I have not used Net::AOLIM, but i have used Net::AIM and Net::Oscar. In both of those you have to add the buddy to your buddy list (threw there methods) and the listen for an event with the On_Buddy_Update handler. There does not appear to be any way to poll a user not on your buddy list, (if you find a way it would be great if you share it!)

I recomend giving either of the other AIM modules a look as they both work excelent.

Good luck!

I've looked at all five or so modules and settled on AOLIM because it seemed to be under fairly active development (last update was just last month)...I'll try with the others to see. Of course, I may also dig into the roll your own functionality that is shown in the perldocs but (not being a "real" programmer) I wasn't sure if I was just missing something. I have a couple of samples to go by for Net::AIM and Net::OSCAR but I haven't really looked closely into that.
wonder if the roll your own in AOLIM might allow a way to poll for buddies not in your list (although I doubt AOL would let you poll blindly).

=G=

I just looked over the example for using Net::AOLIM and if you look in the handlers sub it shows how to handle updates to your buddies status. I would highly recomend using one of the other modules even if they aren't as active, they are much more mature in event handling. :)

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Eric Hodges

As eric256 suggested, take a look at Net::AIM. It's pretty simple. If you want to go crazy, you can use Net::OSCAR, but it's definitely easier to get started with Net::AIM.