If you are having regular problems connecting with AIM or ICQ for a long period of time and no other solution seems to work, and you are absolutely certain that all you network settings are correct, then you can try to change the login servers.
Goto M->Options->Network->ICQ (or) AIM and change the settings for 'Login server' from their DNS names to their IPs, (known to work, as of writing) are:
For AIM (pick one):
Code:
64.12.163.175, 64.12.163.199, 64.12.163.212, 64.12.163.213
64.12.163.214, 64.12.163.172, 64.12.163.173, 64.12.163.174
For ICQ (pick one):
Code:
205.188.179.233, 64.12.161.153, 64.12.161.185, 64.12.200.89
Please note that this is a temporary workaround. If you change your server address, please remember to reset it to the standard address after a couple of days to see if it works better then.
If you experience problems after changing server IP, always reset to the standard address before reporting a bug or posting in this forums.