Connect to MSN, Yahoo, AIM using GTalk (psi)

January 17, 2007 in software

Arun has written a post about a tutorial he found on the web regarding how to connect to MSN, Yahoo, AIM services using GTalk (with Psi).

Unfortunately the post he’s linking has some major problems.

psi logo The first one is that what the post’ subject promises is possible thanks to PSI - which by the way is my all time favourite Jabber client ever, on any platform or desktop enviroment - that lets me use different jabber services at the same time.

So i can use Google’s jabber server for Gtalk messaging and a different one - in the tutorial’s example “ursine.ca” - to connect to another jabber network and/or to external services (as they’re called) which provide access to MSN, Yahoo, ICQ and other networks of instant messaging.

There’s NO connection to MSN using (via) Gtalk.

The second problem is that this approach - using PSI as the only and primary client for ALL im networks - works ONLY if:

    - the jabber server you choose to use supports ALL the protocols you need;

AND

    - is kept updated to support the latest versions of the ‘closed source’ instant messaging protocol you want to use (see M$ that often makes changes in the protocol without notices);
    - the jabber server you have choosen is a reliable one. Servers granting a huge support to different protocols have the tendency to attract a lot of people and fall under heavy loads in some circumstances.

This becomes essential since once you join a jabber server you get an account like koolinus@jabber.service.com which is clearly different from koolinus@jabber.myserver.com.

Once you got your MSN (or ICQ or Yahoo …) contact list (or roaster as someone calls it) coupled with your account on a certain jabber server moving it away to another one - for any given reason this becomes needed - is (or at least was one year ago, the last time I’ve tried) an overwhelming and frustrating task.

That’s why I’ve choosen to use Gaim (or Kopete, or Adium on OS X) everytime i need to use ALL the instant messaging protocols on a certain machine at the same time. They connects individually to a public server/access point to a given IM network without merging them in any way.

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3 Replies

  1. arun

    January 17, 2007 at 2:40

    I tried this technique with “msn” using psi on my SuSE box and webmessenger(http://webmessenger.msn.com) in my browser. It is working fine..Even with GTalk (1.0.0.104) on Win XP pro it worked !!

    Getting MSN contacts on your jabber account is a tedious job. My screen was full of msn contacts when i added the msn account to my gtalk one. It took around 15 minutes to set things right :-D

    I agree that GAIM is surely the best Multiprotocol - IM client available.
    This method comes to rescue when you’re behind a firewall(all connections through port 80). I tried with AMSN(and Gaim) to connect to MSN using HTTP Authentication..it din’t work. However PSI works fine with my university firewall (with some configuration)..so now I have MSN working ;-)
    Well this method doesn’t allow users to chat with MSN contacts using GTalk’s web interface (through gmail.com).

  2. aniruddha

    May 19, 2007 at 20:30

    this is not regarding comment. i am asking for a solution.in my college network g-mail and g-talk is blocked so how can i access it?

  3. Rakesh Lashkari

    June 10, 2008 at 12:03

    Excellent way to connect yourself to MSN, Yahoo through GTalk ……. very very good post indeed!!

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