As we all know AIM  was shut down as of December 15, 2017. But soon after a new group came to the scene allowing people to use AIM once again. Soon classic Mac users wanted in on the action but soon came to the conclusion of not being able to connect to the server via the client. This was due to the fact that the aim clients for the Macintosh didn't come with a direct way to edit the host address. But as of in this article I will be teaching you a method of connecting to the Pheonix servers... Let's begin.

 

Side note

So first off I will specify that the spot that says "Proxy" in the connection settings is not the way to connect to the server. This will do nothing and is a common miss conception and has tricked many including me.

 

Step 1

Go the Aim Pheonix site and register an account for an account.

 

Step 2

You must now download and install a client to use on your Mac there are many to choose from while they have some on their site there are some here as well

Step 3

Now we must write a host file so 

3a 

go to IP Checker and use the domain checker tool, search for iwarg.ddns.net and copy it you will need it later.

3b

Open simple text and type in this

login.oscar.aol.com. A (insert IP here)
slogin.oscar.aol.com. A (insert IP here)
toc.oscar.aol.com. A (insert IP here)

save as Hosts to your system folder and then you can close it.

*Note* You will need to update this from time to time when the IP of the server changes so perform step 3 and 4 when you get the inevitable could not connect to AIM popup.

Step 4

4a

You must now go to your control panels and then open TCP/IP, once it opens press Command+M and then select advanced.

4b

Now click on the host's file button and then navigate to the Hosts text file we created earlier. Now close the TCP/IP control panel and press save. *important* you must do this in order to save your changes otherwise this step will not work.

Step 5

Congratulations! You are now done all that is left to do is to sign on.

 

Another note

I often turn on my Macintosh and for some reason, the port number (supposed to be 5190) has changed to 1591 not allowing me to sign on but is not too much hassle to quickly change and log back on. Not sure if this is just a problem on my Mac or if it happens to other but I thought that it may be a handy tip.