Jabber in iChat FAQ
What is Jabber?
Jabber is an open instant messaging system which is set up somewhat like email—anyone can run a server, and as long as the servers are exposed to the Internet, people can talk to people on different servers. It is not centralized and owned by a gigantic corporation (AIM, MSN), and no one owns what you say (AIM). The core protocols of Jabber (called XMPP) are currently Proposed Standards in the IETF (the group which created standards for e-mail and web site downloading).
How can I use it?
If you have a Jabber account, simply start up iChat, go to “Preferences…” then “Accounts”, and click the “+” to create a new account. Select “Jabber Account” as the Account Type and enter the details.
Once you’ve added the account, your Jabber List will be a separate window from your AIM Buddy List (and your Bonjour/Rendezvous List). That window is accessible from the Window menu, or by pressing ⌘-3 (command-3).
(UPDATE) How do I get a Jabber account?
Find out if you already have one first. A lot of university campuses have actually set up Jabber servers and Jabber accounts for enrolled students without telling them. Search your university’s web site and ask around. Many companies are also beginning to offer internal Jabber accounts.
I am working to finish up a web site that people can use out to register a new Jabber account. It will be up on usejabber.com (hopefully very soon). Sorry, my time for this fell through and Google came around.
The best bet for people looking for a public Jabber account is to sign up for a Google Talk account. Even though Google Talk does not support offline messaging, it does connect to other Jabber servers, meaning you can still send me messages from Google Talk’s servers. Don’t miss Google’s page explaining how to set up iChat.
iChat does not support registering a new Jabber account, so the final option is to download another Jabber client and register an account with a public server using that client. As this is different with every client, I will not do so here. Yes, it’s actually more difficult than it needs to be in many clients.
Should I just get an account on jabber.org?
No. Jabber.org’s Jabber service is intended for developers. It’s unstable and tends to go down every couple of days. That’s why I’m working on providing an account registration script on Use Jabber. That’s why I recommend just getting a Google Talk account.
What about my Windows-using friends?
Use Jabber will also have a client selector. Google Talk is a very simple, but usable, Jabber client. It does not support a lot of advanced features yet, but it does do voicechat. Alternatively, you can look at the list of clients and pick one. Trillian Pro (which many Windows users already have) supports Jabber and many of the extra features iChat has. Pandion is a nice client, but unfortunately lacks file transfer and other extras that people expect.
How do I join a multi-user chat (or group chat)?
Choose “File”, then “Go to Chat…” and enter the name of the chat. Jabber multi-user chats are usually in the form of user@server. See the next question.
Where can I meet other Jabber users?
One way is to hang out in a multi-user chat (or group chat): After logging in to Jabber, choose “File”, then “Go to Chat…”. Select “Jabber” as the service and enter a Jabber group chat name. “jabber@conference.jabber.org” is a good starting place. Jabber Developers hang out in “jdev@conference.jabber.org”, but they don’t generally appreciate regular user questions there.
How can I set my profile or view other users’ profiles?
Unfortunately, Apple has not implemented those features. Yet. Submit an enhancement request and maybe we’ll see that ability in future versions.
I heard that I can talk to MSN users with Jabber. How?
Many Jabber servers have what often called Gateways or Transports to other instant messaging systems. These are pieces of software which translate from a foreign instant messaging system to Jabber, allowing Jabber users to communicate with other users of other IM systems.
Most Gateways are not feature-complete—they only support the most basic things users might want to do: send text messages, see presence, set away messages. Most do not even support file transfer.
If you still want to use a Gateway instead of something like Adium, you will need to download another Jabber client and set up the Gateways from there. Once that is done, you can use iChat.
Morris Packer has posted a guide to setting up a gateway using Psi.
How can I run a Jabber server on Mac OS X?
That’s a little more complicated than this FAQ is intended to be. If you’re running Mac OS X Server, James Davidson has posted a quick introduction to running jabberd 1.4 on Mac OS X Tiger Server.
So where’s usejabber already?
Sorry. At this point your best bet is to sign up for a Google Talk account.
Wrap-up
Feel free to ask more questions in the comments, and I’ll add them to this post. Also feel free to send this link around to Tiger users! Again, I hope to get the basics of Use Jabber working really soon… that will make this process much easier.
This is pretty sweet, Jules. Continue to rock it hard core!
Great work! Looking forward for UseJabber.com! In the meantime, I’d add Psi (http://psi-im.org/) as an option for transport registering or for the Windows users (it works on Windows, MacOS X and Linux.) It also features file transfer and a lot of development is going on! It’d be worth keeping it handy alongside iChat.
I’d rather not recommend any client at the moment. I don’t feel comfortable posting a link to any given client when I couldn’t honestly recommend that someone should use it instead of something else.
[…] 00 pm With the release of Mac OS X Tiger looming, Julian has wisely posted a handy FAQ for the Mac OS X Tiger user, that gives an intro to what Jabber/XMPP is and how to use i […]
Hi,
If I register my MSN, Yahoo and ICQ stuff with a gateway, I have to provide my MSN, Yahoo and ICQ numbers/username and passwords to those gateways.
Isn’t this a security risk? Especially for those who would primarily use Hotmail or YahooMail accounts? Couldn’t the people running my gateway just access my email?
I’m sure this has been answered before. But I’m a Jabber newbie via Tiger. Thanks!
AltOpt,
Yes, it is. Only use gateways whose administrators you trust. I personally don’t use any gateways anymore, but mostly because they’re just not featureful enough for me.
Jabber’s primary purpose is not providing IM system translation service for iChat, it just happens to be something you could do with it.
[…] I’m sure that Jabber will soon get quite an influx of Mac users. I have posted an FAQ for Mac users who are now interested i […]
How can I add new msn buddies, can I do it from iChat or do I need to go into PSI?
I’ve written a web registration script for Jabber gateways.
http://msn-transport.jabberstudio.org/webreg.tar.gz
I’ll install it on Jabberstudio for everybody to use soon.
In the meantime, interested people can you please download it, try it out & let me know what you think? Thanks
Some prettification to style.css and index.php would be much appreciated.
To install, just uncompress to a folder in your web root. Make sure you have PHP4 installed & working.
It’s recommended to install php4-mhash, otherwise your Jabber password is sent in plaintext.
Enjoy!
John, if you can figure out how your MSN transport wants buddies to appear, you can add them from iChat. For example, on my own personal msn.missig.org transport, I would add a “julian@linuxpower.org” MSN buddy as “julian%linuxpower.org@msn.missig.org”.
[…] perly—these choices will be around for a long while. As I’ve alluded to in my Jabber FAQ and my original criticisms, I really like iChat. I recommend that all Mac OS X us […]
Hey Julian,
Long time no see. Thanks for putting this up. I got here from the instantmessagingplanet.com article. Good stuff.
I might actually get more people to start using jabber again now that it’s in Tiger :)
_drew
jdev lurker ;)
Yes, iChat’s Jabber support is something significant to every Mac users and the Jabber world.
We are all looking forward to UseJabber.com. We should really get it up soon before Mac users stop playing around with the new features of Tiger. ;-)
For people who need to register account, you can register here an account on the fritalk.com server :
http://fritalk.com/register/
it’s a bit hacky and it doesn’t check if the accound already exist.
You can register here to fritalk transports : http://msn.fritalk.com/
[…] necessity of an everyday client—users that need those can do them without iChat and use iChat later. You […]
[…] (détails), ça marche ! Via Mac4Ever. [MAJ] Voir aussi [Jabber FAQ for the Mac OS X Tiger User[(http://missig.org/julian/blog/2005/04/28/jabber-faq/). This entry was posted on Vendredi, avril 22nd, 2005 at 2 […]
I’m very interested in the way this jabber communication is taking. I’m currently building my own site now (not a jabber site). And I see the possibilities in adding this feature into a website for technical issues/ support. I have a background in design and I know very little php (if any at all—compared to you guys), but I’ll be will to offer my services for free in helping you design a look, iCons, or any graphical imagery to help you further your progression on this project…
If not it’s all good……
It would be great if this FAQ had a few words about acquiring and running a Jabber server on Tiger. I understand MacOS X 10.4 Server has it included, but what about the rest of us, who run small LANs or web/mail servers, and don’t need to spend $500 on Tiger Server?
I tried downloading and compiling the jabberd source, and configure failed because it couldn’t find some libary.
Bytesmiths,
If there were an easy way that could fit in a few paragraphs that I knew of, I’d post it.
I’m currently less than happy with the Jabber server installation situation, but that’s another rant for another time.
Bytesmiths,
The Jabber server install is very easy when you use Darwin Ports. Just say “sudo port install jabber” and Darwin Ports fetches the code, configures, and compiles it automatically. Get Darwin ports at http://darwinports.opendarwin.org/.
-Rod
[…] As a reminder, I have an FAQ for using Jabber in iChat. […]
I set up an internal Jabber Server on Mac OS X 10.4.1 iChat it’s been up and running no problems.
I’ll need to find a decent client for the Windows clients next and find some way of sending instant messages out to mobile phones
like AOL IM users can do.
Other than that it was a breeze!
For any Aussies out there, check out:
http://www.jabber.org.au/ichat
real new to all of this and at this point i am lost ,your page here makes more sence then others.but sadly i still dont get it have the new duo mac and cant seem to get it to work with chat of any kind ,other than basic email nothing works apple support has no clear answer to any of this . nor does my internet provider sbc yahoo dsl ,they tell me something differant evryday i think ya have to smoke crack to opp the support phones there .i am told i guss that because i have the yahoo dsl and thier im ichat will not work is that so ,again no one seems to have a clear answer??? oh please tell me you do -this has been the only issue ihave had with my mac ,but one i cant seem to solve !! all is easy but this . also downloaded aol im ,but when you click to open it my itune turns on ??? please help this is getting very old. thanx!!!!
[…] This is just a quick note that I’ve renamed “Jabber FAQ for the Mac OS X Tiger User” to simply the Jabber in iChat FAQ. I’ve also updated it a bit, no longer blabbering on about Use Jabber and simply recommending that people seeking public servers get a Google Talk account (if anything, their servers are much more stable than most others). That FAQ is still averaging about 20 visitors per day, so I figure I should do them a favor and keep it updated. Feel free to comment there about what I should change. […]
Hi there- at long last, I’ve set up jabber via ichat- I am using 2entwine.net as my server, have two protocols (msn and yahoo) set up, and everything SEEMED to be working fine- it would load my buddy lists, show people on and offline, etc…. HOWEVER, when I text chat a buddy, they can ready my message, but when they text me back, it brings up the little ichat bubble (indicating they are typing), but then goes away and never shows their text. It’s like a one-way chat. Any ideas?
Hi Alex. I have the same problem, but only my friends on yahoo, the msn works great (no file transfer though).
Someone please bring some light on this issue. I know Alex and myself are not the only ones with this proble,
TIA,
Carlos
just fyi. the link to James Davidson site with “a quick introduction to running jabberd 1.4″ is broken.
or no longer exists…
Is there any way to get iChat to join a password protected jabber chatroom?
Using iChat and Jabber via GoogleTalk, I am able to video chat with other Mac users but not to Windows users. Any change on the horizon that anyone might know of? I’m a little disatisfied with SKYPE and the video delay. Google Talk (Mac to Mac) is quite superior.
> Google Talk does not support offline messaging
— it does, these days.
Have heard of Jabber and honeslty thought it was an inside joke or gibberish amoungst a select few I worked with for years about IM’s. Thanks for the info.. It clears up a lot.
Bob
Don Lapre Is Cool
bob@earthwormproductions.com
Hey Guys,
Just though I’d let you know of a route to thoes who want MSN, Yahoo, IRC, etc. in iChat but don’t want the security to of talking out to another server. I just set up my own local jabber server with an IM gateway. This is a good option for thoes who want to stick with iChat for whatever reason. I’m using the Wildfire jabber server. It was prety simple (though some poking around fourms and doc. was nessecary), it’s cross platform (java), powerful, and best of all, free. I just got it working, so I’m still learning, but I can see and talk to all my MSN contacts now through ichat. Here’s the web site if you’re interested: http://www.jivesoftware.org/wildfire/
Great info even after two years thanks
The link to James Davidson site with “a quick introduction to running jabberd 1.4″ is broken.