[Tigerblade]

alright, in order:

If I'm not on your buddylist, but know your screenname, all I have to do is open up an IM window to you (just open up a standard window and type your screenname in the TO: field) and click the get info button. If you're online, it should bring up your profile (and away message if you're away). I don't remember how it works if you're invisible, but I think the same thing applies. I think the only thing invisibility does is hide you from showing up on buddylists. You're still fully available, just not as easily as before. Your IP address is irrelevant.

No matter how many times you check their away message, they cannot track that unless you click a link within their away message or profile.

Unless you save your buddylist and send it to someone, or upload it somewhere, or upload it to a service like BuddyTree.com, no one can see who's on your buddylist.

"Load Buddylist" is a way for you to reload a buddylist that you've saved on your computer. Say you keep two separate AIM accounts, and one you just haven't used in a while so your buddylist is old -- some contacts you've removed, you've added some, some have changed, whatever -- so you need to update it. Instead of going through and manually updating everything, you can save the buddylist from your other screenname and load it into this one. I make sure to back up my friends list (I use Trillian, so it's a little different for me) at least once a month if not more often.

"Get File" does just that -- if you're chatting with a friend, and they have their "allow friends to get files" (i dont recall the exact label) option set, then you can browse whatever files they've made available. As far as I know, almost everyone has this feature disabled, but you may want to check. Go into your preferences and look for this option (might be under privacy, but not sure on that) and make sure it's disabled.