YTK Lite - Free Yahoo! Messenger Enhancement Addon

[mfenech]

So how does this compare to YTunnel, which I would think is its closest competitor? I've never used it before myself.

[Ven0m]

YTK Lite fares pretty well against Y!TunnelPro, especially for a free program. YTK Pro however, in my opinion, is better than Y!TunnelPro.

[Torseq Tech.]

Y!TunnelPro has many more features than YTK Lite but there are plenty of features in YTK Lite that are not yet available in Y!TunnelPro. The most important of these in my opinion is the Full Group Management settings control (All "offlines" and all session types) as well as 'Spam Challenge' checking being done independently per group where in Y!TunnelPro it isn't this flexible yet.

Some other features that YTK Lite has that aren't yet available in Y!TunnelPro are:

- Alert Bar color changing support
- URL Catcher
- Auto-Ignoring of Voice "bots"
- Chat Screen Background Color Changer
- Quick Ignoring of Voiced Users on the Mic (double-click ignore w/ crosshair cursor)
- Full & Half Flood Cap Control (for anti-boot)
- Extra fields supported for filtering (Nicknames, Location, ID Content & Message Content)
- Ability to Strip IMVironment Content from PMs (but still allow the PM)
- PC-2-PC Call Support (this option has never worked for me in Y!TunnelPro but I'm sure Chet's on it)
- Improved Client "Uptime" (YTK Lite gives you an option to send Keep-Alives to stay connected to Chat as long as possible)
- Ability to Disable the Messenger Local Logfile (which is a huge privacy risk if it's enabled)
- Packet Profiling Technology *Advanced Packet Malformation Rejection System*
- Custom Chat Commands Available in the Room:

YTK Lite Chat Command Help
/cls Clears the chat screen
/i username Ignores the specified username (accepts IDs only)
/unig username Unignores the specified username (accepts IDs only)
/s username Marks a user as safe (accepts IDs only)
/unsafe username Removes the specified user from the Safe List (accepts IDs only)
/ver Displays YTK version info to the chat room
/about About YTK
/die Closes out of YTK
/sysinf Displays your PC specifications to the chat room
/filters Opens the ignore filter rules dialog
/stripfonteffect Removes fades and alternate fades from chat messages
/wantfonteffect fades and alternate fades may appear in chat messages
/logger Opens the external event logger
/bgcolor Applies the specified bgcolor to the chat window (accepts hex only)
/trans percentage number Chat room and buddy list become transparent (10% ONLY in YTK Lite)
/notrans Undo transparencies
/help or /? Displays this message
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This is comparing the current YTK Lite v1.0 Beta Build 120 to Y!TunnelPro v2.5 Beta Build 453.

[Torseq Tech.]

Also, I just replied to a PM on this forum from a very appreciative YTK Lite user that had a very legit question which I answered. The question was about YTK Lite/Pro's ability called 'Voice Ignore Count Updates'. You may've noticed that when you're in voice chat you'll see the message in your event logger(s) that a certain name has 'x' amount of voice ignores... this will tell you how many voice ignores you have on voice pending against you and any other voice users in the room which I think is handy.

Besides the program MyChat I don't know of any other programs that allow you to know that kind of information.

Additional note: Y!TunnelPro does have some chat commands (/clients for example) but these commands are hidden and there's not many of them. I figured I'd let anyone reading this know that because I'm not attempting to discredit Chet and his work with Y!TunnelPro when comparing YTK Lite to Y!TunnelPro.

[enigma666]

Will there be a feature where it allows you to save your messenger buddylist as a text file? I have always wanted this because I have a rather large buddy list and in case I want to make a new screen name.

[Ven0m]

I'm sure this could easily be done. =) You can go to the forums and sign up and post it in the Features Suggestions topic.

[Ven0m]

Ok, I just found out if you use a ad patch to kill the buddy list ad, and try to use the patched Yahoo! Messenger with YTK Lite/Pro, the blank white area will appear for you. The only way to 'fix' it is to undo the modification. =)

Hope this helps those whom are having problems with the blank buddy list ad appearing. =)

[Torseq Tech.]

That's simple to do, enigma. Saving your buddy list and even your permanent ignore list to a text file is a simple matter of just outputting list items that YTK already has and keeps track of during the session. This should be in the next Lite build and probably the Pro build which is due to be released this weekend.

About the use of ad removal patches, other add-ons and so forth...

Nothing against the creators of these programs (or patches) but I definitely wouldn't suggest that people use them in combination with YTK Lite/Pro or even with Y!TunnelPro. You're asking for problems due to conflicts between them spanning far deeper than just an ad coming back. Programs such as YahLagKiller, VCGuard, MultiMessenger and ad removal "patches" aren't tested against when we release new YTK builds and I can already specifically name some serious problems that can result from their use together.

YTK Lite/Pro assume you've made a clean installation of the US version of Yahoo! Messenger version 7.02 through Messenger version 8.1, non-beta builds only. MultiMessenger and other programs have proven not to "play nice" with YTK, and the other way around, and as a result you're left with session instability and headaches.

[parkiran2020]

I like to try YTK lite, but I can't install the YTK. I got the message like this (in a message box):

"YTK Lite must be installed and ran from drive c: Aborting installation..."

Then I copy the setup program to drive C: but still not work.

[Ven0m]

Unfortunately, you have to have your Windows installed on the C: partition for it to work (a lot of programs require this). It's done this way, because if you install YTK on a different partition, you will run into problems.

This may or may not change in the future.