Jabber, what is that?

What does instant messaging mean?

The instant messaging term designates a message exchange system between users which occurs when users are connected. It means that a user is aware of the fact that her friends or colleagues are online, and can send them a (usually short) message, a link to visit or a document. Unlike electronic mails, instant messaging means that the recipient is available and ready to answer.

Which instant messaging system should I choose?

There exist several incompatible instant messaging systems. Amongst them, one can cite Jabber, ICQ, AIM or MSN. Some clients allow you to connect to all of them, but this requires a great number of connections, and do not always go through firewalls that are here to protect the university or the company. Moreover, all of them but Jabber use proprietary protocols, which can change at any time.

Why is Jabber better than the others?

Jabber is best than the other systems mentionned above because:

1. It uses a documented and open format: everyone is welcome to implement new clients and servers, unlike other services owner who want to control the software you use.
2. Jabber servers use agents (called transports), which represent the user on other instant messaging systems. It means that the user only has to open one connection with the Jabber server, and the server will take care of contacting the other systems.
3. Jabber stores each user contacts and agents lists on a server and the various servers are connected to each other. You can be anywhere, any Jabber client will allow you to be fully connected.

To contact this documents author

The simplest way to contact me is... to use Jabber. I own the sam account on the rfc1149.net server.

Samuel Tardieu (21 December 2001)