# iChat without AIM/.Mac



## ora (Nov 18, 2003)

So, I'd really like to use iChat, it seems a whole load better than MSN messenger, which I'm otherwise stuck with. Problem is, hell will freeze over before i use aol as my isp, and as a poor student, .Mac seems like a waste of money, I mean, i already have 4 email adresses, remote storage space on my university's server etc etc.

Is there any other way to get an accoutnt iChat will recognise, or a better question, why did apple resitrict it to .Mac/AIM, wouldn't it have been used more widely if anyone on a mac could use it?

ora


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## jens@dna (Nov 18, 2003)

ora said:
			
		

> So, I'd really like to use iChat, it seems a whole load better than MSN messenger, which I'm otherwise stuck with. Problem is, hell will freeze over before i use aol as my isp, and as a poor student, .Mac seems like a waste of money, I mean, i already have 4 email adresses, remote storage space on my university's server etc etc.
> 
> Is there any other way to get an accoutnt iChat will recognise, or a better question, why did apple resitrict it to .Mac/AIM, wouldn't it have been used more widely if anyone on a mac could use it?
> 
> ora




??? The AIM account is free...


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## senne (Nov 18, 2003)

that's not what he said. He said he also wants MSN compatibility in iChat, because he don't want to make another email-account (already has 4), and i assume all his friends have MSN Messenger (like mine..)

But i don't think there will be support for MSN in iChat in the near future.. I'm sorry mate!


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## Pengu (Nov 18, 2003)

Actually. I think he assumed you need an AOL account, and doesnt need the services of .Mac (hence the reference to another email account, server space.)

So yes, ora. You can use it. Just launch it, and i beleive there is a button to get a free AIM account. I would like to see an easy way to develop plugins for iChat, to support other networks. But I don't see it happening any time soon.


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## jhawk28 (Nov 18, 2003)

You could get proteus. Should have compatibility


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## Giaguara (Nov 18, 2003)

iChat has built-in potential support for icq, msn and yahoo. It had it already in 10.2. I opened the program packages and manually browsed the code, the support was there already. It is more an issue of willingness to share the services, so e.g. aim and msn will probably never want to be in the same service network, icq is/will/may unite with aim, but still too many of those are unwilling to work together.

You don't need a paid .mac account to ichat. Sign up for a trial account for 60 days. When it expires, you can still use that account on iChat for free (just no idisk, or email etc). Also AIM, (www.aim.com) you don't need to be asubscriber of aol services or have aol mail. I use one of my expured .mac handles as ichat account, and the aim account I have, is one of those aim's messenger only account. So, in both services you can get your handle and use it free in messenger. Actually, I thnk you get less spam when your email is not the same as your handle.


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## Dominyo (Nov 18, 2003)

Giaguara said:
			
		

> iChat has built-in potential support for icq, msn and yahoo. It had it already in 10.2. I opened the program packages and manually browsed the code,



And how did you do that...?


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## Giaguara (Nov 18, 2003)

Go to the application folder, find the application, "show contents" > then browse on the contents, open them with project builder etc (and don't mess around). I discovered that support when I was trying to see if I could add more smiles or change them manually.


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## senne (Nov 18, 2003)

cool! Can anyone "hack" the code to make it compatible with with MSN/ICQ?


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## Giaguara (Nov 18, 2003)

No. If msn, yahoo, or icq don't support the service (and they don't) nothing a hacker can do on their mac.


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## TommyWillB (Nov 18, 2003)

So did you manage to add new smiles?

Sure would be cool if we could all use the MacOSX.com smiles in iChat.


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## Giaguara (Nov 18, 2003)

I could add the string that a certain key combo would result in a certain smile .. only on my computer though. So if I added e.g. the word "hacker" as a string, added a smile (hacker.png or whichever) to be equivalent of that, I would see it. At some point when iChat was new, it was easy to make quit, and I had thought that the smiles that don't exist on the other computer would have made it force quit. It didn't. I could simply change all the smiles in the resources, or just add tons of mine with whatever typing combination (well, I really miss a devil smile, an apple smile etc), but they would not have any effect on the other persons I was talking to. So, if I had a string that made the word hacker end up in lets say a  smile, I saw  and the other persons saw just the word hacker.


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## ora (Nov 18, 2003)

Thanks guys,
As it goes, all my mates do use msn, and compatibility would be cool. On the other hand, i didn't realise you could get an aim account free- silly me.  Cheers for all the replies.
ora


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## Go3iverson (Nov 18, 2003)

Here's a question, being that I don't want to have to re-install ichat on a machine to find out, is it possible to only use Rendezvous?  I remember on the set up screens it asked for an AIM or .Mac account name, but I'd like to set up iChat for my company to use for cross company messaging and file transfer.


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## Cat (Nov 18, 2003)

You can use Rendezvous on a LAN, without any AIM/.Mac accounts. There's an option in the prefs and you can check it when you run iChat for the first time. You can simply set it up with no account info whatsoever and use it on your local network. All you have to do is open the correct port in your firewall (5297,5298).


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## fryke (Nov 18, 2003)

You hopefully mean the computer's firewall, not the office's. ;-)


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## Cat (Nov 18, 2003)

Correct, you need to open each single iChat client's firewall to allow Rendezvous chat. No use in opening up the network itself to external traffic on those ports obviously. Rendezvous only works on you local LAN, so even if you opened the main firewall to the rest of the world, they shouldn't be able to access the LAN iChat.


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## Arden (Nov 19, 2003)

Just to clarify, AOL runs both the AIM network and the ICQ network, but I don't know why they aren't compatible.


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## Pengu (Nov 19, 2003)

They are, sort off. Open AIM (dont know if it will work 100% in ichat. it should) and then create a new IM to a user and put in the icq users number. it should send a message  to the icq user. this was documented, and released as a public function by AOL/ICQ a while back...


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## fryke (Nov 19, 2003)

It works half-way... Just added an ICQ number to iChat, and was able to chat... However, iChat doesn't seem to show me ICQ-persons' online status...


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## Giaguara (Nov 19, 2003)

Did not seem to work. I tried to message myself from iChat to icq number and it didnt come thru. Then tried on proteus, from icq to aim and vice versa, thinking maybe a normal aim account (non-.mac) would work better. Nope.


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