Instant Messaging Basics
This section describes the basic notions of instant messaging (IM). It is intended for people who have never used IM before; if you already have experience with IM, you can skip this section.
What Is IM?
Instant messaging (IM for short) is a way to exchange messages with other people through the Internet. Unlike the email, which is the electronic analog of usual mail, IM is more like a telephone conversation: the message you type appears on your correspondent's screen immediately. This makes it possible to have a conversation where each party responds to the other party's messages.
Before you can use IM, you should register with one of the IM services, such as AOL Messenger (AIM/ICQ) or MSN Messenger. You will be assigned a user name (also called screen name) and password. Registration is described in detail below.
Instant messaging is primarily used for text messages. However, most IM protocols also offer other features, such as exchanging files. These additional features vary from one protocol to another.
Chat
Chat is another way of exchanging messages over Internet. Like IM, it is intended for instant communication: the message you type shows on your correspondents' screen immediately. However, if IM is like a telephone conversation, then chat is more like going to a meeting: rather than choosing a person to talk to, you choose a chat room (also called chat channel) to join. After this, any message you send becomes visible to all the people in this chat room, and you see all the messages from all the people in the chat room.
Usually a chat room is devoted to a specific topic and is open for everyone to join, so there could be many people in the same chat room. For example, the channel #gaim on the server irc.freenode.net is devoted to discussion of Gaim, so this is the place to ask questions you might have about Gaim. Usually one or more of Gaim developers is present on this channel and might be able to answer your questions.
Some chat rooms are password-protected, or open only to people invited by the chat room administrator. If you try to join such a chat room, you will get an error message.
Protocols and Registration
At the moment, there are many competing IM services using diufferent standards (in technical jargon, they are called "protocols"), developed and promoted by different companies. Most of them require that you register with the company providing the service before you can use it. During the registration, you will be assigned a screen name and password, which you will later use to identify yourself. The registration is free of charge.
Different protocols provide similar core functionality, with some extra features varying from one protocol to another. However, these protocols are not compatible with each other: if you have an account with MSN Messenger, you can only use it to talk with other people who use MSN. If you want to talk to people who use AOL Messenger (AIM/ICQ), you need to get an account with AIM as well. However, you can use the same program, Gaim for talking with people using MSN and people using AIM, and any of the other protocols listed below.
The list below shows all IM and chat protocols supported by Gaim and instructions on registering for each of them. The registration is usually done by visiting the service Web site. You should do it before you can start using Gaim.
- AOL Instant Messenger (AIM)
This is probably the most popular IM protocol; it was developed by America Online (AOL). If you have an AOL account, you can use your screen name and password for IM. If you do not have an AOL account, go to http://my.screenname.aol.com and click on Get a Screen Name in the right side of the window.
- ICQ
This is one of the earliest and most popular IM protocols. It supports IM, chats, sending text messages (SMS) to cell phones, and more. To get an ICQ account, go to http://web.icq.com/register.
ICQ protocol was created by a company that was later bought by America Online. For this reason, AOL Instant Messenger supports both AOL's own AIM protocol and ICQ protocol (in fact, both of these systems now use a common protocol called Oscar). Thus, these two protocols are frequently discussed together under common name AIM/ICQ.
- MSN Messenger
This protocol was developed by Microsoft as an instant messenger for people using Microsoft Network (MSN) services. If you already have a Microsoft's .NET Passport user account, you can use it for MSN Messenger. (If you have an email address at hotmail.com or msn.com, you automatically have a .NET Passport account.) Otherwise, go to http://registernet.passport.com to get one.
- Yahoo! Messenger
This protocol was created by Yahoo!. If you already have a Yahoo! user account (for example, if you have an email account at yahoo.com), you can use it for Yahoo! Messenger. Otherwise, go to http://edit.yahoo.com/config/eval_register to get an account.
- Internet Relay Chat (IRC)
IRC is mostly used for chat; it is probably the most popular chat protocol. Unlike other protocols, IRC is not controlled by any one company: there are many IRC servers all around the world, each having different chat channels. Most of these servers require no prior registration: you can connect to an IRC server at any time, choose a nickname that is not currently being used by any other user on this server, and join any chat channel. However, to use Gaim for an IRC chat you need to add each IRC server you plan to use as a separate account in Gaim as described in the Section called Managing Your Accounts.
Some servers (in particular, server freenode.net , which hosts the #gaim channel), do require that you register your user name when you connect for the first time and later authenticate yourself whenever you connect again. Instructions for registration and authentication are usually provided when you try to connect to the server.
- Jabber
Jabber is an Open Source IM protocol. It provides all the features available in commercial protocols but unlike them, is fully documented, making it easy for third parties to create programs using this protocol. Despite this, it is not widely used yet.
Registration for Jabber account can be done from within Gaim as follows:
- Start Gaim
- Choose Tools->Accounts->Add
- Select Jabberfor the protocol.
- Select a screen name and password
- Check the Register with servercheckbox
- Click OK.
NOTE Gaim currently does not offer you to re-type the password to confirm it. If you made a typing error when entering the password, you would not know it — and thus, you would be unable to sign on later. Thus, it is recommended that you check the Remember password checkbox.
- Gadu Gadu
This is an IM protocol moslty used in Poland. To create an account, use the official client which can be downloaded from www.gadu-gadu.pl.
- Napster
This protocol was a part of the famous Napster file sharing network. (Note that Gaim does not support file sharing via Napster.) Rarely used now.
- Zephyr
Zephyr, or more completely the Project Athena Zephyr notification system, is an IM system designed by Massachetts Institute of Technology. It is mostly used at MIT.
To use Gaim as a Zephyr client, you need to have Zephyr host manager (zhm) installed and running on your machine. Gaim does not provide this, so in order to use Zephyr in Gaim, you must make sure that zhm is properly set up and configured first.
Screen names, nicks, and aliases
Any IM user is identified by his "screen name", or account name. This name is usually chosen when the user creates the account. It plays the role of his address: to send an IM to someone, you need to know his screen name. The format of the screen name depends on the protocol: for example, for ICQ the screen name must be an 8-digit number, for MSN the screenname is the user's email address (e.g., joesmith41@hotmail.com), and for AIM it can be arbitrary (e.g., JohnSmith).
A closely related thing is "nickname", or "nick" for short. This is how the user wants to be called in conversations, the name shown next to his messages in conversation window. In most cases, the screen name is used as the nickname. However, some protocols allow the user to choose a nickname. Other protocols (such as MSN) use user's first name as his nick.
For example, an ICQ user may have screen name 86098403, but select LinuxFan as his nickname. Then to start an IM conversation by sending him an IM message, you need to use his screen name, 86098403. However, during an IM conversation, Gaim (or any other IM program) will use LinuxFan to show his messages. (In Gaim you can configure whether Gaim should use a nickname or the screen name in Preferences dialog.)
Finally, for any person on your buddy list, you can choose a name to be used instead of user's nickname. For example, if your friend John had chosen his nick to be LinuxFan but you prefer to call him just John, you can instruct Gaim to use John when showing his messages. This is called "alias". This alias will only be used to show his messages on your computer; it won't affect how his messages are shown to other people or to John himself. In fact, John will never know what alias you have chosen for him (unless, of course, you tell him so yourself). See the Section called Adding, Removing, or Modifying a Buddy for instructions on how to create or modify an alias.
Buddy Lists
One way of starting an IM conversation with someone is just entering his screenname. However, all IM services allow you to create a list of persons you frequently talk to, so that instead of entering a person's screenname you can just select him in the list. Such lists are called "buddy lists".
Buddy lists usually provide other features. For example, for each of the persons in your buddy list you can choose a name to be used instead of his screen name, a special icon, or a color to be used for his messages. You can also have Gaim show you which of your buddies are currently online, play a special sound (or perform another action) when one of your buddies gets online, and much more. This will be described in detail in the Section called Buddy Lists in Gaim.