Having trouble installing AIM

**subtract7** · January 9th, 2006, 10:28 PM

I got my first Mac a couple days ago and so far it's been great except for the fact that when I download the AIM installer, it tries to open it in Microsoft Excel. The file extension is .bin. Is there another application that I should try to open it in or is the file just corrupted?

Thanks for your patience,
T.

**whitesaint** · January 9th, 2006, 11:17 PM

I downloaded the bin and all that comes up is the AIM installer. But you dont want that AIM client, AOL's Instant Messenger for Mac OS X sucks. There are plenty of third party AIM clients that work a lot better than AIM. I suggest Adium.

**adambyte** · January 9th, 2006, 11:44 PM

Sounds like you need a copy of Stuffit Expander to decode that little bastard file. Get a free copy of stuffit expander at http://www.stuffit.com/mac/expander/

Other files you'll encounter when downloading... .zip, .sit, and .dmg. And... just to tell you ahead of time... a DMG file is a Disk Image file... double-click it to mount a virtual disk. Copy the app from it into your applications folder, then "eject" the "disk."

**MisterMe** · January 10th, 2006, 08:17 AM

FWIW, iChat is an excellent AIM client.

**subtract7** · January 10th, 2006, 11:47 AM

Thanks for helping out a new Mac user!

**NewbieMac** · October 3rd, 2006, 10:44 AM

I got my 1st mac like a week ago and some days I love it and some days I hate it...i guess it'll take sometime to get used to it :-)

I had that same problem and here's how i was able to download the right format of aim. With the firefox browser, I woudl get the right format, but with safari browser it would give me that .bin file. Why I don't know yet.

My other problem is after installing aim and using it, it crashes out constantly. I reopen, it opens fine and then it crashes again until it won't let me sign in anymore. sooo i just realized ichat is aim compatible and will most likely be using that unless i find something better. I read that AOL will no longer be supporting versions for MAC anyways, they opened it for other chat providers or whatever the word may be.

**oceanicitl** · October 24th, 2006, 09:50 AM

iChat or adium are much better than AIM anyway

**firman** · October 31st, 2006, 03:08 AM

Hi,

I have recently switched from Win XP to OSX via a MacBook. I want to start using iChat but am unsure how to proceed. Do I really need to purchase a .Mac subscription to use iChat?

Thanks
eric