Does other instant messaging software like say msn messager or yahoo interfere with spark working right?
You can have Yahoo, MSN, AOL opened at the same time as Spark or install the IM Gateway and use all in one application. I currently use MSN and AOL through the IM Gateway and my supervisor uses AOL seperately so her IM’'s are not recorded. (well at least she thinks they cant be recorded)
I am asking because I have been unable to get spark to recognize my password
Are you trying to login to your MSN/Yahoo with Spark directly? Well, Spark is not an MSN/Yahoo client at its own. It just can connect to special program called transport, then this transports works as a bridge between Spark and MSN/Yahoo. Preferable setup is Openfire IM server with IM Gateway plugin installed and then connecting with Spark to that Openfire IM server (with Jabber account, not MSN/Yahoo), then registering with your MSN/Yahoo credentials in IM Gateway. And so you’‘ll get you MSN/Yahoo contacts in Spark. Of course you dont have to have Openfire server. There are some public Jabber servers offering transport services to MSN/Yahoo/ICQ/etc. But i cant guarantee these transports will work fine with Spark. I’'m only using it with Openfire IM Gateway and it works ok in most cases.