Windows Live Messenger (formerly MSN Messenger) is an instant messaging client created by Microsoft that is currently designed to work with Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008, and Windows Mobile. MSN Messenger uses the Microsoft Notification Protocol (MSNP) over TCP (and optionally over HTTP to deal with proxies) to connect to the NET Messenger Service a service offered on port 1863 of messenger.hotmail.com.
With the help of MSN Messenger people can directly chat with someone online or send messages to contact who is offline only if he/she is in you contact list.
MSN Messenger also offers the following features:
Sharing folders
People can share their files when the files are added to the “sharing folder”. And to keep the safety of the computers the “sharing folder” is bundled with an anti-virus program.
Games and applications
MSN Messenger provides different kinds of online games that people can play along or with friends only need to click the games icon.
PC-to-phone calls
Based on PC-to-PC calls, now is the PC-to-phone calls available with Windows Live Call, but only in selected countries, including the US, the UK, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, Ireland, Finland, Belgium, Spain, and Italy.
Bulletin Board System, or BBS, is a computer system running software that allows users to connect and login to the system using a terminal program.
Once a user logged in, they could perform functions such as downloading or uploading software and data, reading news, and exchanging messages with other users. Many BBSes also offered on-line games, in which users could compete with each other, and BBSes with multiple phone lines often offered chat rooms, allowing users to meet each other. Most of the BBSes are using the Telnet protocol, which is a client-server protocol, based on a reliable connection-oriented transport.
The largest BBS network was FidoNet.and the bbs I usually visited is DOLC.
Another tool I use is the "Speed Test",the picture shows clearly the location of my computer, the speed of download, the speed of upload, and the ping. I also tested the speed in the computer room in the university this afternoon, it was much faster, but I did not save the picture of the result.
Click here to test your speed
reference