best messenger program for mac?

I just got my mbp and i started to use ichat. i dont really mind it but i wish i could have tabbed messagesand i generally like my old aim better. Whats the best messerger i can get for a mac? Also, i tried to video chat with a ffriend on a pc and it said that i was unable to make the connection. what can i do to fix that?

 

What is the IM client your friend is using? iChat will only connect to .Mac and AIM users (and Jabber, for that matter).

I personally use Adium. It has tabbed browsing but cannot do video chatting. You can try Skype for video chatting as well.

 

my friend is using aim

 

Hmm, that's weird, although I have heard that iChat doesn't always do video chatting perfectly even with other AIM users. I'll let some other users help you further, as I don't use AIM or iChat myself.

 

There is also Chax, which is an addon to iChat to give you features like tabbed browsing.

http://www.ksuther.com/chax/

 

thanks...for the video chatting if the problem is my firewall do i need to open certain ports? If so which ones and how do i go about doing that with a linksys router

 

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=93208

That article contains the information you seek - well, at least which ports to open, not how to do it on a Linksys router. That you might have to seek information about elsewhere. :/

 

Adium is probably the best text orientated IM program for Mac.

 

I use Adium for IM, but for video I use Skype.