Xdsl And Amsn And/or Pidgin, how do i get these to work? Options

[rob9804]

hi

im a linux noob but ive been playinbg around with xdsl for about 2 weeks and i can seem to get any messengers(i.e amsn, pidgin) to work..

ive looked all over the web i see ppl have them installed.... but noone expilns how to install them..

ive tryed using atp-get install but it says theres no package
i also did the apt-get update thinking that might help..but it didnt
ive tryed downloading it right from the sourceforge site too
mydsl/ doesnt have amsn or pidgin..
on mydsl i got gaim kinda working it downloads and installs but when i try and connect it says "our protcol isnt supported)
i did how ever got pidgin to install once cant remeber how..but all the text in pidgin showed up as squares. so i removed it.

so how do i get amsn or pidgin working in xdsl...i want to be able to chat on msn/windows live messenger and i figure these are the prgrms to use..

thx
rob