[HOWTO] - Use MSN, Yahoo!, or ICQ in iChat (Tiger only)

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Through Jabber, which is supported under iChat 3.0, it is possible to login to many popular chat protocols that iChat did not traditionally support. Jabber supports accessing chat networks, such as MSN, Yahoo!, and ICQ, through entities called "gateways." iChat does not directly support gateways, however you can create gateways using another Jabber client. Once the gateways are setup in another program (for example, psi), you can login to your Jabber account through iChat 3 and be able to chat with your MSN/ICQ/Yahoo contacts.

You should have at least a basic understanding of the Jabber protocol before attempting this.

Follow these steps.

1. Download a third-party Jabber client. (psi is a good choice)

2. Open Psi and register for a Jabber account. This can be done directly from Psi. Enter the username (example: yourname@2entwine.net - 2entwine.net is a jabber server) and password you want. Then press the "save" button. After registering, go to the status menu and choose "online" from the list.

3. Go to the General menu and choose "Service Discovery." This will probe your Jabber server for available gateways. Click on browse at the top of the window to get a list of available protocols.

4. Find the protocol you want to add in the list, control-click on it, and choose register. If you do not see the protocol you want (i.e. if MSN or Yahoo isn't there), then you will need to find another Jabber server that supports it. 2entwine.net supports MSN, Yahoo, AIM, and ICQ. I would recommend that you use it.

5. Save your registration information and quit Psi. Then open iChat and add your Jabber account in iChat's preferences. Be careful that you've chosen the correct port under server settings (iChat uses 5223 for Jabber by default, but, for example, 2entwine uses port 5222).

And that's all. Your non-AIM contacts will appear in iChat.

The following technologies are not yet supported in Jabber:

File transfers
Audio/Video Chat (or iChat AV)
MSN, Yahoo, and ICQ profiles

Essentially, you will only be able to text-chat.
 

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Thanks for letting us in on this!

One question, though; does this method allow me to use iChat's video to chat to video-enabled MSN or Yahoo! buddies?
 
IIrc jabber doesn't support video or audio chat. Based on this it shouldn't be possible for ichatav as well (aside the video/audio chat between ichatav and aim clients).
 
Now I REALLY want Tiger...

I only have enough money if I was eligible for the student discount, but I'm 17 :(

I'll get it soon.
 
Thanks for this. I read this hint elsewhere and could not get it to work. It didn't mention changing the port to 5222. I did that and now it works great :)
 
Yes, file transfers will work on the jabber protocol to other jabber users, but not to MSN, Yahoo, or ICQ users.
 
Thanks for that. I have done everything as suggested and it works fine EXCEPT none of my MSN contacts are shown in the iChat window. Probably a silly question, but what have I done wrong?
Martino
 
I did everything, but .. I only see my friends typing a response but it does not show in my iChat
 
Seems like the choice of the jabber server is the most important part of this. 2entwine.net didn't give me yahoo compatibility. Some other servers had the yahoo logo but I wasn't able to register and now that I finally found one where I could register, I can't receive any messages over yahoo (but I can send them). Any other recommendation on a jabber server?
 
Great thread! Thanks for the suggestion to use 2entwine.net.

So I ran thru the motions and got my list of buddies to show up under the Jabber window in iChat. However, there is a "Waiting for authorization" mention under each name. ?? What do I need to do about that?

Thanks the help.
C.
 
I followed the instructions from Allforces which is exactly the same as yours but recomends some differrent servers. The method worked fine, up untill I quit iChat. When I reopen iChat, it says I am "available" on the Jabber network, but all my MSN contacts appear offline. Opening Psi also shows all my contacts as offline. This has happened twice using two different servers on two seperate macs. What the hooey is going on here?! if I cant get iChat to play with MSN, I think that a small part of me will die.

Please, please help.
 
Jabber.org maintains a large database of available protocols. Check out http://www.jabber.org/network/ if you require different protocol capability. 2entwine.net does support Yahoo!, according to their FAQ page and according to the "Service Discovery" pane in my PSI. However, I don't use Yahoo! IM so I haven't tested it.

Zforrester, the only thing I can think of is that either you are logged into MSN from another location (the other mac?) or that, for some reason, the MSN gateway needs to be reconfigured in your PSI account preferences. You might also want to try another protocol. Some are more reliable than others.
 
okk, well last night it actually seemed to fix itself, so, no worries. Dont ask ne how, though, I just started it up and it worked.
oh well
 
Hi Henry
Maybe you can help with this . . . ?
When having an IM conversation, I am suddenly no longer receiving the other party's messages, but when I ask if they are still there, they can see me - we can then continue the conversation for a few lines, until the problem occurs again. I've got the newest (bestest!) mac mini, and I also just got an ibook, same problem on both. I was using a hotmail account, someone suggested I try a new hotmail account which I did, to no avail. So now I'm using my e-mail address with my ISP, and got a .net passport for it in order to use that address on msn messenger - still no luck! I've tried all above options on msn messenger and on Adium, all with the same results, so I'm certain it must just be a setting that has to be changed . . . but which one/s?
 
I finally got this Jabber thing understood and i have my MSN and Yahoo accounts "imported" into iChat, but now i can't seem to chat with anybody on MSN, it states that my @hotmail is on invisble mode.

Any help?
 
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