Frequently asked questions
What is OSCAR and WIM?OSCAR is the protocol that Mail.ru got when buying ICQ. This is what have been called "ICQ" many years. It was implemented in all alternative clients.
WIM is a protocol that Mail.ru developed to replace OSCAR. It is simpler, more reliable and supports many of the things that OSCAR cannot. At the moment it is implemented in the ICQ 10 official client, Miranda NG, R&Q, and Mandarin IM. OSCAR & WIM are partially compatible (clients can communicate with each other), but in some aspects, they are fundamentally different. Mail.ru may at any time stop supporting OSCAR on its servers, so Miranda NG team decided to abandon the old protocol in favor of the new one.
| Comparison of the capabilities of the old and the new protocol in Miranda NG |
| OSCAR | WIM |
| Single messaging | ✔ | ✔ |
| Group chats | — | ✔ (so far only the basic functions) |
| Typing notifications | ✔ | ✔ |
| Login | UIN/pass | UIN/pass, phone/SMS, e-mail/pass |
| Contact list storage | On server and locally | Sync with server at every login |
| Avatars | 60x60 px max | Big avatars |
| Send to offline | ✔ | ✔ |
| Mark messages as read | ✔ | ✔ |
| User details | ✔ | Only first/last name, nickname, gender, date of birth, country, region, city, about |
| Change own information | ✔ | — (only via website) |
| Statuses | All statuses | From other contacts you can receive only "Online" and "Offline"; OSCAR clients incorrectly see the status of WIM clients. |
| XStatuses | ✔ | not supported by protocol |
| «Cloud» history (history loading from server) | — | — (planned) |
| Auth requests (other peoples can not add you without permission) | ✔ | not supported by protocol |
| Ability to remove yourself from your opponent’s contact list | ✔ (wasn't implemented in Miranda) | not supported by protocol |
| Groups management (delete, create, rename) | ✔ | ✔ |
| Filetransfers | ✔ | ✔ (only via server) |
| Getting information about when the contact read the message | — | ✔ (with Message state plugin) |
| Client detection | ✔ | ✔ (only some third-party clients) |
| Stickers | — | ✔ (receive only) |
| Invisibility | ✔ | combined with ignore |
| Server-side ignore | — | ✔ |
What to do if you can not connect?If you are using a version earlier than 0.95.
10.1, then upgrade to this version or newer. If you cannot connect even after the update, make
network log with an unsuccessful connection attempt and attach it to your message in this thread.
In the network log, I see "statusText": "Invalid Request. statusDetailCode 1015", "statusDetailCode": 1015. How to fix it?In most cases, the time is out of sync between your computer and the server. Check the accuracy of the system time. Synchronize the time in the operating system settings. Check the time zone, as well as the transition to winter/summer time. Some users report that the problem was solved after changing the time zone to a similar one (for example, "UTC + 03 Moscow" → "UTC + 03 Minsk".
I enter the correct password from my ICQ number, but when I try to connect, I got the message “Connection failed. Your ICQ number or password was rejected". What should I do?Enter not the entire password, but only its first 8 characters. To use a password longer than 8 characters, change it on the icq.com website.
How to mport ICQ history from QIP?Use
Import plugin.
Why do some contacts in the contact list become faint when I first log in with a new protocol?These contacts were previously stored locally in Miranda. For some reason, you never added them to the server contact list. Miranda marks such contacts as NotOnList and puts them to the bottom of the contact list. They will be erased after restart, which may lead to the loss of history. You must immediately add them to the permanent list (item in the contact's context menu or open the conversation window and press the green "plus sign").
Why contacts that use the official client are constantly logging in and out?The official ICQ 10 client sets the status of "Offline" after 10-15 seconds of inactivity. When a user interacts with a client, the client sets the status “Online”. For example, Telegram client behaves in the same way.
What is the advantage of this behavior?This behavior came to the desktop from mobile devices. The fact is that when you receive certain notifications that are displayed on the lock screen or in the blind, you need to understand that they do not come directly from the service or program you are using (for example, WhatsApp or Vkontakte). Receipt and display of such messages are carried out by a separate service, which receives them through the servers of the OS manufacturers (Google, Apple, and Microsoft, respectively).
Here is how it works. Imagine that you are using Android and you have decided to call your friend in WhatsApp. He selects your contact in the list, clicks the call icon and then sees the animation of the connection. At this time, his application sends a call to the WhatsApp server. Which, after processing the call, makes a request to the Google server. In this request, if we translate it into a language understandable to us, there will be something like “display on the device with an application ID having such and such notification of an incoming call from such a contact”.
This is done in order to save battery power of the mobile device. Agree that the “phone periodically connects to Google/Apple servers” scheme is much more energy efficient than a scheme in which each messenger (and there are often several on the phone) would work continuously, maintaining a connection with its server.
The desktop client simply copies the behavior of the mobile.
How now to find out which contacts are really unavailable, and who is in place?Set up Miranda to all your contacts
If the contact stubbornly wishes to use the official client, you can use the plugin
Last seen. The plug-in receives last activity time from the protocol (when a contact last interacted with its official client) and displays it in the context menu of the contact.
In addition,
Modern contact list can take this information from Last seen and show it directly in the contact list. To do this, you need to turn on the “Contact list” → “Row items” → “Second line” (or “Third line”) → “Status message”.
Finally, this information can be displayed at the
Tipper prompt. In the section “Customize” → “Tooltips” → “Content” → “Substitutions” you need to create the following substitutions:
Spoiler
Label: lastseen_ago
Module: SeenModule
Translation: <prefix>Day|Month|Year|Hours|Minutes|Seconds to the time difference
Label: lastseen_date
Module: SeenModule
Translation: <prefix>Day|Month|Year to date
Label: lastseen_time
Module: SeenModule
Translation: <prefix>Hours|Minutes|Seconds to time
On the same tab, create the following "Element":
Spoiler
Label: Last seen:
Value: %lastseen_date% @ %lastseen_time% (%lastseen_ago% ago)
Show only for contacts
In addition, in the ICQ protocol settings, you can find two useful options that do not allow contacts to go Offline immediately.
Why does Miranda not receive the status of "Away", "Not available", "Occupied", "Do not disturb" from other alternative clients (for example, from Pidgin or QIP 2012)?The new WIM protocol allows you to send these statuses, but the server does not send them to Miranda from other clients. These alternative clients use the old OSCAR protocol, so they can accept such statuses.
Why are new contacts no longer asking for authorization before write to me? The new WIM protocol does not provide authorization in principle. The user can freely write to another user, as in all modern instant messengers. The addressee, in turn, is free to add him to the contact list, delete, or block.
Why have some contacts changed to [deleted]?ICQ technical support response:
This account has been removed for prolonged non-use. It can not be restored.
What about ICQ group chat?So far, only the most basic functions work: join, leave, messaging.
File transfer now works only through the server?Yes, file transfer directly between clients is no longer possible.
Why are the versions of contacts' clients not displayed at all or incorrectly displayed?Under the new protocol, the server does not receive explicit information about which program is used on another side. Identification of clients is only possible indirectly, using caps, this is implemented only for third-party clients who work under the new protocol.
What to do if with each connection I receive the old SecureIMkeys from the contact?Send any message to the contact from which the keys come.
How to make sure that when you start the program, the status that was on exit was kept?The
StatusManager plugin allows you to set the desired status (
<last>) at startup for each protocol.
How to add smileys?Install
SmileyAdd plugin, download
smiley pack, unpack them somewhere (usually in the /Smileys subdirectory) and select in the plugin settings.
