Jabber. IM better.

Please note, this may appear to be a very techie read. While many aspects of Jabber appeal to the geeky masses, that doesn't mean Jabber isn't suitable for your grandmother. Many of the advanced features will not hinder the feeble minded.

Competition is often good for a market. Forcing competitors to make better products and in the end, the user wins. However in the case of IM protocols, competition has created massive discontinuity. You have your group of contacts on AIM, you meet someone new. Oh no! They use MSN and all of their contacts are on MSN. Neither of you wish to leave your home protocol, but you want to talk to each other.

AIM and ICQ are owned by AOL and are closed protocols. MSN is owned by Microsoft and is also closed. Same for Yahoo! Messenger. You have no say in what ads they force you to see. Many times you are forced to use their proprietary software or be delayed while patches are coded for third party clients because they have updated their protocols again to block those third party clients.

Enter Jabber. Jabber is a protocol like no other. Read on for a handful of reasons why it makes Instant Messaging better.

Screen names. Scarce as cheese in a mice factory

hockeysk8chik39423. prOmdAteMan322. oxxbiKeSsaReNicExoo. - any of these familiar? If I talk to someone who has the screen name they wish they had on AIM or Yahoo, it is because they are 95 and registered it when the services first arose or they have bizarrely obscure tastes and named themselves HolyPurpleShorts. With Jabber, screen name overpopulation is not an issue. If someone has bob@server.com, you can try to register bob@server.org or even bob@someotherserver.com. If you can't find any domains you like, you can host your own Jabber server and link it with the others. Or ask someone to host the domain for you on their server. The combinations are infinite and much more original than hairYbACkedenginEEr723.

Open source == open party

Jabber is open source which means everyone gets to play. From servers to clients, even to the actual protocol, it's all evolving in the community. Yes, people can chose to charge for their servers or clients, but most of the good clients are free and contain code and insight from a wide user base. If you suggested to AOL that they add visual pokes to AIM do you think they would even read your eMail?

Grow your p3n!s AND br3asTs at the SAME TIME!!!1

No ads in Jabber. No spyware [unless someone coded it in], no sneaky demographic surveys [you do realize that's why AIM wants your zip code when you install?], no AIM Today popups. You are free to communicate with your contacts in a way that you choose and control, with no advertising.

Protect yourself from malicious code

The official AIM client is vulnerable to many known attacks and plagued with various types of trojans and "profile hijackers" that redirect your friends to malicious sites. There is also unfriendly code built right in to AIM that will force you go to set an away message of the linker's liking. Why subject yourself to these troublesome woes when you want to enjoy a chat with a friend?

Keep it secret. Keep it safe.

Most Jabber servers and clients support SSL or other encryption methods which allow you to guard your conversations. It is rare to meet someone who does not instinctively get upset when someone walks up behind them and reads their messages over their shoulder. The ease with which someone with malicious intent can snoop on outgoing conversations is frightening.

Appease your inner schizophrenia

Jabber has a unique system in place for handling multiple logins from the same ID. With most protocols, signing on in another location will kick off the previous location with of course the exception of AIM which now allows multiple sessions. Jabber clients have a Resource setting and a Priority setting that identifies which location the ID is logging in from. If you log in from a client with a Resource setting of "Home" and Priority setting of 2 and then later log in from another location with a Resource setting of "Work" and a Priority setting of 7, users who view your ID in their roster see that you are logged in multiple locations. When your buddy IMs you the location that receives the message is determined by a Priority setting ranging from -128 to 127. The higher priority receives the message. Currently -1 is used to have the same effect as being offline. Messages are queued as if you were offline, but you can view the status of contacts. Users can still chose to IM a specific Resource by messaging romeo@shakespeare.net/Home or romeo@shakespeare.net/Work. A client for Palm OS might log you in with a Priority of 127 so that you would be guaranteed to receive all messages.

Keep the lurkers at bay

Jabber incorporates authorization into adding contacts. You must request authorization from a user to add them, and they must request authorization to add you. Your roster keeps track of everyone that you have given authorization to who is not on on your list, so you know absolutely everyone who can see your online presence. It is also simple to revoke authorization from a user at any time.

Status: eating mah veggies

Jabber supports many statuses including online status messages [a status that is visible to your contacts, yet you are visibly free for chat], away, extended away(DND/NA) and invisible.

Offline contacts got you down?

Have a message to send a friend but you feel it's too short for an eMail? Jabber supports offline messaging. Just send your messages to an offline contact and they will be stored on the server until the contact signs on. For some, this eliminates the need to leave a service online over night. With offline messaging you never miss a thing.

But my friends use AIM/ICQ/MSN/Yahoo! - I can't use Jabber

Many Jabber servers and clients support gateways for AIM, ICQ, MSN, and Yahoo! that allow you to view your respective protocol's users via Jabber. Sure, it's not as secure and clean [because you are using legacy protocols], but it's a great way to make the jump and then persuade all of your other contacts to move to Jabber! It also allows you the freedom to move away from multi-protocol clients such as Trillian and Gaim.

Servers

A good list of public servers can be found here: http://www.jabber.org/network/. I recommend the amessage servers. Remember, many servers allow you to use their transports even if you are not registered there. If you can't find a server with everything you want, just grab the pieces you want.

Clients

A full list of Jabber clients can be found here: http://www.jabber.org/software/clients.shtml. I recommend Psi for Windows and Psi or Adium for Mac OS X. If you have Mac OS 10.4 (Tiger) and you enjoy using iChat, there is good news! iChat AV in Tiger supports Jabber accounts. You don't even have to change clients!
Last edited Friday, 07/08/05 at 1325:44