed in this textbox so that the user cannot distort the
profile layout.
Q: What is a Ban
Pause and why should I use it?
A: If this is your first attempt at owning, you will not understand rate
limits (read more on rate limits below). However, you need to understand
there is a limit to how fast you can ban/unban/send messages. There are
other rate limits, but none you should really worry about for now. If you
did not have a ban pause at all, you could try to ban 100 bots in one shot,
only to end up rating easily. My default ban pause is set to 1 second, but
it's customizable. It can go between .001 to 999 seconds.
Q: How well do
Custom Chatsends save?
A: Unlike my last attempt at custom chatsends in another program, this time
it's done a lot more efficiently and easily. You should have no problems
with saving the chatsends. It saves with all the other settings, and loads
just fine, whether or not you have every single chatsend stored in the file.
Q: What are
Universal Perms?
A: Universal Permissions are the perms that get assigned to a new op. This
leaves you to customize what a new op can control, rather than just default
permissions in version 1.0 Beta 1.0.
Q: What are
IMComs and how do I use them?
A: IMcoms are Instant Message Commands. This means you can IM your owner to
send commands that will be carried out through the chat. The only downside
is that I didn't have it relay a chatsend back to the op that sends an IMCom.
But IMComs are useful if you are not in the chat for whatever reason and you
want to control it via IMs. The actual user of the program can view your IMs,
so don't think it's a sneaky way around sending coms.
Q: How come
IMComs don't work for me?
A: You have to open up the IMComs form from the main menu. Then click on the
button that should say "Turn IMComs On". Doing the same disables it.
Q: I already did
that, how come IMComs still won't work?
A: Because the UA 2.0 versions are now multichat, you need to specify which
chat you want the command to go to. You MUST type it in the following
format: chatname:command params. Example, "chatname: ban user1". You can
also go by the chat collection index. So if you're in two chats "chat1" and
"chat2", you can reference chat2 by typing "2: ban user1".
Q: Does Ignore/Unignore
work?
A: Yes it does. It ignores the user in the chat console only. It won't do
anything else. It's just to make the chat console a tad more bareable.
Sorry, but no auto ignore right now. In all honesty, if you're planning on
getting attacked by bots, try to keep the console closed.
Q: How does
Auto-save work?
A: The Auto-save feature allows you to have your settings automatically save
to file every 30 minutes. Not only that, but you get to specify the file
name you want to backup your settings to. This is very useful for those of
you who are too lazy to save them before closing the program. The new 2.0
versions allow you to auto save the eject lists too (since now they're
stored in a seperate text file).
Q: What are the
stats for?
A: The Stats panel is used to display various statistical information that
some users might like to know. Note that this information does not save to a
settings file. This is to make it harder for users to screw them up and is
actually now part of an Easter Egg. :)
Q: How does
Clear Message and Ban Queue work?
A: By popular demand, I have added clear buttons for these queues. The
message clearing is to stop chatsends and remove them all from the queue.
This is useful if you don't want everything that's backed up to chatsend.
The ban queue does the same for screennames, though this is most likely less
useful with a low ban pause. UA 2.0 versions will remove all queues from
every chat.
Q: What is Auto
Owner?
A: Auto Owner is used to take ownership of a chat you do not already own. If
you put the screenname in a chat with that checked, it will rejoin the chat
when the user count is down to one, which will attempt to take ownership of
the chat. Very useful feature. Also, let me add that in the new 2.0
versions, it's on my socket now, which will attempt a VERY fast rejoin. I've
beaten Uccom's auto owner with it, and also have beaten the auto owner
trick. ;)
Q: What do all
the checkboxes on the Connection Panel do?
A: Most of them are login features that are just there for fun. First
there's MD5 Login, which was already explained for its use. If disabled, the
sock will attempt a roasted login instead of MD5. The Full Capabilities
option is just to have options like "Chat, Direct Connect, Live Video" show
as enabled. You can't actually do those with this program though. Then
there's the Secure IM option. It's a forced Secure IM, so it's useless, but
will still place the cool looking lock next to your screenname on someone
elses buddy list.
The other two options are a tad different. "Attempt Re-Connection" will
attempt to login your screenname if you are disconnected from the main BOS
server. Very useful for you doubters of the stability of Oscar over AOL's
protocol. The second is an alerts feature. It will alert you of any attempts
on re-connection for login and chat join. Don't worry, it's not annoying. :)
Q: What do the
Auto Rejoin checkboxes do?
A: These options are re-done in the UA 2.0 versions. They will attempt a
rejoin of the chat on kick or error. If you want to always be able to
rejoin, I would sugguest having both checked. This includes: Getting lagged
out, getting errored out, chat resets, disconnection. All of those would
warrent a re-connection. And it will continue to keep trying to join about
at a safe 8 second interval until it makes it in. If you have auto login
enabled, it will also attempt to rejoin all chats it was in when it was
disconnected offline. Very useful if you're owning around 10 chats at once
and your connection craps out.
Q: How do I open
a chat console in the UA 2.0 versions?
A: In the 2.0 versions, you can't open a console the same way now that it's
multiple chats. You have to right click the chat list and choose to open the
selected chat. Before you worry, it checks for its existance everytime you
try to open it, just so you don't have multiple consoles for the same chat.
If you're booted out of a chat while the console is open, the console will
disable itself, but not dissapear. And will resume activity if you happen to
rejoin that chat sometime later.
Q: What is Close
Chat and what does it do exactly?
A: Like its caption, close chat will close the chat. However, it only works
if you actually own the chat. If you close a chat you own, it will boot
everyone, including you, out. ALSO, note that if you have "rejoin if kicked"
enabled, it will instantly rejoin the chat when you close it. So if you're
closing the chat to let someone else own it, make sure that option is
disabled or you'll end up re-owning it. =P
Q: So how the
heck do I remove ops/imm/abs/etc?
A: In the UA 2.0 versions, I changed the way you remove users from the
lists. The old way was right clicking. That was a hassle to code and a
hassle for the user. Now there's two different ways. One is double clicking
a user. Doesn't get much easier than that. The second way is selecting a
user and pressing the "Del" key (Not backspace). This applies to only some
of the lists, not all (like chats and eject lists).
Q: What's this
"Op Permissions" section I'm seeing?
A: These are where you set an ops permissions when they've already been oped.
To select a users perm to change, click on the user in the op listbox. It
will fill in the checkboxes with their current perms. Change them as needed,
and click one of the perm buttons to the right. Note that you should limit
what most ops can do or your ownership will end very quickly in the hands of
an abusive op. This is especially important with the "rejoin" ccom
(explained below).
Q: So how
exactly does this eject list panel work?
A: In the 2.0 versions, the eject list is majorly changed because of
multiple chat support. In the left section, it shows the current eject list
for a selected chat. In the right section, it shows a list of chats that are
currently stored in memory. To display a chats ejects, simply click on one
of the chats, and the ejected users will show up in the left section. This
is a much more efficient way to do it than mutliple listboxes.
Q: What are the
features of these new eject lists?
A: As you can see, you have load/save options for the eject lists. They save
as a whole, not individually. It stores them by their chat name, exchange,
instance, and the ejected user. So you should never have issues with
saving/loading. The other feature is the ability to remove an eject list
whenever. Useful if you don't own a chat anymore and want to purge the
stored bans. Also, the Clear List button on the left section will NOT unban
a user, but just clear the listbox so it looks empty. Lastly, the auto save
feature works just the same as the settings auto save. This option is only
enabled if you have the normal auto save enabled.
Q: So if stats
aren't stored with settings, how ARE they stored and referenced?
A: That's a secret for now. It's part of one of the new easter eggs in the
2.0 versions. The plan was to make it harder for the common user to edit the
statistics. No one found out how it's done in the 1.0 versions of UA, so I
assume it will be just as tough in the newer one.
Q: What's this
"Auto Ban on Unrate" feature?
A: It's a new feature, and it was a sugguestion someone IMed me (I forget
who). It's very useful and will stop the botters for filling your room after
rating you. When your program unrates, it will quickly scan the chat for
users that match anything on the autoban list and instantly start banning
them so you don't have to have an op do it for you. Very extremely useful
feature. Just make sure you have a safe unrate pause (5 mins or more) so
that you don't rate 5 seconds after unrating.
Q: So what do
these auto unrate features do?
A: Unlike AOL, Oscar allows quick unrate after mass banning. You could be
just about fully unrated in around 5 minutes. So instead of completely
disabling banning until the owner comes back to the computer, I have added a
customizable feature to do this automatically. When you rate, if this option
is enabled, it will disable banning/unbanning/chat closing for the time
given in the textbox. After the minutes have passed, it will attempt to auto
unrate and continue banning and such.
Q: How does the
Internal Command textbox work?
A: In the UA 2.0 versions, the internal command textbox is done quite
different. It used to be where you could enter in hidden commands that don't
have to be done through the chat. It's just like that now, except this time
you have to specify the chat name you want to deal with. So let's say you
want to secretly kick a user in a chat. You type in "chatname:kick
username". If you screw up typing the command, the program will alert you
that you typed it wrong. Note that the user preforming the command shows up
at "[Manual Command]" and will have automatic full perms.
Q: What is the
"trigger" used for in the ccoms form?
A: Just like a lot of ccom programs, you can have custom ccoms, so there's a
panel for that. You may notice there's a trigger textbox. If blank, there
won't be a trigger. If not blank, it will ensure that the user includes a
trigger when using a ccom. For example, if you had a trigger of "/", it
would mean the op would have to type "ban user/" instead of just "ban user".
I personally don't like triggers, but some people do. Feel free to use
whatever trigger you wish. The trigger command can be up to 3 characters in
length.
Q: What does the
"Allow Ccom Comments" option do?
A: A fun thing to do is ban someone and show them a reason. Because Oscar
does not actually have this implemented like the AIM SDK shows, I had to do
it myself. So if this is turned on, you can do something like "ban user/ You
are the weakest link!". The program will ignore everything after the slash.
Note that if you have a trigger, it will kind of cancel out the ccom
commenting, so note that if you have a trigger, you don't need this option
enabled. But with ccom commenting on, you don't NEED to type a slash to
activate the ccoms.
Q: What do the
locks mean and do?
A: This is a new feature in the 2.0 versions, but has been done before in
Uccom mods. It's basically like a re-assurance for ops that you might not
fully trust. Let's say you op yourself and another person. Let's say that
one op you want to be able to freely op and unop other users, but you don't
want YOURSELEF getting unoped. You simply add yourself as a Lock Op so that
the op cannot remove your op status without the Unlock Op perm.
The same goes for Lock Imm. The most useful one realistically, is Lock Ban.
Lock Ban works by partial, just like autoban. If you're the room owner and
you ban someone and think an op that's friends with the person will unban
them, then you can put a Lock Ban status on that user so they cannot be
unbanned without an op with perms to do it. For example, if you don't want
anything with "bot" in it being unbanned, add "bot*" to the lock ban list,
and if someone tries to unban something with "bot" in it, they will be
denied.
Q: I heard the
UA 2.0 versions can do multiple commands for a ccom in one chatsend. Is this
true? If so, how?
A: It's true, based on a huge amounts of user requests, you can now use
multiple commands for any one ccom in one chatsend. This was first noticed
in the Unet Plugin. Basically, it means you can do something like "op user1,
user2, user3". Or "ban user1, user2, user3". Note that you can only do one
ccom perm chatsend still. But it's really useful to prevent from message
rating your ops. Also note this doesn't apply to every ccom.
Q: So how does
Time Ban work?
A: Like some of the other features, this was another big popular request.
Time Ban will ban a user by the time you specify (in minutes). I maxed out
the time to 999 minutes, because any longer than that would probably just be
worth banning the person. After the persons time limit passes, they are
unbanned. Note that you can have basically an infinite number of time banned
users at any time for any chat. Just note that the more you have, the more
of a potential it is for the program to run slower. It checks the time ban
queue every 5 seconds for users that met their time limit. That checking
takes up CPU realistically. If you're on a crappy computer, try to not let
ops tban all the time, though so far I had no problems with it.
Q: Is detecting
ownership with AIM 100% accurate?
A: Unfortunately, no. Oscar does NOT tell you who the chat owner is when you
first join. It only tells you if YOU own when you join. However, if the
owner joins when you're already in the chat, it will tell you that the owner
joined. With that said, I set it up in the 2.0 versions to deal with the
chance of the real owner rejoining so it doesn't trick you into thinking you
own. It's not a big deal, but is a minor annoyance. So there's about a 90%
chance it will detect if you own. But don't worry, it doesn't affect the
performance of the program if it detects wrong.
Q: I'm still
confused, how do I own a chat room?
A: Even though I mentioned this already, I still get e-mails and IMs about
how to own a chat. It's simple: Your screenname has to be the first to join!
If it's not, you won't own. Let's say you're trying to own "chat room". If
you join the chat and there are already people in there, you obviously
cannot own it. If you're the first person in there, however, then you most
likely do own it. You cannot ban unless you own, so make sure you understand
this concept.
Q: So if someone
owns a room I want already, how do I get it?
A: You'll have to wait until they lose ownership of the chat. This could
happen a many different ways. The most common are: The owner screenname is
out of the chat for longer than 10 minutes, the chat reset (everyone gets
booted out in this case), or the owner lost connection and didn't get back
in time. If the original owner loses ownership, you will still have to be
the first to join. This is very tricky in popular rooms and usually requires
bots (Don't ask me about this, I don't approve of most kinds of botting).
Ccoms
Q: Op -
The Op command means that you can make other chat members an operator to the
program. They will then be able to control the program via the chat it is
in, with whatever permissions they may have.
Q: Unop -
The opposite of oping a user is unoping them (or deoping). This will take
away their ability to use the ccoms at all.
Q: Imm -
Short for Immune/immunity. This makes a user immune to ban/kick/gban/tban.
This is to prevent ops from booting each other or friends you want to keep
in the chat.
Q: Unimm -
This takes away a users immune status. It will enable them to be banned via
ccoms by ops.
Q: AB -
Short for Autoban, this let's an op autoban a user, or autoban by partial
with *. Autoban is only triggered when a user joins the chat or with "Auto
Ban On Unrate" enabled, and no other way.
Q: Unab -
This removes an autoban. If there is an asterisk in it, you will need to
include that too.
Q: AW -
The Autoword command let's you ban a user based on what they type, if it
matches something in the list.
Q: Unaw -
Use this to remove an Autoword from the list.
Q: Kick -
This ccom will kick a user out of the chat, as in ban, but then auto-unban
them to allow them back in. This has to be done since AOL and AIM have no
"kick" buttons, but only "eject". Kick uses partial. It will not attempt to
kick a user it does not detect in the chat.
Q: Ban -
The most obvious ccom, which is the ban command. It simply ejects a user
from the chat so that they cannot enter again. Just like Kick, Banning is
done paritally and will only ban a user it detects in the chat.
Q: Unban -
Use the Unban command to unban a user that has been banned. It will allow
them to re-enter the chat. Unbanning uses partial by default, and goes by
the Eject List in the program ONLY. If you mess up the eject list, you will
have to type the entire screenname out to unban them.
Q: Gban -
Gban is short for Ghost Ban. It is mainly used to ban "ghosting bots", that
may be in the chat but actually are not in the chat. Note that Gban does not
use partial, because whatever you type in to gban gets an attempted ban
right there, unless immune. For example, let's say "Bot1" is chatsending in
the chat, but it doesn't show up on the user here list. That most likely
means it's ghosting. You can't do "ban bot1", because it will not see it in
the chat. But if you type "gban bot1", it will.
Q: Status -
Simple ccom to check program status.
Q: Info -
Info let's you view information on a user. It will display various info on a
user if true, such as oped, immuned, banned, autobanned, etc. Info can work
off partial if you have partial enabled for it.
Q: Bl -
This is short for Autoban Level. It's the mode of Autoban. If you look at
the iface, you see three modes for Autoban. None, Selected, and All. Read
above if you want to know what each mode does. You can either trigger the
command by typing in the word modes or just a number. 0 = None, 1 =
Selected, 2 = All.
Q: Rejoin -
This is the rejoin command. It rejoins your screenname to the chat, for
whatever reason you need to. Be very careful when you give an op permission
to use this command. They can easily rate your screenname this way. The UA
2.0 versions rejoin very quickly.
Q: Bp -
This is the Ban Pause command. It allows you to set a ban pause. Because
AIM's rate limit for ban pauses is so low, there isn't much of a fear of
letting most ops control this. But you can set any time from .001 to 999
seconds as a ban pause.
Q: Lop -
First of the lock commands, this will lock an op so a regular unop command
will be useless against them.
Q: Uop -
This will disable a locked op so you can remove their op status.
Q: Limm -
This is the Lock Imm command that will make it so an immune user cannot be
unimmed.
Q: Uimm -
This will make it so an immune user can be unimmed.
Q: Lban -
The Lock Ban command, which will make it so an op cannot unban the user.
Lock Ban supports partial.
Q: Uban -
Unlock bans a user so they can be unbanned by an op.
Q: CB -
This is the Character Ban ccom. It enables/disables the ability to ban a
user by their screenname length. The only accpetable parameters for this
ccom is "on", "+", "1", "off", "-", or "0".
Q: SC -
The Set Character ccom is used to set the amount of characters that a
screenname length has to match to warrent a ban. So if you set it to 3, it
will autoban any user that's 3 characters in length. It only will ban them
if char ban is tunred on.
Q: ICQ -
This ccom enables the ability to ban all ICQ screennames that join. The only
accpetable parameters for this ccom is "on", "+", "1", "off", "-", or "0".
Q: Uinfo -
This is an interesting ccom that is just for fun for the most part. It has
the ability to do a profile lookup on a user to gather information about
them, such as online time, warning level, and user class # and type.
Q: Tban -
The timeban command is unique. It requires two parameters, seperated by a
comma. It would work in the following format: tban user, time. Example: tban
user1, 5. That would time ban a user for 5 minutes. Think of it as a "time
out" punishment if a user is misbehaving. The time value must be from 1 to
999 minutes.
MISC
Q: What is this
"Rate Limit" I keep seeing /hearing about?
A: A rate limit is nothing more than the server capping how many requests
you can make. Let's take banning for example. Everytime you go to ban a
user, you send a request to the Server. If you send too many requests, the
server notifies you that you've hit the rate limit, and if you continue to
try to request, you will be disconnected. If you understand this concept,
the rest of what I explain will come easy. Now raises the question of "what
do I do when I ban rate?" Well, I thought about how to deal with rating in
this program. And with lots of testing, I've found out a great way to make
rating work best. When you ban rate, my program quickly disables banning/unbanning
in ANY form from the CURRENT chat you rate in. This prevents your screenname
from being disconnected from the current chat. But what next? My default
pause is 5 minutes. I've found the best pause is 5 minutes to ensure the
rate limit has gone all the way down.
However, I leave it up to the user to choose what they want. There are a few
options the user has control over. One is the minutes it stays disabled for.
You can choose 1 minute to 999 minutes. If that isn't fast enough for you,
you can enable banning by clicking the current rated chat from the lsitbox
that pops up saying you rated. It will make it enable banning manually, even
if the rate limit isn't completely back up. Lastly, for those of you who are
extremely cautious, you can choose not to auto-unrate at all. I would highly
recommend using auto unrate with 5 minutes though.
What about message rating? It's a similar situation. To keep your screenname
in the chat, it notifies you that chatsends will be disabled, but not for
long. Only about 30-40 seconds is all it takes for message rating to fill
back up. But until it does, it ignores all chatsends you try to send to the
chat, unless you manually send chatsends, in which case you're sending at
your own risk.
Q: Is there any
chance ops can message rate my screenname like with ecAdmin?
A: Yes, but not easy. During a normal course of usage, the program has a
long enough pause between most chatsends to prevent rate. For now my method
of chatsending is a secret, but it works well. I recently revealed a little
bit of the method though. It's set up with priority types. 0 priority means
there's no pause between messages, it's an instant send. 1 priority is for
all the grouping chatsends that can show more than one user in a chatsend. 2
priority is non-grouped, but still queued. And finally, 3 priority are the
chatsends that will only get triggered every 10 seconds (approx). This is
such as help, status, info, uinfo, invalid size, no perms. This is a very
effective way of displaying the useful chatsends, instead of one single
timer sending a message every 5 seconds where ops can build up the queue
until it's never ending.
Q: Does Ultimate
AIM lag easy?
A: The UA 2.0 versions are on my own Oscar sock, BizSock. I've had someone
bomb my program with 7-10 Tame Clones only to fail at booting it out. To add
to that, it succesfully autobanned 100 of the bots before rating during the
bomb, with a ban pause of .001. Now I'm on a faster processor and connection
than a lot of others, but I would say it's pretty stable. Combine that with
the new auto rejoin features, and this will be the best owner tool available
yet.
TROUBLESHOOTING
Q: Will Ultimate
AIM work with Windows Vista?
A: Unfortunately, no. It's coded in VB6, which isn't supported in Vista.
When I have more time I'll port it to VB.Net so it's compatible with XP and
Vista.
Q: Will Ultimate
AIM work with Windows 2000/98/ME?
A: If you have the ocx files needed, Ultimate AIM should run on all those
Windows versions. Obviously, performance would decrease, but is possible. XP
is the preferred version to use.
Q: I got a
runtime error while using this, what do I do?
A: I've tried to error proof the program as much as possible, but no one is
perfect. If you do get a runtime error, e-mail me at Bizkit047@aol.com with
information about what you did when it happened. E-mail me with some
information. Just saying "it broke" isn't going to help me fix it. Try
re-creating the problem for more information to give me. Also, try to paste
me the runtime error itself. If you're the first person to discover the
problem, you will get in the credits. :)
Q: After I get
2000 bans, it seems my screenname won't leave if I hit "leave" on Ultimate
AIM. It also doesn't show it join after that, is something wrong with the
program?
A: This is a problem with Oscar, and seems to be specifically the chat
server for Oscar. When you get around 2000 bans, the chat server never
notifies non-AOL users that your screenname has left or joined the chat.
This produces weird results if you're viewing it on AIM, but do note that it
could actually be out of the chat, even if it says it's still in to you.
|
Use the program below to own rooms, and
refer to the Frequently Asked Question's Guide below for assistance.
