devzero.co.uk - jabber

What is Jabber?

Jabber is an open source internet messaging protocol. The protocol itself is highly standardised and uses XMPP XML connections between servers and clients. Jabber is scalable and natively distributed, there are many servers to choose from. Each Jabber server talks to the others as and when required, increasing the redundancy of the network.

Why should I use Jabber?

Jabber is...

Free and open. This means that you only have to trust your server administrator to not intercept your conversations. Jabber servers are not run by corporations who want monetary reimbursement by using your conversations and log-on statistics to improve their advertising campaigns;
Not proprietary to a specific network. This means if one network server disappears or goes down, you can switch to another. It also means the service can never be revoked in a dogmatic corporate cost cutting scheme. It also means the service will always be freely available;
Not platform locked to a specific operating system. You can use Jabber on Microsoft Windows, Linux and Mac OS X. Clients for these platforms are customised for their users;
Encrypted. Most clients support optional socket and message encryption. This means you can chat, send files and email each other safe in the knowledge that your conversations are private.

Okay, okay.. but I've got Contacts on Other Networks..?

Well, the first thing you should try is to migrate your friends to Jabber. However, if that's unsuccessful, most Jabber servers support proprietary protocol jabber transports allowing you to add contacts from MSN, AIM, Y! and ICQ.

I'll teach you how to do this in Psi in the How-To document below.

I've heard good things about Gaim and Trillian? Why Jabber?

Trillian is proprietary software. It doesn't protect you any more than the official proprietary clients available. Neither clients work like Jabber, they make multiple connections to the servers you're on instead of making the server do that, as Jabber does. That means it won't retain your roster between machines or clients. This is inferior to Jabber.

Right, I'm set. What do I need to install to start using Jabber?

All you need is a Jabber client. There are many clients available for every platform, but the one I'm going to detail here is the Psi Jabber IM client.

You can download Psi from the project website, or if you're lucky enough your operating system may already include a distribution of Psi.

Installation should be simple for your platform of choice. On Mac OS X and Linux, you may need to compile from source. This requires that you have Qt installed, but little else is necessary.

How do I set up Psi for the first time?

The first call of duty is to register with a reliable Jabber Server. Naturally I'd recommend this one, but the instructions should apply equally to other servers.

Firstly, start Psi. You should be presented with something like this:

Ensure the "Register new account" box is checked. The name at the top can be anything you like, it's just the alias Psi uses to refer to the account. Click "Add".
Now it'll ask you for more specific information about registration. Include the global password you want to use to sign on (make it something good, of course!).

SSL encryption is optional but highly recommended. It means all data sent from your client is send encrypted, and cannot be decoded before it reaches the Jabber Server.

The "Manually specify..." options are only recommended if you are connecting through a restrictive firewall. Jabber's default port is 5222 or 5223 (SSL). All firewalls or HTTP proxy servers allowing access to secure websites will have to leave port 443 open. Remember to configure your proxy server if you have one. Additionally, please check SSL encryption on if you use these options, as it will prevent firewalls from content filtering the port.

Configuring the Psi Account

Registration is essentially complete. Psi will automatically put you into the account options once you've been successfully registered. You'll need to tweak some of the settings here.

Here you can customise any of the parameters you set at registration time. However, there are also additional settings you may want to look over before proceeding.

"Resource" is what a Jabber server uses to uniquely identify your client connection. I usually change it to the name of the computer I'm on, so I can log multiple computers on at once and still receive IMs to all.

"Priority" is the priority you want to give this client with respect to any other client you might have logged on. A higher priority means this client will receive messages by default.

If you have GnuPG or OpenPGP installed, you can assign a PGP key to your Jabber account. This will allow you to perform client-side encryption of your messages so only the recipient will be able to read them.
Here you may want to "Ignore SSL warnings", because devzero.co.uk's Jabber server uses a self-signed SSL certificate. Unfortunately I don't believe security should come at a cost, so I haven't paid for a Thawte signed certificate. It's safe to ignore these warnings.

You will also probably want to enable a "Data Transfer Proxy", if you are behind a NAT router or firewall. It allows you to send and receive files even if you can't make incoming connections.

Getting Online with Psi

With the program correctly configured, you can now try connecting to your new Jabber Server. Select the "Online" status from the Presence button shown below.

This button allows you to change your status, and go online if you're not already. Click "Online" to make Psi connect to your new Jabber Server. You can click "Offline" to sign out without closing.

Adding foreign protocol transports to Psi

So you want to chat to people on other IM networks? Sure, you can do this easily as explained above, you just need to register with your network's jabber server transport.