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Forum Index > AIM/ICQ Discussion

main america online service outside of messenger

Posted on: 07-22 8:21 pm
MadPikachu64	[Quote] it would be nice to see. but tbh i don't think you can mod it, though if someone can that'll be nice. i'm pretty inactive~

Posted on: 07-22 11:38 pm
peterpanpyt Beta Tester	[Quote] I don't understand your question? www.jacksonsempire.com

Posted on: 07-23 1:28 am
MadPikachu64	[Quote] like, the america online service that started the whole dial up meme. it could connect through dial up n stuff, and chat was a feature that became AOL instant messenger. plus those 999999999999 free hours of america online ;;;;)))))) i'm pretty inactive~

Posted on: 07-24 5:39 pm
peterpanpyt Beta Tester	[Quote] you talking about bringing about bringing back AOL online internet service Client :) you got mail I think that is a little harder to do to built a server for because there no documentation www.jacksonsempire.com

Posted on: 07-24 9:15 pm
tonyshowoff Beta Tester	[Quote] The AOL service is a lot more complex, though there are ideas out there and some plans as well to support it, but it would be a massive undertaking either requiring quite a while to implement or a few people working together. I know enough to implement it, but I'm missing a lot of other data and some programs like the Visual Developer to generate FDO.

Posted on: 07-25 11:58 pm
MadPikachu64	[Quote] @tonyshowoff ah, i see... though if you could that'll be nice. it'll be cool to hear the iconic you got mail once more, haha! i'm pretty inactive~

norstar39

[Quote]

What can make replicating a service difficult is if you have no protocol documentation, source code and no client service connection you can monitor (because the service is no longer provided).

With AOLs online service, some is known about it. There is a project called Peng that implemented many of his protoccols. There is also Quantum Link Reloaded which implements many of the earlier protocols used by Quantum Link, which is an early version of AOL.

I have been thinking about writing a server that can support Peng myself, using Peng's source code one can figure out the protocol and implement the server side. I will find the time to do it, I am sure. The peng client can then be tested with the server. Once peng can work, then your part of the way towards actually getting some older AOL official clients to work.

AOL uses a scripting and graphic protocol called FDO 91 and many people did back engineer the protocol when AOL was still up. It runs over a packet protocol called P3. We know all about these protocols due to peng. Its just a matter of server side implementation.

The current AOL service probably uses none of these protocols. Theyve moved entirely to Web technologies, I suspect. Since this is about nostalgia, its best to target the old protocols.

tonyshowoff

[Quote]

I have endless amounts of documentation of FDO88, FDO91, and supplementary materiel, examples, but I am missing the Visual Developer or whatever it was called that easily generated it for you. Such a thing shouldn't be too hard to make again because the specification is known, though I suspect it'd be easier to just convert it from HTML or something.

As for P3, that's much older, even by AOL 9.0 a superset protocol more like OSCAR, even the start byte was 0x2A was used. I have no idea what AOL Desktop now uses, it may be a REST-type protocol but possibly not.

ICQ though, which the client is now open source, definitely is today, though while not run by AOL/Oath anymore, if one wanted to fully support the entire suite of clients, it'd be good to support the modern version of that as well.

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