Yahoo! Messenger - Jabber Account?
Are Yahoo! Messenger accounts also Jabber accounts? What Internet email accounts (eg, MSN, Hotmail, GMail, Yahoo!, etc.) are also considered Jabber accounts?
iMac, Mac OS X (10.5.2)
2 replies
No, Jabber and Yahoo are instant messaging systems which by themselves are incompatible. Jabber however was designed with the concept of bridges into other instant messaging systems. One can make a bridge that will carry and convert Jabber traffic to Yahoo and Yahoo traffic back to Jabber. These bridges are called "Gateways" or "Agents" or "Transports". Apple's iChat is a Jabber client but it lacks some of the Jabber only features you need to get started using Agent/Transports. However once everything is setup you can use iChat and Jabber to talk to your friends on Yahoo, or MSN or anything else that has a Jabber Transport.
The instructions for doing this usually have you start with the psi jabber client and in most cases they just launch into the setup without explaining the why you need to do things. If you want to know why read on, otherwise just follow the instructions here: http://timmargh.net/archive/2005/05/usemsn_yahooo.php or google for: "ichat psi yahoo OR msn" and you should be good.
Glad you stayed! Here's what you need to get going and why.
1. You need a Jabber client which will handle Jabber Service Discovery and Transport Registration. Since it's not a full-featured Jabber client iChat won't do either of those. The Mac Jabber client that most people recommend is Psi. That's why you need to download and install Psi. Psi isn't as pretty as iChat and it's not as tightly integrated with OS X so it's a good thing that you only need it for the setup.
2. You need access to a public Jabber agent for the IM system you want to gateway iChat to. A Yahoo! Agent for yahoo, or an MSN agent for MSN. In most cases you'll find these on a publicly available Jabber system.
3. You need an account on the IM system you want to gateway iChat to. Again, a Yahoo account for Yahoo... It's important to note here that during registration you will be giving your IM password to the foreign system. This isn't secure at all so choose a password that you can afford to lose. Like a password that only gets you into this one chat system and nothing else.
4. You need a Jabber account that can access the Transport. These don't have to be on the same server but in nearly all cases they will be.
The instructions for doing this tell you to get Psi. That satisfies item #1.
Then they tell you find a jabber server which supports the transports you want to use. That satisfied #2 and part of #4 depending on how complicated you want to make things. The easiest thing to do is to find a Jabber server that has the transports you need. Most of these instructions assume that you have an account on the foreign IM system. If you don't have one, be aware that you need one to satisfy step #3. Finally these instructions usually tell you to register a new Jabber account on the server of your choice. That completes the rest of step #4.
-- Chris
The instructions for doing this usually have you start with the psi jabber client and in most cases they just launch into the setup without explaining the why you need to do things. If you want to know why read on, otherwise just follow the instructions here: http://timmargh.net/archive/2005/05/usemsn_yahooo.php or google for: "ichat psi yahoo OR msn" and you should be good.
Glad you stayed! Here's what you need to get going and why.
1. You need a Jabber client which will handle Jabber Service Discovery and Transport Registration. Since it's not a full-featured Jabber client iChat won't do either of those. The Mac Jabber client that most people recommend is Psi. That's why you need to download and install Psi. Psi isn't as pretty as iChat and it's not as tightly integrated with OS X so it's a good thing that you only need it for the setup.
2. You need access to a public Jabber agent for the IM system you want to gateway iChat to. A Yahoo! Agent for yahoo, or an MSN agent for MSN. In most cases you'll find these on a publicly available Jabber system.
3. You need an account on the IM system you want to gateway iChat to. Again, a Yahoo account for Yahoo... It's important to note here that during registration you will be giving your IM password to the foreign system. This isn't secure at all so choose a password that you can afford to lose. Like a password that only gets you into this one chat system and nothing else.
4. You need a Jabber account that can access the Transport. These don't have to be on the same server but in nearly all cases they will be.
The instructions for doing this tell you to get Psi. That satisfies item #1.
Then they tell you find a jabber server which supports the transports you want to use. That satisfied #2 and part of #4 depending on how complicated you want to make things. The easiest thing to do is to find a Jabber server that has the transports you need. Most of these instructions assume that you have an account on the foreign IM system. If you don't have one, be aware that you need one to satisfy step #3. Finally these instructions usually tell you to register a new Jabber account on the server of your choice. That completes the rest of step #4.
-- Chris
Yahoo! Messenger - Jabber Account?