iChat tip : MSN in ichat

iChat is a great chat application but it you can’t add MSN contacts, but there’s a trick to do this via Jabber.

Since Mac os x Tiger iChat has Jabber support which indirectly supports other messaging protocols like MSN, ICQ, AIM and IRC.

What is Jabber?

Jabber is an open alternative to consumer IM services. Unlike these commercial services, Jabber is a decentralized network. It works similar to email servers in which anyone can download the Jabber server application and run it in their server to offer Jabber. Because of this, there is no global username, there is unique usernames on each server thus you can have multiple jabber accounts on different servers. The username is in the form of an email address. So, if I get a jabber account at jabberserverx.com then my jabber username would be myusername@jabberserverx.com. Each Jabber server can be configured differently to offer support for MSN, ICQ, AIM, IRC, Yahoo, Email Gateway and even File Transfer. You can find a grid of the Jabber servers and its supported protocols here. Why should you care about this? You should care because it’s open, free and it’s seems to be the only way to bring MSN Messenger into iChat.

Step 1 : make a MSN account

If you don’t have an MSN , you need to create one.

Step 2 : Get a Jabber Client App

Since iChat has only basic support for Jabber, you need a Jabber Client Application to create a Jabber account. You can use Psi, one of many Jabber Client Applications.

Go to PSI’s website http://psi-im.org/ and select the Mac OS version.

Step 3 : Create a Jabber Account

Enter jabber.freenet.de as your Jabber server.

Edit : use http://jabber.belnet.be/instead of jabber.freenet.de.

jabber.freenet.de. doesn’t appear to be working anymore.

Enter your desired account info. Notice how it looks just like if it was email address for that server. If the username is taken, it will let you know. Click on Register to continue.

Upon success, click OK.

Use Control + Click to get the contextual menu from the server’s name and make your status Online.

Step 4 : Register your IM Service with your Jabber server

Use Control + Click to get the contextual menu from the server’s name and select Service Discovery.

From the Service Directory window, Use Control + Click to get the contextual menu from the desired Service and select Register.

Enter your IM service login info. In this case, you can enter your MSN Messenger login info.

Once completed. Quit Psi and Launch Address Book.

Step 5 : Set up iChat for Jabber

From iChat, select the iChat Preferences. From the Accounts Panel, click add to Add a new Account.

Enter your Jabber account info.

Once the account is created. Select Jabber from the Window pulldown menu and make your Jabber status Available from the Jabber Buddy List.

From the Jabber Buddy List, Add a new buddy by clicking add button. It should find the Buddy we added earlier in the Address Book.

Search for your friend by typing their name on the search field then click on Select Buddy.

Done. You should now be able to chat with people on MSN Messenger right from iChat.

original post : http://allforces.com/2005/05/06/ichat-to-msn-through-jabber/