Gaim
Down Again, Up Again
So this morning, some of you may have gotten a dialog about not being able to get a good hash for logging in to AIM, and then a message from AOL disconnecting you. That problem has been fixed, temporarily at least; pre11 should be able to sign on without problems. Earlier versions most likely will not be able to sign on. Jabber's AIM transport is not currently able to sign on, either.
The technical details are: AOL had previously been requesting a hash of 0 bytes (as stated in an earlier announcement). They changed what they were requesting; they are now requesting 67MB starting at an offset of 67MB. Since it was no longer 0 bytes, gaim tried to get the correct hash from a server that had been set up before pre11 was released. However, because of the rather unusual values, the hash server was not able to complete the request, and so did not return a hash at all (hence the message about not getting a good hash). The hash server has been modified to return a current good hash; however, we still need to figure out how to translate 67MB into a workable value.
* Update: 5/9/2001 9:00PM PST *
This is great. They give us the offset and the number of bytes, and the file they want it from; however, if that would involve reading past the end of the file, it's considered an invalid request, and the request itself is hashed. You hash the offset and the length and send it back. So, currently gaim still doesn't need the aim.exe binary; however, pre11 doesn't know about this trick, and so will still request a correct hash from the server. pre11 should still be able to sign on, and Jabber's AIM transport looks like it's up and running again.
* Update: 5/15/2001 1:20AM PST *
They're back to requesting 0 bytes again, which means that pre11 doesn't need to use the hash server anymore. It's so nice finally having a release that, even after two weeks and two attempted blocks by the server, can still sign on.
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