University of Lagos E-mail & Internet Support Services

Instant Messaging is a form of electronic communication that involves immediate correspondence between two or more users who are all online simultaneously. It is a conversation made up of typing rather than speaking words.

An instant messenger is a client which hooks up to an instant messaging service. Instant messaging differs from e-mail in that conversations happen in realtime. Also, most services offer a "presence awareness" feature, indicating whether people on one's list of contacts are currently online and available to chat. Generally, both parties in the conversation see each line of text right after it is typed (line-by-line), thus making it more like a telephone conversation than exchanging letters. Instant messaging applications may also include the ability to post an away message, the equivalent of the message on a telephone answering machine.

This is to inform all subscribers, that to reduce the spread of viruses and malwares , download of .exe files are restricted on the network. However subscribers are advised to log on to ftp://ftp.unilag.edu.ng site,check the folders on the site for the most commomly used .exe files and download them.