FAQ
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General
I want to delete my account
You can't, but we can ban it for you so it's no longer usable and it will eventually be purged. Ask for further help in #support on the Discord.
What is Escargot and/or NINA?
The simplest way to put it is: Escargot is a project to revive the original MSN Messenger service, where as NINA is a project to revive AIM, AOL, ICQ, and QuantumLink.
Escargot
Is Escargot development coming back?
Yes, it already has, I can't say when an update will be
I can't use MSN Messenger with Escargot on Windows XP/Vista!
We get this a lot from people trying to use MSN 5.0 - 8.5 and WLM 2009 (or 4.7.2005 - .3001 if they really wanted to) on the affected operating systems. This issue stems from the fact Escargot enforces HTTPS security a bit more strictly and blocks out any attempt to use a security protocol older than TLS 1.0 for secure communication, which is what MSN relies on to perform login, and also from the fact most don't bother to even attempt updating their system.
If you happen to run Windows XP SP3 (x86) or any edition of Vista, follow this thread on the Escargot board @ https://forum.nina.bz/thread-13.html. Currently we believe those running Windows XP RTM, SP1, SP2, or any 64-bit version of XP will NOT be able to get these versions of MSN working in any form. If you're using MSN 1 - 4 however and it's already patched, that requires no secure login at all and you'll just have to make sure your account has old MSN support enabled before logging in.
How can I use Escargot on mobile?
Currently Escargot only supports a third-party MSN Messenger app, Mercury Messenger. A fair warning that this app will have issues on modern Android and stability isn't guaranteed by the project or us. Make sure before logging in that you set the protocol option to MSNP15 - MSNP11 breaks with Mercury and MSNP21 is a protocol not supported by Escargot.
Since Windows Mobile/CE are related and technically count as mobile platforms we'll cover those too. No, no known MSN clients for Windows Mobile or CE have been able to work mainly due to versions being tested using secure login and not supporting the security protocols Escargot supports.
Is Escargot a virus?
In short terms, no. All downloads from it are as safe as the original software was (and all custom software written for Escargot is 100% clean and even open source on Escargot's GitLab). If an antivirus or anything else flags anything from Escargot as malicious, and assuming you downloaded directly from Escargot, it's almost certainly a false positive.
I want to use the old patches because <insert reason here>!
While there is a couple of justified, specific use cases where using the older Escargot patches are necessary, we assume that most resort to wanting to use them simply because they want to use a client on an OS that doesn't even support Escargot's implementation of services correctly, or they're simply too incompetent to understand how to work the newer patching instructions, which shouldn't even be a problem knowing that the most popular client option (MSN/Windows Live Messenger) already has a plethora of prepatched client options that just work out of the box on anything starting from Windows XP.
Unless you want to get an MSN client working on Windows 2000, want to get 4.7.2005 - .3001 working, or you somehow can't get a Wine-based solution to work with it (which we believe should now be possible w/ new patches), you don't have an excuse to demand where you can learn the older patching methods from anyone, and all requests for it directed towards staff that don't fall under the exceptions will be ignored.
Can I use Escargot on macOS/Linux/etc?
MSN Messenger - On macOS, MSN Messenger had official clients released for it and some of those versions have been tested to work, although this is limited to versions 1.0 and 2.0 for Mac OS 8 - 9, and version 3.0 for earlier OS X systems. All other versions (especially versions built for Intel macOS) do not work because they utilize protocols that require secure login and security compatibility issues arose when testing them on Escargot. Microsoft never released an official MSN client for any Linux distribution, on the other hand, and all known third party clients work with varying degrees of success. People using Linux and OS X versions before Catalina can follow this thread to set up the Windows version with Wine: https://forum.nina.bz/thread-14.html, and those using Catalina and higher can follow this thread to set it up with CrossOver: https://forum.nina.bz/thread-30.html.
Yahoo! Messenger - Yahoo! Messenger had been officially released for both macOS and Linux, and in the case of macOS has a known version that supports the protocol version Escargot supports, although it hasn't been tested yet and primarily targets macOS versions before OS X. The Linux version only targeted older RedHat, Debian, and SPARC distributions among a few others, and as a result hasn't been able to be tested on as easily and WILL NOT WORK on modern day distros. It is also known Yahoo! Messenger has various compatibility issues when run on Wine so that sadly isn't a feasible solution in the slightest. We have yet to come across a decent third party client that supports the flavor of the Yahoo! protocol Escargot supports so that's out of the picture too. TL;DR: People who want to use Yahoo! on anything other than native Windows are screwed; your only options are virtualizing Windows or using a Windows machine right now.
Discord
Will you guys add a Discord channel for <insert language here> or make a worldwide channel?
A: We only add foreign-language Discord channels if we notice a high amount of people speaking a specific language or are from a specific region, which is why we have added Spanish and Portuguese channels in the first place. If the language you suggest isn't shared by a large enough portion of server members or Escargot users then we most likely won't make a channel for it for the time being.
Also take into consideration that us staff still have to moderate those channels and since we at this point in time don't have anyone who'd understand anything other than Spanish or Portuguese, moderating other language channels would just be a burden unless we'd be able to find good mods who could understand those languages. We won't be adding a worldwide channel either for everyone to speak any language as they choose - that'd just be chaos.