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iChat without .mac or AIM

M

mr.light

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Nov 16, 2007
360
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Orillia Ontario, Canada "Tim Horton's every 40 fee
I did do a search on this and found nothing.

Someone asked me that the other day and I said I didn't think it could be done. They asked why and I couldn't actually answer. Does anyone know if there is a way to get iChat to use accounts from other chats such as msn or adium? It seems that without a .mac account the iSight is a bit of a waste isn't it? I know that the cost of a .mac account is minimal but even if I had it I can only video chat with other people with a .mac account. That and I object to having to pay extra just to use one of the basic functions of my computer.
 
Not a dumb question. As far as I know, iChat does not work with MSN. I have setup iChat to work with a Jabber account and used that with my Gmail chat. If you try a google search on this, it my be more resourceful. Sorry I couldn't have been more help to you. If I do find more info, I will post up.
 
mr.light said:
Thank you for your reply and thank you in advance for any info you can find. I will try to google it as well. It seems silly to have the camera and not be able to use it except for talking to other people with Macs and .Mac accounts.
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It also works for anyone with an AIM account and AIM.
 
mr.light said:
I did do a search on this and found nothing.

Someone asked me that the other day and I said I didn't think it could be done. They asked why and I couldn't actually answer. Does anyone know if there is a way to get iChat to use accounts from other chats such as msn or adium? It seems that without a .mac account the iSight is a bit of a waste isn't it? I know that the cost of a .mac account is minimal but even if I had it I can only video chat with other people with a .mac account. That and I object to having to pay extra just to use one of the basic functions of my computer.
Click to expand...

From Wikipedia:
iChat AV is an AOL Instant Messenger (AIM), .Mac, ICQ and XMPP (Jabber) client by Apple and uses AIM Oscar protocol.

In iChat Help it says: "You can use iChat with .Mac, AIM, Google Talk, or Jabber." and "iChat supports video chatting with AIM buddies who are using the most recent version of AOL for Windows. If your AIM buddy’s computer has a video camera connected, you can start a video chat, or accept a video chat invitation.

AIM does not support audio chatting, but if your video camera and your buddy’s video camera have microphones, you can hear each other in your video chat.

The video quality from AIM buddies may be poor, due to the video software they are using. This is not a problem with iChat".

I have a .Mac account and chat with an AIM account.

In a Wikipedia article I read that Windows Live Messenger Version 9 (to be released late 2008), may be interoperable with AIM/ICQ/XMPP.
 
I know this isn't what your asking, but I use Skype for audio or video chat since it's cross platform (a lot of my friends are on PCs) and good quality. For IM, Adium can't be beat.
I'd like to be able to use iChat, but the fact of the matter is, a chat program is only as good as the friends also using it.
 
mr.light said:
IDoes anyone know if there is a way to get iChat to use accounts from other chats such as msn or adium?
Click to expand...
Just an FYI: Adium doesn't have its own accounts. It is just a mechanism to allow you to chat with users from multiple services (such as AIM, iChat, MSN, Jabber, Yahoo, etc.)
 
err404 said:
I know this isn't what your asking, but I use Skype for audio or video chat since it's cross platform (a lot of my friends are on PCs) and good quality.
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A lot of people don't realize this great application exists. I just introduced my brother to it and he was amazed that we could do audio/video chats for free.
 
kingjr3 said:
A lot of people don't realize this great application exists. I just introduced my brother to it and he was amazed that we could do audio/video chats for free.
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I went to go and look at that sight I thought I seen that it was free but when I went to sign up it sent me to another section telling me how much it cost.
 
It only costs money if you want to get VoIP phone calls from people via a POTS-style phone number (or use a hardware Skype phone with a phone number). Using their service between computers is completely free.
 
download a program called pqi, setup an account with any jabber server. then asign the msn protocool in it for the jabber server to convert msn to jabber. pqi then once your contacts are imported, this is automactic on the msn service login. from now you can delele pqi all you need is your jabber id and password, configure ichat with that and its all done.

note attachments voice and video chat cant be done this way
 
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