Here's one for you...

[King Cobra]

I frequent with available and away messages in iChat, but my buddies can either only see my previous available message or no available message. (They see the away messages fine.)

This one situation involves someone with an ADSL connection and iChat, as well.

(This is from my dial-up server in Maine: gwi.net)
Not sure if that's important or not.

My OS is up to date. iChat is up to date.

What's the cause of the problem and how is it fixed?

 

[parenthesis]

My experience with iChat has led me to one solution for all problems: get AIM for OS X.
If you don't want the ads that come with AIM, then you can always get asomething from Version Tracker

My $.01 worth anyway.