Staying in touch with friends and family abroad using a phone is hugely expensive, so we tend to stick to using email to stay in touch. Instant messaging clients are also a cheap and effective way of communicating with loved ones, with the benefit of chatting in real-time rather than waiting for an email reply which could take much longer. Unfortunately, not all of your friends and family will use alternative messaging clients, so finding out who is online, and synchronising contacts between clients may be more difficult. This is where a cross-network messenger may prove helpful.  

Miranda Portable 0.8.9 is a portable, freeware cross-network messenger client. Simply download the application to a USB stick and take it on the road for use on any computer connected to the Internet. As it's cross-platform, you can chat with anyone who's using other instant messaging services and it can also be enhanced with an extensive list of plug-ins.

Miranda Portable 0.8.9 link. 

29 Oct 2009