Hi,
You can login to AIM from various Apps that can use the service (AIM Clients of which iChat is one).
You can login from a Web Browser and use AIM Express to Chat.
There is also this Settings page.
In any of thse cases you can be at any computer anywhere in the world as long as you have the Screen Name and the password that goes with it.
IF the name was linked to an AOL Account and you then Closed the AOL account the AIM Name part (essentially the bit before the @AOL.com) becomes Blocked.
The easiest way to check would be to login or attempt to do so on the AIM Settings page.
This page also lets you Change the Password or recover the password either On Line or sent to an email (Yours may be the @AOL name you had and will not be accessible this way).
At one time AOL and some of the companies they bought (Netscape, Compuserve2000 and others) stated that Names used for the AIM service would be "For Life".
What happened about 6 or so years ago was that AIM decided to re-release names that they deemed to be Unused.
The Process included purging all and every Buddy List that had the Name before it was released so that people could not pretend to be someone else.
Lets say the Name you created was issacnewton.
Lets also say you had 60 Buddies at the time that knew you as issacnewton and had you in their Buddy Lists.
Then you stop using the name.
AIM would have cleared these 60 Buddy lists of your issacnewton name. (this does cause some disruption to their service - we did see wholesale disruptions to many thousands of people when AIM started doing this).
Once this is done the issacnewton name is then Available when people try to register new Names.
If the Name (sometimes referred to as An "Account") is still present in iChat and you have found that people are still trying to contact that name you can remove it in iChat.
Open iChat and go to the iChat menu > Preferences > Accounts
Highlight the Account name and then use the minus button at the bottom of the List.
I would also visit the AIM Settings page if you can login and change some of the Privacy Setting in LifeStream and Privacy so that the name is less "Visible".
Make a point of deliberately Signing Out when you finished as the Default Login period if you don't do this is two weeks.
Summary.
Your "Account" or Screen Name may be still available.
It is also possible that as an unused Name it was "reclaimed" and Recycled by AIM and that now someone else has the name. (Years tend to have to have elapsed for this)
If the Account is still accessible by you I would change the Settings at AIM Settings for LifeStream.
The Default is ON and this allows others to "see" the Name And there is "Spamming" of sorts on AIM.
Also the Privacy Setting, set to Not show your details also makes the name less accessible.
If you managed to Login and saw a Message then this was something Sent to the Name/Account and not someone using the Name.
You can set iChat to Display the "Recent Buddies" list (A List kept at the AIM servers of people that have contacted you but are NOT in the Buddy list itself.
You can then add these (or some) people to the Block List (iChat > Preferences > Accounts > Security) if you are worried about who might see the messages.
8:32 PM Friday; May 18, 2012
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