Jabber Australia

Jabber is now a part of iChat starting with Mac OS X Tiger. The great thing is that you don't need to download anything. Millions of people will have Jabber support built right into their computer. All you have to do is follow these simple instructions and you will be jabbering in no time. First we'll create an account at jabber.org.au then we'll show you how to get iChat set up for Jabber.

Step 1: Signing up

Signing up with the Jabber Australia server is easy. To do so, go to the sign up form. Choose a username and fill in all the details. Check that there are no mistakes in your email address. Once you have submitted your details, a password will be sent to you by email.

Step 2: Setting up iChat to Jabber

If you are running iChat for the first time you will be presented with a wizard. On the first screen, fill in your name and leave the .mac/AIM fields blank. The next screen is where you set up Jabber. Under account name, you'll need to enter your full Jabber ID (JID). All JIDs are similar in appearance to email addresses. Your JID will be the username that you choose before followed by "@jabber.org.au" (see below). Then of course you'll finally enter your password and click Continue.

Complete the wizard and voila, you'll be logged into Jabber for the first time!

Existing iChat users

If on the other hand, you've already set up iChat for .mac/AIM or Bonjour/Rendezvous, then you can add your Jabber account in the iChat preferences. Just click the Add button. Select Jabber in the Account Type dropdown. Enter your JID, your password and if you like, enter a description. Then, of course, you'll want to click Add.

Last of all, you'll need to set your iChat status to Available and that's it!

Step 3: Adding your friends

If this is the very first time you've used Jabber then your Jabber list, known as your roster, will be empty. Though don't despair, we'll show you how to add your friends. On your roster you'll see an Add button . Click it then select Add Buddy and you'll be presented with your Address Book. Here you can select a friend then click Select Buddy and if you already have their Jabber ID listed in your Address Book they'll be added right away (pending their authorisation of course). If not, you'll simply be prompted for it. Otherwise, if your friend isn't in your address book at all then click New Person and you'll be presented with a window as below where you can enter all their details.

Finding new friends

But what if you don't actually have many friends using Jabber or if none of your friends use it at all? Well now Jabber Australiai has a service that allows you to search for other people on Jabber. This is a great way to solve that empty roster problem by meeting new people with similar interests as you. It can also help you to find existing friends on Jabber and possibly even old friends who you've lost contact with.

Though first, before searching for people, it is a good idea to create your own profile, as this will help your friends and other people to find you. As iChat doesn't create an interface for doing this, we provide a web interface for doing this. For the same reason, you might find the web based profile viewer handy so you can get profile information for people already on your roster.

You can access all these tools on the Jabber Australia Profile page.

Joining chat rooms

Another way to meet new people on Jabber is to join a chat room. The most popular chat room on jabber.org.au is the lounge, though you may also be interested in the Apple users chat room. Just as people have JIDs, so do chat rooms. To join a chat room you need the JID. The JIDs for these rooms are:
lounge@rooms.jabber.org.au
apple@rooms.jabber.org.au.

Now, in iChat to join either of these rooms go to the File menu then Go to Chat and you will see a window like the one below. Enter the JID for the room and click Go.

Congratulations, you are now in a chat room! But hang on a minute, how do we know who's saying what? Simple, Ctrl-click the room go to View and select Show Names and Pictures. Now you'll see a name next to each line. Instead, you may even find it easier if you switch to Show as Text under the same View menu.

As an alternative means of joining chat rooms, it is now possible to create a link in Safari. By creating a bookmark in Safari, you can click itto have the linked chat room open up in iChat. Try these links right away for The Lounge and Apple chat rooms! Do note, however, if you wish to place these links on the web, they will only work with iChat as no other Jabber clients support this.

Gateways and Transports

Until further notice, Gateways/Transports will not available on the Jabber.org.au server.

Conclusion

This covers just the basics. There's one other thing that should be mentioned. If you have the same person added multiple times, iChat can combine all of these JIDs into the one contact. To do this, open up your Address Book and add each JID (make sure you select the Jabber type) to the one address card for that person.

You should now be well on your way to discovering the benefits of Jabber. It's great how Jabber will now be supported by every Mac, though perhaps you'll find iChat to be overly basic at times. In case you want to try some other Jabber clients available for Mac OS X, here are some suggestions:

We hope you found this tutorial easy to follow. If you run into any problems at all, please do not hesitate to seek help in the forums. If you have any feedback, feel free to post this as well.